Theatre Column
Quiz does the biz
Playwright Carina Rodney has turned a nightmare pub quiz into a sell-out night of entertainment
ITS taken four years, six or seven
re-writes and several workshops
to put North-East-based Carina
Rodneys full-length debut stage
play, Pub Quiz, in front of an
audience, but the result is a sell-out
success.
As the comic-drama heads for
Northern Stage, Newcastle, next week,
a matinee has been added on Saturday,
April 26, because all tickets have gone
for the original four-night run.
I got the idea when I was in a pub
quiz in Whitley Bay and there was so
much conflict and bad feeling that I
thought it was amazing, she says and
hit on the idea of introducing a
mysterious foreigner, Asram (Joe
Garton), who stirs up the insecurities
of the pub regulars.
The landlord is so desperate to
prove his quiz is a success that hes put
in some of his own money and
advertised it everywhere. The guy I
based him on was quite terrifying and
there had been a brawl in the gents
toilets the week before when someone
had been found with a mini atlas. This
was a gift to a writer. There is a line in
the play where the landlord says
following a query about the score this
is a quiz, its not meant to be fun. Ive
found that people cheat and fall out
with each other and are incredibly
territorial, adds Carina.
Shes added in the idea of the normal
pub knockabout format halting at
regular intervals for scenes based on
famous TV shows like The Weakest
Link, University Challenge and Who
Wants To Be A Millionaire to be acted
out and reveal the flaws of the quiz
rivals.
The seven-strong cast use the
audience to create the atmosphere of a
crowded pub, although four years of
creativity has run into some
difficulties with regard to what
happens in todays pub quizzes.
When I started you were allowed to
smoke in the pub, and we had to make
an outside area for that, and the
questions were having to be constantly
updated and researched. Tony Blair
was in power when I began and his
reference had to go and Gordon
Brown isnt interesting enough to have
a question about. Ive kept Peter
Mandelson and George Galloway in by
the skin of my teeth, Carina says.
During the workshops the pace of
how the action unfolded changed and
the landlord back story altered into
how he was like he was. The actors
improvised a lot and I was able to steal
their ideas, or should I say utilise, she
says mischievously.
Carina reveals that after going home
with a reassuringly low score and an
idea for a new play she was
encouraged to take on the project by
Claire Malcolm, director of Newcastlebased
New Writing North, who
provided the early funding and
development support that is so
essential for an emerging writer.
Shes lived in North Shields for the
last 15 years and has had two plays on
BBC Radio 4 C her 1999 award-winning
The Big Marrow and Canned C shorter
projects for Newcastles Live Theatre
and the Edinburgh Festival and sold a
TV script, Killing Time, to Granada TV
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in 2006, only to see it shelved.
Currently, shes working on a play
called Wounded about a soldier
invalided home from Afghanistan and
developing a TV series linked to the
North-East Voices/BBC scheme.
The writer is amazed that no one has
done a play like this before and has
paid tribute to the warmth of North-
East audiences at Hexham, South
Shields, Berwick and Alnwick which
has ensured Pub Quiz is one of the
early hits of 2008 C I love the fact that
people here go for a good night out.
Asked about her own success rate in
pub quizzes, Carina replies: Ive never
got above fifth and it amazes me how
you can be in a team of people with
degrees and you wont come close to
winning. Whats really awful is that
Ive never seen a female team win.
I put in the play that in this pub in
Whitley Bay you got extra points for
being disadvantage, and that was if
you were an all-female team you got
five extra points. My team were
completely outraged about this and
then we were determined wed get our
points because we really wanted our
disadvantaged points. You tell people
this and they dont believe you.
ö Pub Quiz, Northern Stage,
Newcastle, Wednesday-Saturday.
Tickets are on sale for the Saturday
matinee. Box Office: 0191-230-5151
9:48am Saturday 19th April 2008
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