Meet Guy Fawkes Director: Gemma Fairlie

Our Press Officer, Steve Pratt caught up with Gemma Fairlie, Director for brand-new comedy play Guy Fawkes which is coming to York Theatre Royal 28 Oct – 12 Nov. 

Pregnancy was never going to stop Gemma Fairlie directing the world premiere of the ‘explosive comedy’ Guy Fawkes at York Theatre Royal. “Absolutely not,” she insists during a break in rehearsals. “I was always aiming  to direct this show whether it was with a babe in arms or up until the day I’m taken into hospital to deliver.

“Guy Fawkes has been my baby for so long, what’s really lovely for me is to see it come to life while my baby grows inside me. It’s crazy to think they are both going to be out there in the world soon. Both babies have taken me quite a long time to bring about so I feel very lucky right now.

“What’s lovely for my pregnancy is that I laugh so much in the rehearsal room – and supposedly that’s really good for the two of us. With Guy Fawkes I get to have this time in the rehearsal room doing the thing I absolutely love before I meet my son.”

It has taken Guy Fawkes – written by York actor, comedian and writer David Reed – more than a decade to reach the stage after Gemma heard the comedy trio the Penny Dreadfuls Guy Fawkes play on BBC Radio 4 and thought that it would “really work brilliantly as a theatre piece”.

She recalls: “So in 2010 I approached the guys and we started to have conversations. It always takes time to get everybody in the room and start to figure out how it might work because obviously theatre and a radio play are very different beasts but also I knew David the writer wanted to adapt it and rework the piece to find the journey of the characters in a totally different medium.

“We all know the ending but a lot of us don’t really know anything other than that. So David started from there – Guy Fawkes gets caught. But are there moments we hope he doesn’t get caught and could there be moments where we might believe that he might not? It’s challenging the audience to think of this man’s story in a different way.

“We talked to various producers,  got some development time and started to work on the script. We were lucky to have an incredible series of actors do readings with us and each time we learnt something new about the story, the relationships and the potential mix of fact and fiction. But as with everything in theatre it takes a long while to pull all the pieces of a production together.”

Eventually the play arrived home to York, where Fawkes was born and grew up. Gemma came to a programme meeting at the Theatre Royal and pitched the idea to, among others, the-then artistic director Damian Cruden and Juliet Forster, now Creative Director. “They were really excited. Of course, it absolutely is a York originated story although it’s set in London and that’s a vital part of it. The North-South divide, which still exists today, was very much a part of 1600s culture and experience that happens in the show,” says Gemma.

The production was scheduled, poster produced, photos of David at the Guy Fawkes Inn in York were taken – and then Covid happened, forcing the closure of theatres. The delay, of course, was frustrating but Gemma feels that the current state of the country makes it absolutely the right time to put on the play.

“What put Parliament back between 1604 and 1605 (the time of the gunpowder plot) was the plague. What kept stymying them was this awful medical emergency that put everything on hold, and in the same way Covid has affected our society over the last three years. It feels very prescient in that way. There’s a great deal of  disappointment and frustration with our current political system and there’s a great deal of tribalism happening. It’s obviously different to the persecution of Protestants and Catholics,  and what was happening before and during Guy Fawkes’s time but there is still an underlying tension and fear in our current society that mirrors his. Nobody knows what’s going to happen next, what the next government will bring and who’ll come under fire. Now is the perfect time to be doing this play.”

Some might wonder how a play about such a deadly serious event as the Gunpowder Plot can be billed as a comedy. Gemma sees it in the tradition of British comedy. “What we are brilliant at in the UK is satire. This comes from a long tradition going back to pamphlets about the Whigs and political cartoons in general all the way through Monty Python, The Fast Show, even Spitting Image which has recently had a renaissance,” she says.

“We love to skewer our political leaders, we love to question with humour and we love to stir the pot. That’s absolutely what the arts should be doing – questioning our society, our values and what we hold dear as humans. Otherwise what’s the point? Theatre can and should challenge as well as entertain us.

“It’s about finding the right tone for the play between comedy and the ultimate tragedy. Sometimes there is slapstick and it is very silly but there is an underlying darkness to this play from Guy’s fervour and fear. It’s really important people come in knowing it’s a comedy so that doesn’t freak them out but I see it a lot like Blackadder Goes Forth. The end of the series where they have to go over the top is a really heartbreaking moment. You have a bunch of clowns who have been ridiculous, you’ve laughed at them a lot, but you’ve invested in them and love them. That’s so important. The moment at the end where you think they’re all going to die, that really touches you and that’s what comedy can do. If you laugh at someone you start to care about them and that’s what we’re aiming for with these characters.

“Laugh, laugh, laugh and cry at the end, ideally. We want to shift people off-balance a little bit and make them think of Guy Fawkes and the gunpowder plot afresh.”

Auditions in Yorkshire were an important part of the casting process, in order to celebrate local talent. ‘Comedy bones’ were absolutely essential for each cast member, along with a mix of people that an audience would love and invest in. “You have to know very clearly who they are as characters. Yet they’ve also got to work together as a team. We’re very lucky to have found a wonderfully talented bunch and it’s a total joy for David (Reed, the writer) and I to see what they bring to the room.”

Next Gemma will return to the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough to direct the Christmas show Cinderella. “When I go to Scarborough I’ll be directing and choreographing five actors playing the whole story of Cinderella, multi rolling and singing their hearts out. I love that I go from Guy Fawkes with a stage revolve, pyrotechnics and sword fights to Scarborough with Strictly Come Dancing moves, glitter and working in the round. That’s the real joy of being a freelance director. I get to work with amazingly talented people , in some incredible spaces and a lot of the time it’s in Yorkshire!” she says.

Guy Fawkes will be at York Theatre Royal, 28 October-12 November. Book at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk