Over the years, I have had the pleasure of attending lots of memorable cultural events. Sometimes, my memories of these events over time become transformed and condensed to just a feeling. Some performances have left me emotionally elated, whilst others have left me drained. My one persistent belief is that I always respect the creators of a piece of work even if I do not always understand their original intent or indeed, feel that the work has worked for me. It doesn’t matter because someone has made an effort to offer something of themselves to an audience.
Now, quite by accident, I stumbled on the work of Sarah-Louise Young. I suspect that I may have seen her first as part of Roulston and Young with their catchy acerbic songs about relationships etc. I then saw ‘Julie Madly Deeply’, a beautifully resonant exploration of the work of Dame Julie Andrews and an equally touching engagement with her fans. I most recently saw her at the Soho Theatre performing ‘An Evening Without Kate Bush’ from my little table in the B row with a friend and was astounded that she brought out the hidden performer that lurks within, as ‘Wuthering Heights’ was sung and I began the dance movements. Sarah-Louise Young is a very talented and versatile creator touching on many mediums. She has very kindly consented to allowing me to interview her, so without further ado…
In your current show, ‘An Evening Without Kate Bush’, you explore the works and life of Kate Bush and her impersonators. You also acknowledge borrowing a wig from the oldest (and now retired) Kate Bush impersonator.
I like to think the show explores Kate Bush and her fans, as opposed to her impersonators. We do pay tribute to her original tribute act, ‘Jaquie’, who sings ‘Wow’, but the heart of the show is about how each of us has our own relationship with her work and how we experience it or ‘pay tribute to it in our own way’.
What attracted you to Kate Bush as the possible subject for a production?
I had always been a fan, but the original idea for the show came from my co-creator, Russell Lucas. We had already had international success with ‘Julie Madly Deeply’ (our musical loveletter to Julie Andrews which has played West End and Off Broadway). The two shows are very different, but that started us thinking about the relationship fans have with their icons, especially someone like Kate, who hadn’t performed live for over 30 years, since her 1979 ‘Tour Of Life’.
Interestingly the first work-in-progress sharing of the show was as a two-hander, with the brilliant Matthew Jones (Mannish from Frisky & Mannish). We presented a 20 minute section at The Albany in Deptford as part of their try-out night, Cabaret Playroom. We spent a few days together in a rehearsal room but in the end decided to save our enthusiasm to collaborate on something else as he wanted to focus on his Richard Carpenter show and it felt like the best story-telling mode for this piece was for a solo performer. It was great fun to play together though and some of the ideas we had begun to explore still made it into ‘An Evening Without Kate Bush’.
After Russell and I had just started working on this version, Kate Bush suddenly announced her ‘Before The Dawn’ comeback dates at Hammersmith Apollo! As fans we were thrilled. But as theatre-makers we were concerned. We thought people might think we were just cynically trying to cash-in on her return by making our show. So we decided to shelve it for a few years.
Cut to 2018 and we went to see the brilliant US tribute band ‘Baby Bushka’ at the Moth Club. Watching their audience leap about to ‘Hounds Of Love’ and enjoying old classics with guilt-free abandon, we knew we had to make ‘An Evening Without Kate Bush’. Our idea was too fun to ignore!
Also how did you go about learning the techniques and mannerisms of both Kate Bush and her impersonators? Did you interview them and/or watch a lot of performance footage?
I never set out to impersonate her. She is unique. It’s amazing how many people tell me I sound like her though. I perform all the songs in their original keys and I think part of it is that she chose such specific phrasing and wrote such intricate melodies, hearing them instantly hot wires you back to the original. I spent one day working with the amazing Tom Jackson Greaves, who is a director and choreographer. He had watched a lot of her videos and noted down similarities in her body vocabulary. We explored those in our session; again, never trying to ‘be’ her, more tap into her spirit. Quite by accident, the nicknames we came up with for them (The Pulse, The Champagne Whipcrack, for example) found their way into the show. That’s often how it happens with devised work - you become a sponge for every impulse and they jostle around your head during the making process until they either find a home or float off into the ether.
With the costumes too, we tried to evoke her, not copy her. We rub shoulders with themes (she uses a lot of nature and bird imagery in her work, hence the feathery headdress). The cleaner’s outfit for ‘This Woman’s Work’ is as much a nod to the cleaner’s story we mention at the start of the show, as it is to her TV special appearance where she sang ‘Army Dreamers’ dressed as a cleaner or archetypal vintage housewife. That’s one for the Super-fans.
We did of course watch a LOT of footage, interviews, videos, everything we could find, to get to know her journey as an artist and also how the world around her changed. Her early interviews are so uncomfortable. She is often being asked truly banal or overtly sexualised questions. She is so polite and accommodating but it’s great to see her later on her career take the reins and shut down lines of enquiry which show the interviewers have no idea what they are talking about. I also read the brilliant biography by Graeme Thomson called ‘Under the Ivy’. It’s the best music biography I have ever read and really lets you into her creative process.
When did you first become aware that you had a predilection towards performance? How did you develop these skills through your education?
I come from a big family; I’m the youngest of five siblings and the only girl. Apparently that explains a lot! I always loved to sing but was quite shy away from home until I went to secondary school. I found doing silly voices helped me out of a tight spot at ballet once when the older kids were picking on me for wearing second hand clothes. It’s a common story amongst comedy performers that they find their voice under duress. We had the most brilliant music teacher at school, Miss Porrer, and she really nurtured me. I have been fortunate to have a lot of encouragement, from my family, my teachers and my friends. I met one of my closest friends, Paulus, at 13 and he shared his love of cabaret and variety with me (I distinctly remember him playing me a Fascinating Aida record in his bedroom, both of us surrounded in stuffed Garfields. I had no idea that 22 years later I would be guesting with them in the West End!)
You suggest that a teacher found your performance during your teenage years as Kate Bush a little risqué. Were other teachers more encouraging of your creativity?
I wouldn’t take everything you see in the show literally if you don’t want to spoil the magic :-)
How would you recommend a student in school or college with creative leanings should develop their skills?
See stuff. Watch other performers. If you don’t have much money, like me growing up, talk to your libraries, your school, your local theatre - they may have resources and outreach projects. If you can get online there are SO many good shows available to watch. Also, just DO it. Don’t wait for permission. The Edinburgh Fringe is an expensive place but there are ways to do it more cheaply like the Free Fringe and it is an incredible learning experience. You have to try and fail and as Beckett said, ‘fail better’. There are no short cuts. With every new show I make I start again. Watch, devour, make, take risks, and study a bit. But don’t get stuck in an endless cycle of taking courses, DO! Also get some sleep, look after your body and foster your friendships with friends. You need a life too.
Who have your influences been as you have developed your own style and professional career? Have they varied a great deal from your childhood interests?
There are performers and creatives I saw when I was young who inspired me to want to act: Emma Thompson, Steven Berkoff (around the time of his incredible solo show, ‘One Man’), Linda Marlowe (who I finally got to work with and is now a friend), Kathryn Hunter, Mark Rylance. Also composers, Stephen Sondheim, Kurt Weill and artists as diverse from Edith Piaf to Joni Mitchell. As we evolve so the need for different creative nourishment evolves. I am most inspired now by my contemporaries, people making and evolving around me: Desmond O’Connor and Zoie Kennedy (as individuals and as part of Twice Shy Theatre), Amy G, Lucy McCormick, Gateau Chocolat, Peta Lily, Jordan Clarke, to name a few.
Also when did you first become interested in Julie Andrews? ‘Julie Madly Deeply’ still holds fond memories for me. I saw it twice in the same run at the Trafalgar Studios, both alone and with my mother and sister (who are big fans of Dame Julie Andrews). You successfully conveyed the emotional attachment of fans to their idols. Did you ever meet Dame Julie Andrews?
Thank you, I’m still very fond of that show and in fact we just did a two week run of it over Christmas (at the Park Theatre in London). I have not met Dame Julie but some of her friends have seen the show and loved it so that’s wonderful. I did invite her but she is a bit busy!
You work regularly with Michael Roulston and I have many happy memories of seeing the two of you performing your songs in various venues. ‘Please Don’t Hand Me Your Baby’ from ‘Songs For Cynics’ has always been a favourite. When did you meet Michael Roulston and how does collaborative working help you to develop your ideas? When Michael and your self are composing, do you find that one or the other of you tends to focus more on the lyrics of a song and the other person, the music?
We met on the Battersea Barge when it was owned by Peter Lewis who provided a haven for artists and clowns to try things out, develop ideas and experiment. Paulus, Dusty Limits and I put on a cabaret night called ‘Trinity’s’ and Michael played for us. We worked a lot in different configurations and then in 2006 I asked him to write songs with me for an ill-fated show called ‘Confessions Of A Paralysed Porn Star’. The title was the best thing about it. By the end of the run I was £8000 out of pocket but we had learned how to write songs and make a show. It took me another three years to try again and by then I had learned from some of my mistakes and we presented ‘Cabaret Whore’ in 2009 which catapulted me into the world of cabaret one-nighters, The Adelaide Cabaret Festival and being commissioned to make ‘Julie Madly Deeply’. At the start I was very much the lyricist and Michael was the music but now we have a more fluid working relationship. We still have our feet primarily in those camps but will work together on a lyric first and then on the music and it’s just as likely that Michael will solve a lyric problem as I might have an idea for a melody. It’s a true collaboration.
Also the idea of creating bespoke songs for individuals is a unique endeavour. How did the idea come about?
Like many creatives the pandemic wiped out all of our work for a year. We had already written songs with and for other people (including Marcel Lucont, Lili La Scala, Ophelia Bitz, Clementine Living Fashion Doll and TO&ST winner, Lynn Ruth Miller). We put the idea out on social media and the response was great. We’ve written songs and created personalised photo videos (with the lyrics so you can sing along) for birthdays, weddings, retirements, Christmas, Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day and even a song for a cat. We are still doing them now.
I recently saw the production of ‘Jarman’ that you directed. How did you become involved with the playwright and actor, Mark Farrelly and can you explain to me some of the freedoms and restrictions that you experience as a director as opposed to those situations where you are solely responsible for your own work?
I met Mark in the queue to see the brilliant Rob Crouch in his solo show about Oliver Reed, ‘Wild Thing’. He was about to make his Quentin Crisp show and I was about to start work on ‘Julie Madly Deeply’ so we were seeing as many solo shows as we could for inspiration. We became instant friends and big fans of each other’s work. When he asked me to read his script for 'Jarman' I didn’t know a lot about him other than the title of some of his films and as an activist. I fell in love with the script and the man and then watched his films and was delighted to be asked to collaborate on the piece. I don’t really think of directing as having restrictions - my job is to help the artists create the show they want to make. In the case of ‘Jarman’ the script already existed so my job was to bring the physicality and staging to it - a visual realisation. We made a few small adjustments to what was on the page but it’s mostly exactly as Mark wrote it. I absolutely adored working with him and found him endlessly open and available for play and exploration. I’m very proud of the show. I’m also working with Russell Lucas on a new show called ‘The Bobby Kennedy Experience’ where he is performing and I am the outside eyes. It’s a different process from the one I had with Mark - again, there is no template: sometimes Russell will work on things on his own and invite me round to give feedback. Sometimes we are coming up with ideas together. With ‘Looking For Me Friend: The Music Of Victoria Wood’, Paulus, Michael Roulston and I spent a few days listening to songs, playing with post-it notes and collecting stories and quotes. Then Paulus went away and wrote the script. So I had a bit more of a hand in its creation but my job as director is still to facilitate Paulus to make the show he wants to perform. The kind of work I make for myself often involves improvisation and flexing with the audience in the room - so that is in and of itself a different kind of freedom. As a director, once the show is out there, my influence is over - apart from sitting in the dark and feeling proud.
‘Je Regrette!’ was a very funny and in some respects, hard hitting account of an Edith Piaf style figure with her difficult upbringing. What paths lead you to create a figure based on the troubled singers of so-called chansons or torch songs?
La Poule was originally one of 7 characters in the ‘Cabaret Whore’ series of shows. She’s the only character who made it into all four incarnations. She’s my dark clown. She comes from the desperate human need to be loved, the narcissistic neediness in a lot of us. She’s inspired by real people and imagined people. The original premise of ‘Cabaret Whore’ was to look at the ego it takes to stand on a stage and tell a bunch of strangers your life story. Why should we care? It’s the question I start all making processes with. What are we asking the audience to connect with? Who or what is it in service to? Again, it’s less about trying to imitate or reference a specific singer. La Poule just happens to be a singer. Mostly she’s a human being who has found life hard and unfair. I think a lot of people can identify. I use extreme characterisation to amplify normal behaviour so that audiences can recognise aspects of themselves but feel reassured they are not THAT bad!
During your production, ‘An Evening Without Kate Bush’, you delve into a box of costumes and props? Was this something you used to do as a child?
My childhood friend Charlie had a huge costume box I was very envious of and we used to get given huge bags of second hand clothes from well-meaning people because we didn’t have much money. I was always trying to create fetching outfits. At 14 I started dying my hair and playing with that, shaving it off, making it blue. Now I dress up for a living. I’m quite dull in my civilian life. I don’t wear make-up and I’m mostly in black. I like full transformations from simple changes.
Also following your work in ‘The Showstoppers’ improvisation group, do you think that improvisational practices are not only of use within creative endeavours, but also to explore personal issues or dilemmas?
Absolutely and to answer that question I refer you to Pippa Evans’ book ‘Improv Your Life’.
Please can you explain your work with ‘The Authentic Artist’?
The AA is a wonderful collective founded by Kath Burlinson who runs courses and workshops for people who want to explore their artistic process. She takes an embodied approach and I have found this invaluable in my work. Writers, singers, musicians, visual and digital artists, set-designers, she works with all manner of creatives: they do not all necessarily practice their art for a living. The group is not an official organisation, rather a gathering of like-hearted people who have all experienced a similar process and like to stay in touch and share work and thoughts from time to time. It isn’t a cult or a membership thing. It’s community.
Do you feel that there is a story within us all? If so, how would you encourage someone to develop it?
I think we are all creative and we are all story making creatures - we tell stories to ourselves when we sleep and we recount the day’s event with a beginning, a middle and an end. A lot of people have their creativity squashed over time and I advocate everyone being encouraged to invite in their creativity. Whether that’s how you arrange the furniture in your room, make a salad or write your Facebook post.
During ‘An Evening Without Kate Bush’, you were able to encourage through your charisma and empathy to get various members of the audience up on stage to both sing and dance. How can you determine who will and won’t be willing to perform with you on stage?
I hope after 20 years of performing I am a good judge of who will want to play. I can definitely tell who doesn’t want to be asked. I build into the show opportunities for me to investigate who might be a possible contender for later in the show. Most people self-select - you can read their body language and their faces (an interesting challenge through a mask!) I never invite a single person up unless they have someone waiting for them by their seat to make them feel supported when they return. I never humiliate people. My job is to elevate and celebrate the audience. So far, no-one has every refused!
Where do you get your ideas from and how do you distinguish the form that they should take (e.g. a song or performance piece)?
I’m constantly trying to make sense of life through my work. Everything is a potential inspiration and the form it takes is dictated by what mode (song, poem, play, tweet) will serve it best. It has to connect with an audience, so if it’s not going to resonate with someone else, I keep it to myself.
Has your creativity ever led you astray resulting in you creating something unlike your original idea?
I don’t think I have ever made a show with an exact version of it in my head at the start. If the story is solid then there is a direction of travel but it’s part of the creative process to wander off path from time to time. I am making a show now for Summerhall this August called ‘The Silent Treatment’. I was just about to share an early draft when Covid hit. During the past two years it has morphed into a different show, hopefully a better show than the one I might have presented in 2020. The world changed, I changed, so it changed too.
I haven’t read it yet but the ‘RSV People Book’ by Paul Chronnell and your good self sounds wonderful (the book is on its way to me now). The idea of contacting all of the requests for pen pals in one issue of ‘Smash Hits’ magazine in 1985 touches on a theme that seems to run through lots of your projects. Nostalgia seems to provide a rich vein for your creativity. What do you most miss about the past?
Flexibility and time. I don’t really miss the past but I long for more TIME - time to do nothing - life is full and I love it but I sometimes long for a few days with absolutely nothing to do but shoot the breeze… if I had it I’d probably spend it coming up with an idea for a show anyway! I also have to stretch and look after my body much more now than I used to. But honestly, each year I am learning - I wouldn’t want to go backwards.
Your work ensures that certain acts and movements are not forgotten, how would you like to be remembered?
As someone who cared and told good stories. Loyal and loving. Work in progress up to the final breath.
What are your future plans? How is your musical ‘Maxa, The Most Assassinated Woman In The World’ with Michael Roulston coming along?
There is a lot of promotion to do for the book. ‘Jarman’ and ‘Looking For Me Friend’ are off on tour so I will check in with those. I have one more week working with Russell on the 'Bobby Kennedy Show' before we open at the Town And Gown in Cambridge in April. After our Soho run I am on tour with AEWKB (‘An Evening Without Kate Bush’), I’m also in rehearsals for 'The Silent Treatment' and coaching several other artists on their solo shows and planning a wedding. Maxa is ready to go so now we need investment or a producer to take it on. It’s all go!
Sarah-Louise Young, many thanks for allowing me to interview you and I look forward to seeing your next production.
Barry Watt – 9th February 2022.
Afterword
Please see the below links for further information about Sarah-Louise Young and her endeavours/collaborations:
Sarah-Louise Young’s website: www.sarah-louise-young.com
Bespoke Songs: www.roulstonandyoung.co.uk
An Evening Without Kate Bush: www.withoutkatebush.com
The RSVPeople: www.thersvpeople.co.uk
Maxa Musical: www.maxamostassassinated.com
The Authentic Artist: www.authenticartist.co.uk
Also all of the projects/artists/magazines and books etc. are copyright to their respective owners.
BW.
Photos (Kindly provided by Sarah-Louise Young. The photographers are listed under the photos. As above, the images are copyright, so please do not use without seeking permission or La Poule may come to visit with her knife! ;-) )
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La Poule With Knife (Photo by Steve Ullathorne) |
