Feature Phill Jupitus To Star in Big Society! at City Varieties
Red Ladder Theatre Company secures major coup with TV comic and rock group Chumbawamba
Feature: Phill Jupitus To Star in Big Society! at City Varieties
"The subject of music hall came up because, with the change of government and everything, it did seem as if we were suddenly being thrown back into a time when it was really obvious what the power structure was. It was really obvious that the public schoolboys were back in charge," says Chumbawamba‘s Allan "Boff" Whalley, who has written Big Society! A Music Hall Comedy, which is set in Leeds in 1912. "You look back to that Edwardian time, and you see pictures of Cameron and Boris Johnson in their tails at college – that photograph could come from 1912," he says.
"So we thought let’s go back to 1912, Leeds City Varieties, a fantastic place, let’s recreate what music hall really was, which was a riotous, radical, interesting, good fun, great night out for people that possibly didn’t go to highbrow theatre and didn’t go to watch the opera, they went somewhere that was cheap, they could drink and they could smoke."
Whalley is speaking at the launch of Big Society!, which will be performed at the newly refurbished City Varieties Music Hall from 18th January until 4th February 2012. Alongside him are Rod Dixon of Red Ladder Theatre Company, who is the director of the show, and Phill Jupitus, whose appearance in Big Society! is something of a coup for the company.
Given all the inspiring talk of radical uprisings and unjust power structures, the launch is taking place in the somewhat incongruous surroundings of 3 Albion Place, which is now a high-class event space and was once home to an exclusive private members’ club known as The Leeds Club. Nevertheless it’s a very impressive building and the trio of Dixon, Whalley and Jupitus speak with infectious passion about their new project.
"Art shouldn’t be enchanting," Dixon urges. "It should be provocative. Because enchantment is escape, and that’s what the Tories want us to do. So Red Ladder theatre, I hope, doesn’t do that. I hope that our theatre shakes you by the lapels and goes ‘WAKE UP!’ and gives you a good night out as well."
Dixon reminisces about his three main memories of the 1970s and 80s: a TV show called The Good Old Days, which was about music hall and was set in the City Varieties; standing in The Kop at Anfield as a Liverpool fan ("there was another kind of music hall going on there, which was singing in the worst scouse accent you can imagine and it was abusive and it was vulgar and it was fantastic and it was very, very funny"); and punk music, which he argues is "naughty and vulgar and a bit abrasive and pretends to be a bit shit but actually isn’t". He continues: "I think that music hall, the Kop and punk, you mix that in with Red Ladder and Chumbawamba and Phill Jupitus, and you’ve got a little bit of a flavour of what I think Big Society! should be about."
What was it that attracted Jupitus to the project? "I’m trying to claw my way back into doing more interesting things," he explains. "I started with a West End musical, then I moved down to a touring production of a revival of a West End musical, and now I’m working with Red Ladder, so basically I hope to be running my own low-rent leftwing drama group in about two years," he jokes.
Jupitus describes his life as "a spiritual and cultural lottery win", having drifted into everything he has done without any great plan, including working as a civil servant for five years before ending up in comedy, TV and radio for 20 years. "It’s the way that I run. It’s not a career, it’s basically if I can’t think of enough reasons not to do something I’ll probably give it a go, and if I’ve got the time I’ll definitely give it a go. And with this it’s about the different factors that have come to play, which is City Varieties, Chumbawamba, Red Ladder and just, you know, reminding myself of why I used to get up in the morning."
Whalley also points out Jupitus has a great voice, and the comic replies drily: "I have sung with the Blockheads, and the thing is you can’t replace someone like Ian Dury, you accept they’re irreplaceable. And then you’re on the most sticky wicket there is in terms of singing, so you’ve got nothing to lose, which does give an interesting frisson to the performance.
"So, we’re gonna kill Michael Ball just before we open, and then we’re gonna put out a press release saying we had originally wanted Michael Ball, just to give the frisson I like from replacing a dead guy."
Bigt Society!, 18 January – 4 February, Leeds City Varieties
Posted on Tuesday 5th July 2011
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