STEPHEN BERESFORD
there and reminisce. She was unique.” Stephen found his calling through
the work he did with Judy, “throwing” himself into the productions the group of children put on in the Guildhall and around the town. A true Dartmouth character, Judy had an incredible ability to get children excited and was dubbed ‘the pied piper of Dartmouth’ for good reason.
Thanks to her help and support,
Stephen made it to RADA and became an actor for 10 years - appearing at the National Theatre and other major venues. But something was missing.
“I realised I wanted to do more – after a while I wanted to write,” he said. He put together some ‘spec’ scripts – or scripts
written without a commission - for TV using a contact he had - and Channel Four commissioned one. “That was wonderful, but they never produced it,” said Stephen. “I kept producing ideas which the channel loved, bought, but never made. I was constantly in development with nothing to show for it!” A change in direction beckoned, and inspiration appeared from the place by the sea he had left when he was 18.
“I realised I had an itch, a compulsion, to write about
Dartmouth. It has been a huge influence on who I am and so I let that out. It has more than its fair share of remarkable, rough and unique characters - I’d met so many of them through Judy and I started to draw on them prodigiously. “I sat down and banged out The Last of the Hausmanns. There is a bit of lots of people I’ve known in the characters, so Judy Hausmann is NOT Judy Lewthwaite: she has a lot of her qualities, but they are very distinct.” The play has been well received and Stephen has been
asked to write another play for the National – and he will again return to the ‘world’ of Dartmouth. “I’m hoping to write three plays about Dartmouth
actually,” he said. “There is so much colour and depth to the people I’ve known in Dartmouth I think there is more than enough material. I have the basics for the next two, and each play will reference characters in the others, so it will build up this extra layer of sub plot for those that see all the plays. Stephen is currently “horrendously busy” with various projects – including the next ‘Dartmouth’ play – and he said that he loved the chance to work with some of the best names in the business. “The level of professionalism I’m seeing is just staggering,” he said. “From the director and actors of
Helen McCrory, Julie Walters and Rory Kinnear.
course, but the set is just remarkable: it’s on a revolve, completely computer controlled huge set, but they are so good at getting the tiny details right too. All the letters on the set have the correct address and postcode on them, in case one falls into the audience and is picked up! I walked onto set one day and they had got hold of the ferry timetables to put on the wall of the kitchen! It’s an extraordinary time and one which I’m very thankful for.”• by Phil Scoble
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