The Sequel Q&A

Ahead of the new play The Sequel, we chatted to writer Lucas Closs about storytelling, nostalgia and the afterlife of real lives turned into fiction. Set in a café preserved by a novel, the play explores how people can become fixed in someone else’s version of them.

Was there a particular moment or experience that made you want to explore the relationship between writers and the people they write about?

I was once sat on a plane next to a faintly recognisable man. He claimed to have accidentally inspired Rowan Atkinson’s Mr. Bean. I won’t say who he is - luckily he’s kept his anonymity as few draw the dots - but even so, it has deeply affected the way he sees himself (like the character, he had 'very little to say'), it made me think about how easily we’re trapped by how others see us, let alone by loosely-based portraits found in a work of art.

The café in the play has been turned into a kind of museum dedicated to the writer’s work. What role does nostalgia play in the story?

The setting is a local café that has been ‘taxidermied’ into a museum due to the popularity of Grace’s novel. Grace’s work has frozen the area- anything she mentioned has become an exaggerated version of itself, anything she didn’t ceases to be there- sabotaging the nostalgia she’s returned for. Her old friend John ensures things stay like this - preferring the café’s history to its present. In The Sequel, nostalgia is an escape from stagnation; I’m concerned by how a lack of creativity results in shared stories leaning toward the past. Today, the most inspiring stories seem to be the ones we tell about our own lives.

The production will feature a live musical score. How does it contribute to the atmosphere or storytelling?

Deniz Dortok and Lydia Cochrane have composed a wonderful score using an array of unique instruments. It isn’t just a beautiful accompaniment; it expresses the cinema each character maintains about who they are. It represents the internal soundtrack that often prevents them from truly seeing or hearing the other. 

How have you and director Imy Wyatt Corner worked together to shape the tone of the piece?

It’s been such a privilege to work with Imy. She has been integral in rooting the sillier and more far-fetched aspects of the script into something plausible. She’s created a very real, tactile world for the actors to play in and make their own. 

What do you hope audiences take away from The Sequel after leaving the theatre?

Ideally, exfoliated of thought, refreshed with a comedy rinse (no urge to laugh for at least a week) whilst obsessed with the play's central question: in what ways am I curating and exhibiting my life as a story?

Which character from The Sequel would you like to be mates with - and which would you avoid?

They’re all mates I’d avoid. I would be incredibly paranoid about how I’d end up being portrayed in GT’s work. I’d happily spend time with John, learn from his entrepreneurial nous and enjoy our shared love for marzipan.