Thong and dance (From The Northern Echo)

Thong and dance

5:14pm Monday 13th February 2012 in Tonight's TV By Steve Pratt

WRITER Mark Catley would have thought he was the last person in England anyone would ask to write about a young girl and her life. As he puts it, he’s more usually associated with work that is “quite gritty, and sweary”.

But here he is scripting Angus, Thongs And Even More Snogging for the theatre – all about teenager Georgia Nicholson’s daily life. Having sold five million copies worldwide, Leeds-born writer Louise Rennison’s ten novels about Georgia and the Ace Gang are being putting on stage.

Catley, a former series consultant on BBC1’s Casualty and EastEnders story team member, wasn’t even told which books he was being asked to adapt when the offer was first made. “But I was interested because I wanted to do some more stage work,” says Catley, whose stage credits include Crap Dad, Scuffer and Sunbeam Terrace for West Yorkshire Playhouse, in Leeds.

So he said yes to turning Rennison’s ten novels – which have reached number one in the New York Times bestsellers list – into a stage piece. “It was an exercise in structure,” he says. “Having spent six years in television, I know how to structure a story and the best way of telling it.

As soon as you know what the big story is, you can go back to the books, which are so accurate and believable. You feel you know the character of Georgia, so you don’t have to put yourself in their shoes.”

The story finds Georgia in love with a sex god – the lead singer of local band the Stiff Dylans. His mortal name is Robbie, but there’s a problem in the shape of his current girlfriend, Wet Lindsey. Georgia’s mission is to become Robbie’s girlfriend, with the help of her posse, the Ace Gang, best friend Jaz and her Scottish wildcat Angus. If only Italian lurve-god Massimo hadn’t turned up and put her in a quandary: should she choose him or Robbie?

The tone is “quite bonkers”, says Catley, who has co-adapted with Rennison (voted Queen of Teen in 2008). “Georgia’s quite a mad character and her friends and parents are quite mad. To a good part, Louise has let me get on with structuring it for the theatre. This is the first time I’ve collaborated and it’s been really decent.”

Like Rennison, he comes from Leeds.

And like her, he’s a massive Leeds United fan. “Rather than talk about the play we talked about football and got on well together,” he says. “There weren’t any clashes.

I knew where she was coming from and vice-versa. It felt like it was right.”

He's a fan of the books now. “The adult characters are very well drawn, but the thing that really got me about the books is they are quite edgy. There’s a lot of talk about what it’s like growing up. It’s very much about coming of age.”

CATLEY’S pleased to be working in theatre again. He spent five years working on Casualty until last June, and was also on the EastEnders story team.

“In theatre, I love the performance time; on television, I prefer the process of writing and am less bothered about the finished product,” he says.

The world premiere production at West Yorkshire Playhouse features Naomi Petersen as Georgia and Edward Green as sex god Robbie. Director Ryan McBryde was previously assistant director on Bat Boy at the theatre before its West End transfer. The production is set to tour the UK this autumn.

• Angus, Thongs And Even More Snogging, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, until March 3. Box office 0113-213-7700 and online wyp.org.uk
• Louise Rennison’s latest novel, A Midsummer Tights Dream, is published this month.