If you haven't had the chance to witness a Wright and Grainger production, it is highly recommended that you do so! After their recent triumphant presentation of THE GODS THE GODS THE GODS, I sat down with the two masterminds for a conversation.
Hi Alex and Phil, your show The Gods The Gods The Gods just opened in London, tell me more about it.
It’s part theatre, part gig. We’ve started calling The Gods The Gods The Gods a MYTHIC MIXTAPE. Because ‘album’ wasn’t really suggesting the right vibe. It’s 4 stories, woven between 12 tracks, each spanning fairly different genres, but sitting together in this ‘Mythic Mixtape’ for the audience to be part of. They stand on a central dancefloor, with 3 performers on stages surrounding them. It’s loud, and fast, and ends in a big dance-y, sing-y euphoric bop.
This sounds absolutely fantastic! I can't wait to see it. Now, I'd love to learn more about yourselves.
Wright & Grainger are playwright Alexander Wright, and Musician Phil Grainger from rural North Yorkshire. We met at school in 2005 (maybe), when we did a school play together. Jim Cartwrights ‘Road’ since you’re asking. Since then, we’ve been playing in bands, and making shows together, we hitched our horses to the ‘Wright & Grainger Cart’ In 2016 when we made Orpheus together. We love stories, and music, and people and communities.
You mostly tell stories from Greek and Roman mythology, what drew you to the Greek and Roman mythology?
They’re damn good stories. It’s amazing to dig in on some stories have been around for so many thousands of years - for something to have lasted that long, there must be some pretty great stuff in there. When we get excited about a myth, we get excited about what it means for us today, and what it’s about here and now in our contemporary world. They’re old stories, but they’re all about people and our choices and decisions and hopes and fears. We keep finding these beautiful kernels that really resonate with us in our modern day. If an idea sticks around for long enough, and we keep being excited about it, then I guess it means there’s something pretty great in that story for us to dig in on.
Definitely, classics that never go out of style! What motivated you to produce a gig theatre performance?
We spend more time talking about music than we do about theatre. And we spend more time listening to music than we do watching plays.Working with it comes naturally to us.. We’re always talking about our favourite albums, new tracks that are out, this artists work or that great collaboration. But also we spend our time in and amongst theatre festivals and theatre makers. So it’s a really natural combination for us. All our theatre work has music at the heart of it, and all our songwriting has story holding it up. We wanted to make a show which puts an audience in the centre of the experience - something which invites people to enjoy something and be part of something together, a gig felt like the right kind of format for that.
What’s the creative process like for you both?
Our process has been different from project to project. Broadly speaking, Al is in charge of the words, and Phil, the music. Sometimes we get to spend a lot of time together on something, sometimes we write something ridiculously fast (we wrote Orpheus in two days), and sometimes we’ll both be working in different places. Some projects are just Phil and Al, and others have a bigger family attached to them. But it’s always to do with story and music.
You’ve toured shows throughout the world! Where have been the best places?
We go to Australia, and New Zealand a lot, but they’re FULL of really special places, and people. New Zealand kind of feels similar to our home, North Yorkshire, but with added mountains, and more desktop background worthy vistas! There’s an incredible place, at the north of the South Island, called THE MUSSEL INN. We arrived there for the first time in 2019, and it was a VERY quiet pub, with 1 family having a quiet meal. It really didn’t feel like the sort of place we were going to have a good gig.
They showed us to our rooms for the night, which were really really amazing, in a log cabin to die for, and we thought, well… at least we will have a nice nights sleep here. Come show time… 80 people had shown up, and the place was totally rammed. It was one of the best gigs ever. That has continued to be the vibe everytime since. Incredible.
We also toured BALI once, in surf shops, and yogo studios and such. That was also very amazing.
Sounds absolutely incredible, the smaller, intimate gigs can sometimes be the most impactful. You just brought Half Man, Half Bull to Edinburgh Fringe and have taken lots of shows to fringe festivals globally, what advice do you have for someone creating a
new fringe show?
Well, it’s a hell of an undertaking. So, mainly, you’ve gotta know why you’re doing it and why you’re going. Sometimes it’ll be to try out a new piece of work, sometimes it’ll be to showcase something that’s finished, sometimes it could be for the sheer joy of it. All the options are good, they’re beautiful and wild places to spend time - we love them - but we know what we’re wanting to get out of it and we work hard to make sure we achieve that. There are so many great pals and artists at fringe festivals, all round the world, and it’s a treat to catch up with them each time we land somewhere.
Budget it obviously important, knowing what it all costs and how you’re going to pay for it. You can’t measure very success purely financially, but also you can’t ignore how expensive going to fringe festivals is. So have a good look at all that in some detail!
Passion and planning! Essential. You’ve won numerous awards for your shows, what is your proudest achievement?
Oh, there’s a few things we hold really dear to our hearts. A big and gorgeous achievement was playing THE GODS THE GODS THE GODS at Sydney Opera House. That felt huge. To be going to work at one of the most iconic cultural organisations in the world was an amazing feeling. And playing 3 packed shows there was a joy. It felt like a big deal, and we were so happy to tell those stories in that building.
Alongside that, though, we’re really proud of the friends and communities we’re making around the world - that really matters to us. It’s amazing that there are places we can keep going back to where folks keep coming to our shows but also that it starts to feel like family - like home from home. We’re proud that we’re able to do that in a bunch of places, and we really want to keep doing it.
What’s next for Wright & Grainger?
We’re about to make quite a lot of new work. In the next year or two. Some smaller scale shows, and some larger than we’ve made before.
We’re very keen to try to keep both of these paths going. We love touring to tiny village halls in rural areas, and we have to make suitable sized work for that. So we’ll keep making shows for them! We’re also LOVING collaborating at the moment. So imagining what a Wright&Grainger dance / circus show would look like.
Mostly, we want to keep growing the Wright&Grainger community. It feels like we connect with people around the world, and they stick with us, excited to see what we come up with next. And we’re excited to see who’s with us each time we go somewhere. Making the work, is all about people. Performing the work is all about people.
Thanks for speaking to me, I can't wait to see what you get up to next.
Check out Wright & Grainger on Spotify below or head to their website https://www.wrightandgrainger.com. for more updates on their next performances
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