1. H
ONOUR, valour and pride are the key
words used to describe the Clapton
Orient players who fought for their
King and their country, according to The
Greater Game director Tilly Vosburgh.
A hundred years on from the Battle of the
Somme where three of the team’s best players
died, a star-studded cast including Charlie
Clements, known for playing Bradley in
Eastenders and Nick Hancock, from They
Think It’s All Over and Room 101, pay tribute
to the prowess of the club, which was a
forerunner of Leyton Orient FC and the first
to enlist en masse, in a new production at
Southwark Playhouse.
Tilly, who has been involved in the play
since they began pitching the idea four years
ago, hopes to relay some of Leyton Orient’s
history to the O’s faithful.
“I hope they feel super proud, even though
their team is not in the top flight now, their
players were brave,” she said.
“I just think they will connect with it, a lot
of them know the story anyway, I think a lot
of Leyton Orient fans know, of all the people
in the country they would know.
“Even if they have just read it in the club
bar, for that story to be brought to life I am
hoping that will really mean a lot to them.”
What was a challenging aspect for writer
Michael Head in getting it from page to stage
was when TV and film companies offered to
produce the play if he changed Leyton Orient
to Arsenal.
However, as an Orient fan himself, Michael
stuck to his guns as he wanted their story to
have an authentic voice and Tilly agreed with
his sentiment.
She added: “I think one of the most
interesting things about the play is that it is a
true story and to mess around with such a key
fact would be a real shame.
“When we went to the ground, the guy who
wrote the book They Took the Lead, Steve
Jenkins, told us he thinks one of the reasons
why Leyton Orient isn’t such a big team as
Arsenal and Spurs is because of the losses
they suffered in the First World War.
“They never fully recovered and got
themselves back up again, but
actually at the time they were a
really successful team.
“Their manager, Billy Holmes,
was absolutely amazing at
scouting and training and he built
something really brilliant.
“But it never ever got back to its
strength again, so to make it
Arsenal would have been nuts
really.”
The play may have never been if
it wasn’t for the 55-year-old’s love
for football and how much she
connected with the play as
Tale of players’ valour in war
Original Clapton Orient FC
freetime
Thursday, September 8, 2016
YOUR LOCAL LEISURE GUIDE
originally she and
Michael were
working on
something
completely different.
She had met
Michael years before
after she taught a
screen acting course
at the LSMT College
where she teaches
from time to time to
take a break from her
acting career.
But what makes the
play even more
inspiring is how
quickly they have been able to get up and
running after a stall in production a couple of
years back.
“To be honest we had to find somewhere
pretty quickly as we were given some
sponsorship by the Royal British Legion,
which is just fantastic,” said Tilly.
“We had to start frantically ringing around
theatres and I couldn’t quite believe it when
Michael said he had got
Southwark because I
thought it was so
perfect.
“It just seemed to be a
bit too good to be true in
a way.”
Southwark Playhouse,
September 15 to October
15. Details:
southwarkplayhouse.
co.uk
Production tells story of team who enlisted to fight
ByShonaDuthie
LL THEATRE
IN a world of
technology and
24 hour media,
our minds are
being filled
with streams of
information
and it can
sometimes be
hard to switch
off and rest.
Imagine being
afflicted by a
rare genetic
disorder called Fatal Familial Insomnia
that deprives you of sleep so much that
you lose the ability to walk and talk and
you eventually die.
Sleepless is a new show from Analogue
Theatre Productions, which will explore
a family who began to notice warning
signs but were powerless to stop the
disease being passed from parent to
child. Writer and director Hannah
Barker was inspired to delve deeper into
this disorder and how it only affects
around 100 people in the world.
The 36-year-old says: “The show was
inspired by a true story that the artistic
director of Shoreditch Town Hall came
to us with called The Family That
Couldn’t Sleep. It was a terrifying story
of a family who were affected by a very
rare genetic condition that essentially
strikes after child bearing age and it can
start with simple symptoms like
excessive sweating and then progresses
to developing an inability to sleep and
hallucinations.
“Over a period of 18 months, patients
would be trapped in this horrible state
where you are caught between being
awake and asleep. We were fascinated in
the first instance about how strange and
peculiar this was.
“It is good to raise awareness as it is
part of a group of diseases called Prion,
which includes Mad Cow and they all
share in common what is happening in
the brain. A protein in your brain folds
in a strange shape and has an effect on
all the other proteins around it, leading
to holes in your brain.”
Hannah researched the play by talking
to a professor who worked in the Prion
unit for UCL and also looked after
families affected by the disease.
However, she didn’t want the story to
come across as too scientific and wanted
to show people affected by the disorder
in a more human way.
She has always enjoyed writing in a
factual way and after working as a
journalist for Ham and High newspaper,
decided to write about different issues
but adapting them for the stage.
Sleepless, Shoreditch Town Hall, Old
Street, Shoreditch, EC1V 9LT, until
Wednesday September 14, 7.30pm,
details: shoreditchtownhall.com
Not sleeping
Hannah Baker
CONTACTS l Features Content Manager Melanie Anglesey l manglesey@london.newsquest.co.uk Features Writers Jyoti Rambhai, Mattie Lacey-Davidson and Rachel Russell
Design Adam Vangar Telephone 01923 216216 Address Observer House, Caxton Way, Watford Business Park, Watford, Hertforshire, WD18 8RJ Advertising 01923 216208
Clapton Orient FC memorial
Cast of The Great Game at the memorial Cast rehearsing at The Poor School in Kings Cross