THE RENDITION MEETS THE COMPANY OF RED PITCH
Image Credit - Madeline Penfold
In 2018, Tyrell Williams and Daniel Bailey embarked on a collaborative journey to create the initial version of Red Pitch, stemming from Tyrell's response to the transformations unfolding in his neighbourhood. Fast forward four years, after numerous revisions and two successful runs at the Bush Theatre, Red Pitch has made its transition to the West End reuniting its original company at @sohoplace for a 58-night residency.
Set against the backdrop of the Redbury estate, Red Pitch intricately weaves together the lives of three close-knit friends: Bilal, Omz, and Joey, exploring themes of friendship, community and hope. Against the backdrop of gentrification and inadequate government support, the boys, fervently passionate about football, relentlessly pursue their dreams amidst the crumbling infrastructure and societal changes in their neighbourhood.
Tyrell Williams demonstrates masterful storytelling as he delves into the intricate and profound impacts of gentrification, anchoring this poignant tale within the lives of the trio. The production offers a unique and compelling perspective, leaving a lasting impression on audiences, myself included, having witnessed its brilliance unfold on stage four times.
We had the privilege to engage in a discussion with the cast – Emeka Sessay, Francis Lovehall and Kedar William-Stirling – alongside writer Tyrell Williams, director Daniel Bailey, and sound composer Khalil Madovi, delving into the essence of the narrative, the significance of its West End transfer, and the enduring legacy of Red Pitch.
“You had a fire in your stomach from the moment that we started… I had an affinity and I felt like I had such an obligation to Tyrell because of that tenacity ”
Crew: Tyrell Williams, Daniel Bailey and Khalil Madovi
QUESTION: Tell us the story of how Red Pitch came to play?
Tyrell Williams: Where I grew up, I saw houses were built on top of the pitches we used to play, but these houses were unoccupied and after seeing that, I just felt moved to write something. The way that the festival worked is that you get partnered with a director and partnered with 3 actors - thankfully I was partnered with Daniel. We had a week to develop it and after the audience voted for their favourite on the day of the performance, we won and I remember vividly, Daniel telling me”you’ve got something here, develop it, keep working on it”.
A year later I did Oval House First Bites, a year long programme. You develop the idea, you go and watch theatre, you have multiple workshops with practitioners and at the end of the year long residency, you put a on a performance.
Then, lockdown happened and in between lockdown, I was still writing and sdeveloping, speaking frequently with DB and my agent and when we opened up, I heard the Bush wanted to hear a reading of it. We got some actors together, they came in and we read it to Lynette, Deirdre, the literary managers, producers and shortly after, I heard the Bush wanted to do it and I was like cool - that's exciting!
Even at that time it wasn’t ready, so there was lots of redrafting, lots of input from the cast, input from DB. We had a drama therapist - Wabriya King and I think that was really useful for me in terms of unlocking the story, especially at the end.
QUESTION: Daniel, you directed the ten-minute production of Red Pitch at its debut at Lyric Hammersmith’s Young Harts Writers Festival. What does it mean to you, to see the show here for the third time, this time on the West End?
Daniel Bailey: I guess it means the world to me and I’m not just saying this because we’re in the West End. It means the world to me because we’re achieving something with the team we set out to achieve it with. Tyrell had this story and he was adamant that he wanted to tell this story. (So), it doesn't matter if we’re in a corner in South London or in a corner of West London (praises to Oval House, now Brixton House and Bush Theatre), or if we’re in the West End or if we’re halfway across the world.
I feel extremely proud of it no matter where it goes. We’ve raised it like it’s our own baby. I’ve been brought on to this and I’m humbled to be a part of its journey and a part of its legacy. I’m extremely excited about what we’ve got coming up and how far we’ve come with it.
It doesn't stop here, it continues to grow and the legacy of Red Pitch will outdate us and far surpass what we do here. There will be young people that watch it and it will be the spark for them.
QUESTION: How would you describe the essence of Red Pitch to some who haven't seen or heard about it before?
Daniel Bailey: When we talk about the heart and essence of the play, we talk about this story of friendship and dreams and future and football - of course. For us, the essence is that this is a story that many of us have gone through and nuanced as it is, as detailed and as personal as it is, there are so many universal themes that ultimately feel like anybody can be a part of this story. When we talk about essence it’s things that people can connect to, would have gone through. And, that’s friendship and that’s family and that’s us thinking about our futures - having the privilege to think about our future.
QUESTION: Considering the audience and demographic of Soho Place will be relatively different to that of the Bush Theatre, what do you hope the audience gain from coming to see this play?
Tyrell Williams: I hope they learn something. I hope there’s something in there for them to learn. As DB was talking about the essence (of the play), I think it’s true; I’ll also throw community in there as a branch of friendship. Just the importance of what it means to have a community, to find your tribe, and then what happens when that comes under threat? I want them to have that question in their mind. To see the experience of others and to be able to get nuanced understanding of that.
There’s some stuff that just feels like it transcends cultural barriers, if we’re talking about family and friendship, love and all those things. I just believe that is going to translate - even if you don’t understand the cultural nuance of it, you’ll understand those scenes.
QUESTION: How do you plan to maintain the authenticity of this story with the varying audiences that will be attending at Soho Place?
Daniel Bailey: The Bush is a very intimate space and a space that we love, and it’s very inventive and has allowed us to do so many other things. This space is very different in that it is obviously larger, but for us, it really is about us being able to transport the heart of the piece and bring the endz’ to the West End. A lot of the conversation we’ve had is, how do we bring the piece to this space without compromising on the essence of the play. As much as we are scaling up, we’re adamant that what we’ve created and what we’ve produced is still very much in the fabric of what we present.
We have brilliant collaborators. Tyrell has given us the words and the words aren’t changing. We have a foundation that we build on, and I’ve got a brilliant collaborator to my right (points at Khalil) who again, understands the play and understands the world so much that the sound that you’ve created feels like it is part of that world - you come into the world that we’ve created. Khalil has worked extremely hard being able to not just replicate it, but being able to level up to make sure we keep that authenticity.
There are things that we’ve done in the background…we gave away like 2000 tickets for free when we were at the Bush, even being a really small venue and that stuff still continues. And, we have other things, we’ve been able to maintain the same cast and crew, we haven’t compromised on that - the people we have started with are the people we are winning with.
QUESTION: With music being at the core of Red Pitch, how are you infusing it this time round to aid storytelling?
Khalil Madovi: I think for so many of us, (music) is at the core of our experiences growing up, it’s at the core of our culture, it’s at the core of who we are, so when we speak about authenticity music is definitely a big part of it as well.
I think in terms of the play as a material, structurally, we have certain sequences in our transitions that allow us to jump into more surreal worlds and use music as a tool to reflect things that the rules of a naturalistic world don't allow.
I think leaning into that is a huge part of that balance that I talk about. When we’re on the estate, we’re very much on and we’re in the estate; and we feel and hear and smell on and in the estate. So, it’s important that when we depart from those moments and go into the internal minds of these young boys, everything that has made them, has to be felt and has to be shown.
And, for me that's where music holds its strength and power in terms of being a storytelling device as well. I think what excites me about that happening here and now, to different audiences, is that it might do a different thing for those people who don’t necessarily have the same types of relationships with what it means to survive with music.
Image Credit - Madeline Penfold
“I think people need to be reminded that community and human connection are the things that we live for and they’re not just things that facilitate society”
Cast: Kedar Willam-Stirling, Emeka Sessay and Francis Lovehall
QUESTION: As the original cast, you’ve returned reprising your roles for this play for the 3rd time. Why is this story so important that you’re back to champion its voice?
Francis Lovehall: It represents a universal truth for me. All the young boys and young girls who are in these estates or are in these places that you would assume have only struggled; but there’s love that in these spaces. The fact that these spaces are currently being knocked down, destroyed. The issues around gentrification - it covers something that I feel like no matter what class you come from, you understand what the love of a sport and the love of a community means regardless of where you are from… I think that deserves to be told worldwide.
Kedar William-Stirling: Yeah.. I think it challenges the perception that people have of this demographic, so I think the more people that see that, the better really. It is a healthy piece to come and watch because I've never seen a piece like this before, so that’s why I’ve come to do it again because I just think it’s important in a way that is bigger than me - it's bigger than us.
Emeka Sessay: I’m someone who loves the community and likes to tell stories like this. I feel like I'm that boy from the endz who would have wanted to be in a place like this. I did have moments where (I thought), people do feel like ‘we're coming to watch a play’ and because they hear the word ‘endz’ - they think they’re going to see some knife crime or something; and when they come in they realise that no, it’s just 3 young black boys having ambition.
I just love what we have as individuals - our ambition and where we’ve grown up in terms of our family dynamic (in the play) to show that this is normal. We're not all going through the typical stereotype that they put on us all the time. We are ambitious people despite coming from working-class backgrounds and we want to make it and have that big dream.
When I found out we were doing it for the 3rd time, my whole message was ’I’m here for the people’. I want the people we were talking about at the Bush to come here to come and see it. I don’t want it to be a thing where they are waving at us and they're like good luck- no. I want them to (feel like) we all belong here.
Kedar William-Stirling: Theatre itself as a medium can be quite elitist, especially when it comes to this area (West End), so to have a piece like this in this area kind of just contradicts a lot of the notions around inclusivity and accessibility. Luckily, Daniel has been really headstrong in making sure the prices of tickets are not hitting the £150 mark - that’s why it’s good.
QUESTION: What is the lasting impact you want this play to have on your audiences, particularly young boys and girls from the areas that you play in the film?
Francis Lovehall: I just want them to feel seen.
Kedar William-Stirling: Trust, that we are here man.
Francis Lovehall: That our story matters. To be honest with you, for me this is a think again piece, it’s what I call it.For the people that think they know what young black boys that come from the endz are or who they are - think again….
Our premier league, the biggest league in this country would not be the same if we took all the black players out. If we’d listen to all the ‘No Ball Games’ signs, what football would be about, so just think again.
If that primary school teacher looks at the disruptive kid at the back of the class and thinks ‘he’s just disruptive’ - think again, he’s going through something that you’ve never gone through in your life, and it’s a lot. It’s about challenging that perception; the rowdy kids at the back of the bus, ask yourself why are they rowdy… What attention are they not getting?
There's deeper questions.
Kedar William-Stirling: And I think that this play facilitates that without banging you on the head with it. The age of these kids are so good; that’s what's so good about Tyrells writing because they're so young, their approach to certain questions…their ignorance of them leads to a vulnerability that you don’t necessarily get the older you get.
Francis Lovehall: And, you would challenge those opinions in an older character, like you would think about how you (audience) differ and be like ‘actually, I don’t believe what that character believes’. But, when you’re listening to a kid who’s just talking about his experience and you understand the greater meaning of why he’s having that experience - you challenge yourself deeper because (you realise) this kid doesn't understand your level because you are smarter.
Yet, the simplicity of how it’s articulated is what we lose as we grow up. We get so clever that we begin to over complicate very simple things and children don’t, children see it how it is.
Kedar William-Stirling: So to go back (to the question), I guess what we would want them to take is that your opinion matters, your opinion matters.
Our conversation served as a poignant reminder of the significance of stories like Red Pitch.
These narratives rooted in lived experiences have the power to inspire us, urging us to dream beyond our circumstances. They remind us that we owe something to each other, and they shine light on the truth that life is better in community.
Red Pitch will be showing at @sohoplace Theatre from 15th March 2024 till 04th May 2024
