Sonic Society #878- Halfway to the Light

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You are listening to the new Mutual Audio Network. Welcome home. The following audio drama is rated PG-13. suggesting that all children under the age of 13 should listen accompanied with an adult.

Welcome to the Sonic Society, the world's largest and longest running showcase of modern audio drama. Yes, yes, yes, of course, but Zug. Apparently the little guy was stuck in the dark nebula like we were. I thought I recognized his voice and... I chased him into a cave. How did you both get on the tortoise? Well, it's going to take longer than we have this week. Isn't it half-hour audio hour? That's right. Yes, this week from four years ago, we feature Black.

A hilarious script from Victoria Morris where Alan and Paul, two typical lads on holiday in Brazil for the World Cup, Decide to become legends by blagging their way into the England team's hotel bar and getting pictures with the players. And this incredible show from the Eclectic Podcast Network begins right here. On the Sonic Society. Hello everyone, this is Andrew Pott.

Artistic Director of Eclectic Full Contact Theater. Welcome to Season 2 of the Half Hour Audio Hour. Every month we'll be featuring a different playwright, allowing you to not only hear their work, but to find out a little more about them and their process. This month's production is Blag, written by Victoria Morris, directed by Sophie Flack, and starring Sam Cartwright, Winter Fenander, and Rochelle Proulx. Before we start, we'd like to briefly introduce you to Victoria.

After the production, stay tuned for an interview with Victoria for more insight into the play and this process. Victoria is a screenwriter originally from the West Midlands who now lives in London. Her work has been a finalist in several screenplay competitions, including the Edinburgh TV Festival, New Voices Award, and Funny Women Writing Awards, the ScreenCraft Family Feature Competition, and the Stage 32 TV Pilot Contest.

She wrote two series of popular animation web series, Tiddlytubbies, and is currently on the writing team for a new animation project. Victoria is also a story consultant and script editor with over six years' experience working in TV scripted development. She also mentors new writers and enjoys performing comedy stories at open mic nights. And now, Blag.

picture the scene right it's april 2001 manchester united are about to take on bayern munich in the champion league quarter final there's 60 000 people in the crowd watching as these 11 players enter the field and then another man a 12th player He's dressed in the same kit, he's confident, he's got his chest out and his head held high, and in that moment he truly believes that he is an actual player for Manchester United. And what's more, the world's media are taking pictures.

And no one noticed. Old Neville did. All lined up in their team pose there were when Gary Neville asked him who he was. But in all the chaos, I had no choice but to just let him stand there with them. I guess it's not a grass. Carl Power his name was. The man that did it said it was the best day of his life. We'll be legends and are alright, you know, if England smashes it tomorrow. We were actually here. We saw it firsthand. Yeah, us and 60,000 others not really being a legend, is it?

Breathe in that air. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Home to 6.32 million people. Price the Redeemer, Pelé and one of the best football teams in the world. They've won more World Cup finals in any other country and scored the most goals of all time. Você vai cair? What do you say? Uh, but let's just say he's on the Brazilian side. You was a dumb idea of yours to wear these England shirts.

Loud and proud we stand here, the Three Lions! Yeah, let's get a taxi to the hotel. Taxi! Actually, tax-ski is the way they pronounce it here. Yeah, very helpful. I admit, you know this hotel? Oh, we're Lempage! Is Lampard with you? I love Lampard. Lampard's the man. Oh no mate, we're not... Yeah, yeah, he's in the one behind. Yeah, him and Gerard, meeting them at the hotel we are. Alan, what are you doing?

How come you not on tour bus? Yeah, that's a point. Why are we not on the tour bus again? It broke down. This hotel you go notch good. You got the wrong hotel. It's fine, we'll just... Oh yeah, yeah, which hotel is that again? All the football players stay at the Diamond Hotel. Oh, those cheeky chappies there, Paul, winding us up. Yeah, sure. Thank you, mate. Bye. Obrigado. Ciao. That's how you say thank you and goodbye in Portuguese. Yeah, ta for that.

So got a plan now, have you? He thought we were on the team. Yeah, but we're not, are we? And we haven't got reservations here, so... We could go in for a beer at the hotel bar, though. And how do you expect to get past those armed police? Oh, yeah. Have they got shields? Yep. Well, there's about 20 of them. What a place though, eh? Oh, the other half live. It's massive. How many rooms do you reckon? I've never seen so many palm trees in a car park. Ah, look.

See, everyone's showing badges and that at the entrance. Let's go. Not much of a story for the lads when we get back. Some taxi driver thought we were an England player for one second. But we are what we are. I should have been a footballer, you know. Here we go. Yes. Well, you were warned to go to practice rather than the pub. I know, I know.

What an idiot I was. Imagine if I'd stuck with it. I knew I was a good player. You're good at other things now. Why what? Any Tom, Dick and Harry can load a pallet onto a truck. Hardly legend material. Onto a truck that takes essential foods out to thousands of people. What, vanilla?

of yogurt with crunchy balls and sugar-free strawberry milkshakes. You'd do anything for anyone. Not Dougie, I wouldn't. No, fine. Okay, not Dougie. Call me a loser. He's a loser. I'll show him. He's an idiot. Everyone knows that. Now let's try getting to the Diamond Hotel. You're mad? How? We don't just blag our way in. See if we can meet the players, get some selfies with them, go and have a beer in the posh hotel bar. You're paying then? I can do that. There must be a way. I don't know, Alan.

Oh, just one time. Don't you want to do something totally spontaneous and unexpected? We are. We said we'd go to the non-tourist bars for a change, mix it up and mingle with the locals. They're all right there in that hotel. Just a mere 100 metres away. All of our heroes. If we got in, we'd be legends back home. Don't you want to be a legend? It's impossible. I got it. Follow my lead.

What are you doing? Why are you limping? Just go with what I say. Alan. Alan. Oh, hi. Oh, hi there. Hola. Banhero, por favor. It's a toilet. Oh, please. Oh, my foot. Oh, it hurts so bad. Oh, ouch. Pain. I'm in pain. I can't walk anymore. This does not look good. Let's just go. Oh my god, they're letting us in. You sure they didn't say wait inside till we rest you?

We did it. We actually did it. What now? The players won't just be hanging around in the reception, will they? They'll be in their rooms or training. I think... Don't move a muscle. What? What? Is it a spider? No. The police. It's the police, isn't it? They probably think we're one of those English hooligans. And I know I put it about a bit, really, Alan, but I'm just a boring accountant. I'm not even doing a mature job in the warehouse like you. I'm not ready for jail. I'm not. Paul.

Will you calm down? It's not the police. Roy, Hodgson is right behind you. Are you winding me up? Well, you know, over a little to the left, but, you know... Hey, Roy, mate, can I get a selfie, mate, please? Oh, watch it. I was just going to take a quick pic with a big R. It's the bodyguard, Alan. We're going. It's okay. Just using the toilet. He said I could. The Royster said I could.

Just go and ask him. He's gone into the lift. Come on, Alan. We don't want to annoy this very kind, massive, scary armed guard. It's okay. We got close. No. You were right. It was a stupid idea. I don't know what I was thinking. If someone like me might get to hang out with someone like them. Really important, talented people.

They wouldn't want to drink with me anyway, would they? I mean, what have I got to talk to them about? You're the funniest person I know. Gerard, Lampard. They're great players and all, but I bet no one can give the bants. Come on, let's go to our hotel and get drunk. Hey, watch that building stuff. What idiots have left that there? Have they not heard of health and safety? Hey, why have you stopped? Paul?

You alright? I've got an idea. See with that building stuff, there's two hypers jackets. We could put them on, look like we're working here and doing the maintenance. What do you think? Look... before i was just gonna take a cheeky selfie with them if they didn't mind but i mean impersonating someone else deceiving the hotel staff and the patrons that dwell in it you're right i'm sorry it's a stupid idea

I mean if you really think about it, it's nothing but complete genius and oh my god they've got helmets too. Grab the end of that wood so we can carry it.

Ready. Let's do it. I'm sweating. Well, we couldn't take the lift, could we? We should have brought pots of paint, not a blooming six-foot piece of wood. Are we there yet? Yeah, yeah, this is the floor. It's the penthouse. And they all stay on this floor? Of course. It's the best. Look, yeah, look there, it's a sign to the bar. There's the door. Oh, hell's bells. Mate, you really need to work on some more macho phrases. I know, I know. I'm just telling you for your own good. Yeah, yeah, I will.

So what do we do now? We can't just walk in with a long piece of wood. I'm going to go take a peek. Lean the wood against the wall. What shall I do? Just, you know, look like you're doing maintenance. Right, yo. Mate, what are you doing? I'm hammering nail into the wall. But with a pretend hammer, you've got an invisible hammer. Yeah. You're hammering an invisible nail.

Yes. It's just don't you think someone might think that's a bit strange? Yes, yes, of course. Right, can you just stand there, okay? Don't move. Okay. Right, let me see. It's pretty busy in there. And, oh, the viewport. It's incredible. Look, that's a mountain over there. Beats our concrete city. Yes, great. Lovely story. Now, are there any players in there? Yeah, yeah. Look, there's Daniel Sturridge. Cool. And, oh.

What? Everyone's wearing a suit in there. No ivy's jackets? No. Carrying any wood? Oh, Lampard's got this cool blue handkerchief in his pocket. Oh no. Is someone coming? No, they've all got these red wristbands. Oi, can I help you guys? Hi. Hello there, great madam. Yeah, we're fine, thanks. Well, we went the wrong way. All looks the same, done it. You know, doors, walls, carpets. Anyway, we'll be off. We're just taking this wood back. Come on, Paul, pick up the wood. Wait a minute.

Yeah? Taking that wood back where? The forest. We're taking it back to the forest. So, let me get this straight. You're taking that piece of wood back to the forest where it technically came from. No, no. You see, when he says forest, he means... Well, he means the car park, doesn't he? Yeah, yeah. You see, that's the nickname the staff use, isn't it? Sure. That, yeah. I knew that.

So have you got a suit with you? Nope. You? No. To our hotel then. What? That's it? We're not going to try anymore? We don't belong here. I've got it. No. Don't even. Of course, it's obvious. What? We're just going to go buy some suits. The real fund is strictly for food and beer. You said so yourself. No deviations. Besides, we never get back in again.

We will. We'll look the part. And even if we did get in, who would believe that we're footballers? Feel the part. Feel like we're really meant to be there. Or for that matter, that we would be people who would be associated with them. It's all in the mind. Did you know that Carl Power, the mysterious 12th player, also went on to do a warm-up round at Wimbledon with Tim Blubbin Henman? Is that true? Picked up a tennis racket for the very first time that day. And no one noticed.

he got an applause from the crowd after and he shook hands with henman no and you know why he got away with it because he believed it He really believed he played for Manchester United and he really believed he was a champion at Wimbledon. Yeah, but Monday morning, we're just doing the same thing, the same job and seeing the same people doing the same routine. Ah, it's just...

Listening to Frogsy and Butwick complaining all day and Dougie being at Jobsworth. Excuse me, sir. Are we playing for England? Actually, kids, no. Why, yes, little one, we are. Picture. See you. Anytime, no problem. Bye now. You enjoy the match tomorrow, yeah? Que bacana. Obrigado. He really thought I was a player. Told you we should wear the England Ops. So how does it feel, poor Mills, to be a millionaire footballer who plays for England? Where do we get the suits? Really?

Come on, besides, we need to go quick because that kid's dad is looking at the pictures and he don't look happy.

I feel like I'm the man in this suit, don't you? It's somewhat hard with ill-fitting trousers and mismatched jacket. Frank Lampard doesn't get his suits from a charity shop. Well, the real fun didn't quite cover the tailoring players, did it? Look, you look great, honest. I swear, people just look at you differently when you wear a suit. You should wear them often. What? Down the Jolly Farmer? Lads would take the mick.

Oh damn, Lampard had that blue handkerchief in his pocket. I forgot to get one. Oh, and what about the wristband? I have an idea. I mean, can you imagine earning that kind of money a week? I don't know if I'd go out and buy a massive house, though. Oh, you'd have to look the part, you know, a swimming pool and the like. It's the cost of running it. Perhaps I could invest in solar energy.

Why'd you have to be so practical? You're telling me you wouldn't be driving a Porsche rather than your old banger? You leave Mary Minnie out of this. Well, maybe a small Aston Martin. Wouldn't hurt, I suppose. Would you still go down the Jolly Farmer? Of course. Get the pint in. You'll regret that. Right. Let's see if this works. Hold still. How's the handkerchief look? Yeah, fine. It works. And the wristband? Yeah, yeah. What if they fall off? Well then yes, we're screwed.

as it's just a packet of cheese and onion crisps folded into a triangle and a packet of ready salted for the wristband. Look, are we kidding? This is never going to work, is it? Close your eyes. Don't be daft. Come on, do it. Do you want pictures with the players or not? Fine. No peeking. We can get on with it. Okay, right. Picture the scene. You're on a football pitch. Yeah, Arrow Park.

Well, half the pitch is like a swamp because some idiot built it on a slope. No, it's Aston Villa Park. Okay, I'm there. Birmingham City run onto the pitch and smash a 4-0. Hey, that's not fair. 4-0, you wish.

only god performs miracles you know okay okay now you're running through the gate and onto the pitch the crowd are screaming and chanting and horns are blowing and your adrenaline is pumping, your heart pounds and you know that there's only one person in the whole world that's meant to be on the field right there and then. And it's you. And you run. Then leap up to kick the ball. And it curves smoothly near the back of the net. Well?

What's your plan? We have one chance to walk in there like we belong. Okay? Okay.

The guard's clocked us. Keep going. He's opening the door. Au pregarde, au pregarde. They let us in. It didn't blink a bloomin eyelid. I told you. Come on. Where are we going? To the players bar. Let's get the lift. I'm so chuffed. Ready? Excuse me gentlemen. Oh no. You're going the wrong way. Right, yeah, caught us. Sorry, we were just... Not to worry. All looks the same, doesn't it? You're in conference room B. I'll take you if you follow me. Right then, okay.

Was the journey in fine? Yeah, yeah, it was great. You found your car we got you, okay? Oh, yeah, thanks, yeah. Everyone is so very excited to see you. Are they? Oh, you know, actually, I'm feeling a little bit tired after the journey. Me too. I'm probably falling asleep. Yeah, maybe we could go freshen up. Oh, you English have such a funny sense of humour. They're all waiting, sir.

Right, well, let's go. Arlan. Whatever it is, I'm sure we can get out of it. It's going well so far, then. We are so glad you came all the way from England to do this session. Sure, yeah, yeah. And your accommodation is sufficient? Oh, more than, yeah, yeah. The football players take all the best rooms. I'm sure they do. Right, here we are.

hello ladies and gentlemen they have arrived at last oh stop stop really there's no need May I present to you Dr. Dominique Caulfield and Professor Augustus Branson, who will share with us their research and findings from their Alaska trip last year. Hello, everyone. Oh, no. We've got a problem. You know what? I need a projector for my slides and that doesn't seem to be. It's okay, Dr. Caulfield. We set up the projector already with your slides. Do you want the first one up? Right. Yeah.

Yeah, that'd be fantastic. Dr Caulfield, you sure you want the slide up? Yes, yes. Oh, well, would you believe it? That's the wrong slide. Oh, you must have got the wrong batch. Oh, darn, now this is a pickle. We have them in our luggage. Yes. Yes, Professor Brandon. Branson. Branson. We'll go get them. I can send for a porter to go get your bag. No, no, no. No. No, no, no need. I've got personal items in there too. Medication. Yeah, sensitive medication. Won't be long.

I can't believe that just happened. That was brilliant. They're waiting for us to return. We're terrible people. Right, come on, no messing around. Let's do this now. Got to get to the penthouse floor. I'm so excited. Me too. Maybe more about this than the match tomorrow. What? It's a victory. Top floor. Here we go. Is this how I stop? No. Damn. Someone must be getting in. Just act cool. Normal.

What if it's security? You think that woman followed us? No one's there. What? Hello? Can you hold the lift please? It's an important call. Er, okay. Oh, wishy-dory up. What a cheek. Well, he's got ten more seconds or I'm shutting the door so I can tell you that, fella. I recognise that voice. It's Bloomin' Gerard. It's Steve and Gerard. It is. Listen. What the... Gerard! Oh, hell's bells! Alan, what's wrong with you? Picture the scene.

It's Liverpool versus Millsborough. Gerrard collects the ball and controls it on his instep. He allows it to bounce twice and then it arcs into the top corner of the goal. Okay, mate. When he gets in the lift, you've got to act cool, yeah? Oh, hi there. Held the lift for you. Yeah, appreciate that, lads. I mean, our pleasure. After you, Mr Gerard. Alan, ready? Why are you getting your phone out? Be cool. Is this the time to make a call? I'm just looking busy.

Now just flash the already solid crisp packet, wristband and walk in. We're in. We did it. Oh, there's Lampard. Is Neville around? Hiya. Two beers, please. How much is that, mate? It's a free bar, sir. Oh, yeah. Of course. I knew that. Oh, hey there, Frank. Nice handkerchief. Mine's scented. Do you mind if I get a pick? Oh, Mr. Hodgson. Finally. Mr. Gerard, can I? Were you two in the lift? Did you boys drag her in here? Hey Alan, don't tell Betsy, but I'm never washing this arm again.

You're right. We're actual legends now. It's all over social media. This has literally been the best day of my life. Yeah. Maybe we should go bigger. Be more ambitious. Shall we try and bag on to pitch tomorrow? You know, if we truly believe we're one of the players. What, and ruin the actual England match? Are you nuts? Oh yeah, maybe not. Ha ha ha.

Thank you for listening to Blagg here on the Half Hour Audio Hour. Next up is a brief interview we conducted with Victoria Morris after the recording of this show. So first off, thank you very much for allowing us to be part of your show. Thank you. When did you start writing? Well, actually, I was one of those. people as a kid in school that actually won anything to do with writing, any kind of creative assignment, you know.

making people do plays and writing poems and writing stories and I'd always win little competitions and I always loved it and it was actually when I went to uni that I sort of accidentally realised that you could have a career out of it because I was taking a course and I wasn't getting on with it. And then they gave you options if you wanted to change. And one of them was creative writing, including audio plays and playwriting. And I've never looked back. And it was amazing, really inspired.

Excellent. Excellent. I, I, I know, I know exactly the type of kid you're talking about because that was that, that, that was me as well. So wonderful. So Sophie touched upon it a little bit, but I want to hear the story. What inspired? Yeah, this is a great story. My sister was literally just, you know, telling me about her day and I was, you know, listening to her and she was telling me, she told me this story that her manager had told her about his son.

And he had apparently his son had tried to blag when he went to Brazil into this five-star hotel to just basically get a selfie with the players.

and it was a little bit different to mine so i think they tried to go to various hotels and i just loved the story and i was like um tell me you know tell me more about it and She was saying that it actually got into, it was like they worked in Worcester and it was in the Worcester news and it had gone kind of viral that they'd had these pictures and they'd literally met all the players and it was what they intended.

And I just wanted to make, I just thought, what a brilliant story. What an inspiring story if you sort of believe in yourself and you're like, yeah, one for the lads. And it was... I actually just, I thought, yeah, I'm going to really, I really want to make. And literally I had the idea and I put the name, say on a whiteboard, as you do as a writer with lots of ideas.

And then one day I just wrote it and I was very much inspired by that. And it was a really great story. It is. It's one of those stories that you just, you know, if it wasn't. true it should have been yeah and the fact that the fact that this actually happened is awesome inspired by their their antics in there and it was just yeah it was just fab and i think um you know I always hear lots of stories about blags and it's amazing just to bring this one into it and to expand on it.

and make it into something you know like what you know people were saying like more emotional and you know there's a real reason these lads just really wanted to you know have fun and and change and and grow together

Excellent. This is not on the list of questions I sent you, so I hope I'm not throwing you too much of a curveball, but I need to know, where did that phrase... come from why why is why is basically conning your way into some place called blag oh i mean yeah i think it's just yeah

just the the fun of it yeah blagging somewhere blagging somewhere and yeah to get into somewhere so oh so so you don't know the origin of that particular i mean it's just a word i know anyway i mean obviously you're american Yeah, I had never heard it before. It's a phrase here, you know, you blag your way into a nightclub or you blag your way into there or something like that. So, I mean, I'm from Midlands in West Midlands.

obviously UK so it's a phrase I'm used to hearing and they all would have heard yeah those those people that inspired me no I I I think that that's awesome. It's just, I always love to, to kind of know where that, where stuff like that comes from, but at the same time, but, but at the same time, if you asked me where a bunch of America, some American phrases came from, I don't know. That's just what we call it.

It's definitely something I've always known. Yeah. Is this your first audio drama that you've written? Actually, so when I was 18, which was, you know, a few or so many years ago, when I was 18, I, you know, I was saying that I was very much inspired when I went to uni and I, you know.

life changed when I sort of randomly picked another course which is the creative course and I found out when I was learning about the radio and audio plays that there was a competition and basically um no one sort of on the course sort of

entered it or anything but I was like oh no I'm gonna I'm gonna enter it you know we've written something on the course and I won it and it was amazing and I went to University of Derby and you know I got to go to London and it was just amazing just to see it all recorded who were very old school, was it, you know, Lydabirds was in it. And it was just something, you know, when I was so young and it's something since then that I've, you know, always, I've loved like hearing the format.

wanted to recreate something else and this was just seemed a perfect opportunity especially you know being audio and you could set it you know internationally and it could be in England and it could be in Brazil and it was you know it's a just a great format to use so something i always wanted to do again excellent so what are what are some of the challenges of of writing for audio as opposed to

you know, the stage or some more visual medium. I mean, I think, yes, Sophie definitely touched on some things, but I think like for me, it's kind of. subtext and obviously they can't see your face and they can't see that kind of nuance on your face of that emotion so it's you have to make sure that you know I kind of think you know

That's to do with the acting then, isn't it? That that's going to bring the emotion, even if it's just one line, one simple line. They have to make it so much more than if you just see it on screen and perhaps you wouldn't even have that line of dialogue. So I think that's quite a challenge. And also for me, I just, I never want it to be expositional. You know, you don't want to be like, so say in this, you know, there's a...

If they're getting out of a taxi, you don't want to be like, we're getting out of the taxi now. You want to make sure that you're using the sound effects and all those and really exploiting those. the elements that you could use in an audio that you can't in a drama you know in a tv on screen or something um so sound effects definitely um yeah definitely making sure that it's not

you know, explaining everything and making it too expositional is really important, I think, in an audio play. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Because I've seen scripts like that where it's like, and now we're going to tell you what we're doing. So I'm very aware of that. And you can, you know, there's many things that you can do. And it's just sound effects and the emotion that the actors give that kind of, you know, they set the scene without dialogue, which is great.

Now, do you have any upcoming projects that you'd like to plug? I mean, I'm currently doing a new, and it's not sort of out yet, but I'm doing, I did a couple of series of Tiddly Tubbies, which was a children's animation. for um yeah and i i'm gonna be doing more children's animation so that's what i've been doing at the moment but other than that i've been working on a comedy feature um so like to you know expand

And some TV ideas. Amazing. Awesome. Lots of fun. I love the comedy. I like to kind of get on stage and do a couple of comedy stories. So I definitely want to. keep doing that route and you know this has all been great to you know to keep doing it to be inspired by it so yeah no i can tell you that you like you like the comedy because this is a this is a very very funny show

So now, have you ever tried to blag your way into somewhere you didn't belong? I know. I was waiting for this one. I think definitely I have. for some reason stories like this gravitate towards me but I would be the person I'm sort of doing what Sophie did but as in I would be the person, someone else would be blagging, but I would definitely be in the group that was going in. But not perhaps being the leader of it, but also...

thinking it was absolutely brilliant. And perhaps, you know, like going into VIP areas or something like that. But I've heard some, I've just heard so many stories. I really love the underdog. winning you know i love that kind of if you can blag your way and it's not hurting anyone obviously then no it's very innocent and um yeah plenty of stories that i've heard that um I just think of, yeah, why not try it if you can? You know, as long as it's a little bit innocent, it's all fine, yeah.

Oh, yeah, yeah. I was more the follower, I guess, and being inspired. So this was a chance I get to be the main person. Right. I'll make sure to put a disclaimer on this entire interview. That it's like, this is, we only, we only recommend this if you're doing this for, for completely innocent fun reasons.

But, you know, inventing Anna and things like that. And it's all blagging, isn't it? Everyone blags, everyone blags their CV. You know, it's all that, isn't it? And I think it's something that's a bit more... um of a subject now you know people why not if you if you can but definitely not letting people know um

Excellent. Well, Victoria, thank you once again so much for allowing us the opportunity to present this script. We really do appreciate it. It's been an absolute blast. I love... the script. I loved it from the minute I read it. And I'm just really, really grateful that we had the opportunity to be part of it.

Oh, I mean, thank you too. I can tell your passion about it all and, you know, Sophie directing and the actors and it was just, and you too, Andrew, you know, it was really great. You know, it's been, I feel the passion too, which is. it's been amazing you know when you write something you just want someone to get it and be on your page and all that so thank you yeah too we hope you enjoyed blag

Next month, we will be presenting Fairies, written by Adam Zudrich and directed by Colette Cullen. If you enjoyed what you heard, please remember to like, follow, and subscribe to our podcast. And feel free to leave a review. You can help us out in continuing this work by heading over to redcircle.com slash shows slash half-hour-audio-hour where you can sponsor us through a one-time or recurring donation and become our partner in highlighting the voices and stories.

of women, BIPOC, and LGBTQ plus artists. And head over to eclectic-theatre.com to find out about our serialized audio dramas, Deep Shadows, Bloody Bay, Clusterfuck, Monocyte, and Throwing Shade. On behalf of myself and everyone here at EFCT, thanks for listening.

Hello, everyone. This is Andrew Pond, Artistic Director of Eclectic Full Contact Theatre. Welcome to Season 2 of the Half Hour Audio Hour. Today, we are featuring an interview with two of the cast members of Blagg, Winter Fernander and Sam Cartwright. We hope you enjoy. First thing, Winter and Sam, thank you so very much for doing this, for being part of this project. We really do appreciate it.

Pleasure. Yeah, thanks for having us. The first question I've got is, since I love actor origin stories, how did you get into acting and what kind of drew you into voice? acting and and uh sam we'll start with you um so i kind of first got into acting when i was a young boy i was about 12 very aimless in life didn't know what i was doing i was a bit of a mess about

And I got cast as Macbeth in our little Shakespeare schools production of Macbeth. And I was very excited. I learned all my lines. It was like learning a different language. And I just, I fell in love with it from there. um i just couldn't imagine myself doing anything else because i didn't want to do anything else really um and then so it all started with sort of stage acting and then i sort of discovered more paths and i kind of like voice acting because i loved watching things like um

like Little Britain and Catherine Tate's show, which are sort of like English sort of like sketch comedies. And they always did sort of funny voices. And I loved copying funny voices and doing accents. That's kind of what drew me to voice acting. um sort of trying to copy you know do impressions and do little funny accents and things and then i realized that you could just record and make money from it so i thought i'd give it a go

I just love the fact that a bunch of 12-year-olds were doing Macbeth. Winter, what about you? Well, I grew up in Ireland, so I didn't really have, when I was like an 80s kid, so I didn't really have that kind of route. The only thing acting-wise we had was a nativity play, and that was diabolical.

That wasn't really, and I did one of the Kings and I had the most lines out of everybody. And I was like, oh, this is great. Oh, thank you for giving me the biggest part of the, now I want the biggest part. But back then I was like, I don't want this nativity play part. No one is going to be watching it.

It's going to be fun of all boys Catholic school. And we have this every day anyway. So that was, that was the, the, the start of it really. But then when I went, when I was a bit misspent youth and I was in a place called skull years ago. And when I was maybe in my teens and we're out drinking. I don't know if you have this idea where you had all these stories and you start telling all your stories, you put them into a set and then you go,

All right, I'll put this one here, put this one here. Anyway, we're drinking some Aftershock. Anyway, this is the cow can take that out. They're drinking some alcohol. And so we were there and there was like a really small pub called Hackett's, right? And this pub and I had all my stories down, went to loads of house parties and I was like, okay, here we go.

Had a shot of this particular brand of whatever it was, this crazy juice. And then I started talking to these German people. I mean, Germans are a tough crowd as well, right? So I did all my stories back to back without stopping. uh and then at the end of this uh monologue i got a uh a like a standing ovation they're like and i was like i said to my friend i said what was that what was that i need some more of that

Basically attention. So that's when I got into acting. And the reason why I got into voice acting is because I can do it from home. And also I... I love working with different people who are doing voice actors because they're so much more fun because you just let yourself go and go with it all together. Have so much more fun, I think, because, you know, there's no kind of preening. It's just like, let's just get the best out of this.

So I thoroughly love doing the voices. And I'm sorry, Sam, for butchering the Liverpool accent earlier on, but we'll talk about it later. Excellent. So what drew you to this particular project?

specific okay this project i i just like uh i consider myself a bit of an underdog as well because there was no real route i say back in ireland to kind of move to the the performance or getting their attention as much as possible so i found that this project really connected with me when i read the script

is like these guys they're just they just got stuck in jobs that they hated because they didn't have the opportunities or a route to get to where they where they wanted to you know they just just unfortunate luckery that's how it is in life and

And I think it's a story that everybody can connect with. Like, you know, they didn't get this thing. They were passed up for this promotion. They were passed up for this opportunity. They just weren't in the right place at the right time. They just, the family didn't have enough money. And it's such a lovely story when the little guy wins.

And when I read through it, I emailed you guys and I said, oh man, I got misty at the end. It was just really, it was just like, yes, the little guy. And I'm not a very big guy. I'm five foot seven. So the little guy won. And I was like, I am so into this.

projects wherever i am excellent and sam what about you um but yeah i mean it's kind of similar similar to winter you know like we all love an underdog and um like i was saying before when i was younger i loved watching um laurel and hardy and this sort of has a sort of lauren hardy-esque feel to it if you know if lauren hardy was a voice

program because obviously there are a lot of slapstick but there is a lot of like to and fro and back and forth when you've got two people you can really develop the characters and I love the fact that there was only two people Partly because as Winter was saying, it's more attention on us, you know, the only two parts. There's time for everyone else. But also because it's such a clever, yeah, it's such a clever concept.

you can really focus on, you know, what we're saying and what we're doing. And I think, yeah, I just thought it was clever. Excellent. And you may have touched slightly on it a little bit here, but I'm going to ask the question anyway. What, if any, similarities are there between you and your character, Sam? I guess I can be quite spontaneous. I guess the word is more impulsive. I guess I can be quite impulsive as well, especially when I've had a few drinks.

I think, yeah, it's kind of like longing for just something exciting to happen. I think we can all be a bit like that sometimes. So that's the main thing. I'm not really into football, so I didn't really have that connection with the character. But we can all draw. I think for me, actors are my celebrity. So I can sort of see, imagine that at me at the Oscars, you know, running onto the red carpet next to like Olivia Colman or something. That's my like equivalent. Excellent. Winter.

I think that the character of Paul, I think that he's my paranoia and my internal sort of like, no, you shouldn't do that. Just don't do that. Don't do that. But I always flip it. But he but that's why I relate to it, really, because it's like, you know, Paul just finally turns it around. He's like, right, we're doing this. It doesn't matter what you think. We're going to go. We're not going to we're going to take a chance.

We're not going to listen to what could potentially happen. Let's not try and control this. And he finally gets out of his rots that he's in. Weird story now. I actually applied to do an accountancy course.

in the sad times of when i couldn't get any work and i was like oh okay i'm i'm gonna be an accountant now that's it i i love excel don't i i do love excel no no winter you don't like excel just just just just stop this stop this don't even buy that book oh great now i've bought a book great okay that's i'm gonna have to sell that on ebay now that's wonderful so so yeah so paul really did kind of connected with that and as same sam right just the underdog you know it's just

That's it. I really feel you just kind of connect with that part of you. You're just like, yeah, one day we'll get it back. We'll get all this back. This will all come back to us. I'm a nice person. This is going to come.

around it's gonna there's gonna be my moment and it's all gonna come back to me i'm gonna give that person 10 pounds so since both of you really like uh voice acting we saw sort of this like spike in audio drama due to the lockdown and the pandemic and everything. What do you think is the future of this medium, given the fact that we are now... Oh, I think it will continue to blossom, really. I think it's having a renaissance.

you know, people are just forgotten about it and then just kind of bring it back. It's just, it's more intimate. I don't think that it's ever going to go away. And like, like, like those certain places in Canada with, with that, it's still a blockbuster there, right? It's because they can't get the internet there.

There's a place everywhere in this country, this planet, where they can't get internet good enough that the video won't come across. So they need audio. They need an audio drama in their life to fill that gap. gap which is not video yeah i mean i completely agree i think after you know during lockdown um people really started to give audio dramas a chance because

After the last sort of TV shows and films came out that had been recorded pre-lockdown, there wasn't much new content about. And when people gave audio dramas a chance, I think, you know, it completely showed its worth.

will continue to be you know a growing success and in this day and age people love consuming media they want media of all types when you're bored of video you go and you know read and then there's audio books and then you watch something on youtube and then you watch something on tiktok and then it's a film and then it's netflix and then you know eventually people do come to audio dramas as the next exciting you know

but a part of their daily media consumption yeah like as you're saying sam it's a bit like um it's a bit like uh when people are gone have gone from mp3s back to vinyl we're going back to vinyl man that's what we're doing you know we're we're just going you know we're we're no hipsters yeah hey look i'm listening to this through uh you know one of those wind up uh

Grammophones. Oh, this is old school. I love it. Listen to that. You can actually hear the scratches on the actual disc itself. You know, so I think that's where it's going. It's going backwards. That's awesome. So now this is, of course, the most important question of the entire interview. And obviously, please don't incriminate yourself.

uh if if uh at all possible but have you ever tried to blag your way in somewhere you didn't belong i think the closest thing i've ever come to was um we're in my old house um where when i live with my parents there was a pantry full of all the sweets and goodies and my mum would be like are you allowed to go in there and i'd say well dad said i could and then if my dad said

Did your mom say you could go in there? And I'd always go, yeah, mom said I could. So I'd always play them against each other. And that was about the closest to me getting into a pantry and stealing some chocolate. Winter. Right. OK, so when I was 13, right, I went to my first school disco. Right. And there was when you went in there, there was they used to have the UV light pen. OK, now.

back then this is like again in the early 90s they those uv pens were very expensive that was your entire night out if you bought one of them however you could get one of those and then you just sold the you just watch what the the guy on the door drew on your hand and just drew it on your hand and just did the tickets cheaper than everybody else was doing at the uh the town hall so we just got in for free and also paid for our our multiple nights at the kids disco for the next

like a month or so until they changed it to raffle tickets. Then we had to buy a raffle ticket thing, but Hey, look, you know, we all had the business going on. So we had to kind of like multiple blags on that until they just changed it to a different system. I love it.

Excellent. Well, once again, thank you both so much for being part of this project. It was an absolute blast. And we really do appreciate you sharing your time and your talent with us for this particular. No, it was a pleasure. Pleasure working with you. Yeah, really enjoyed it. Really enjoyed it. Great fun. We hope you enjoyed this interview with the cast members of Blag. Stay tuned for an upcoming interview with Sophie Flack, the director of Blag.

And join us next month for Fairies by Adam Zudrich and directed by Colette Cullen. If you enjoyed what you heard, please remember to like, follow, and subscribe to our podcast. And feel free to leave a review. You can help us out in continuing this work by heading over to redcircle.com slash shows slash half dash hour dash audio dash hour, where you can sponsor us through a one-time or recurring donation.

and become our partner in highlighting the voices and stories of women, BIPOC, and LGBTQ plus artists. And head over to eclectic-theater.com to find out about our serialized audio dramas, Deep Shadows, Bloody Bay, clusterfuck, monocyte, and throwing shade. On behalf of myself and everyone here at EFCT, thanks for listening. Well, that's all the time we have for this week.

Please check out our show notes and give half-hour audio hours some love. Each month, they provide an anthology of 10-30 minute audio drama scripts from a different playwright, including introductions and Q&A with the playwright. Until next week. And the completion of How You Got Into the Tortoise with Zug Bude. Right. I'm Jack Ward. And I'm David Ault. Take care, everyone. I never heard the word blag before, have you? Really? There you go. It's a new word for me.