Intervu Erin Hutton

Erin Hutton

I sit down with Erin Hutton, a multidisciplinary writer to talk to them about their work as well as their current project: Quiet Light which is being performed this month in London.

“If I’ve made people feel any kind of emotion by watching my work then I think I’ve done my job well - If you’ve enjoyed it even better.”

I kick things off by asking the obvious: Who are you and what’s happening work wise?

“I’m Erin!” She chirps. “So at the minute, a play that I wrote is going to be performed at the Barons Court. It’s called “Quiet Light” and it's about a haunted lighthouse. It’s my first fully performed play which is really exciting! She goes on and tells me, “I write a bit of other stuff too - I studied theatre and screenwriting at university, I’ve written a few little projects in that area - and I’ve also had a couple little radio projects too!

“I’ve not done it for a while. I had a very short sci fi play called “60 Days” performed. I entered a competition and a radio station made it and performed it.” She continues, “I also have a very short radio play performed by BBC Radio Wiltshire, that was for their Ten Tiny Plays competition. It was EIlmer Monk!” She adds excitedly, “A very famous monk who made himself wings, jumped off the top of an abbey…didnt’t fly as had hoped he would but miraculously survived.”

I ask her if there is anything she feels that crops up in her work - even between mediums?

“Science Fiction and Fantasy usually appear in them somewhere,” she tells me, ““Quiet Light” has a very supernatural element to it.”

“A lot of…the genres usually go across…so usually sci fi and fantasy are in there somewhere.”

Erin returns to Quiet Light. The play, “has supernatural elements and is set in - a future - I’ve very deliberately not specified when exactly it is but those kind of features usually show up.”

“Complicated relationships also show up in quite a lot of my work, especially because I work with things like screenwriting and theatre where they’re quite dialogue heavy, having really complicated relationships is really really fun to write.”

“Ava and Ray have a horrible time with each other and they also really care about each other in some ways. Cam in the play brings out a lot of elements that he never ever shows Ava. Ava and her mother have a very intense relationship in the show and I’d say that kind of element carries across into my other work too.”

“Quiet Light” Poster

I ask Erin about her process when it comes to writing?

Exasperated, she says: “It usually involves a lot of drafts. “Quiet Light” has been through a ridiculous amount of drafts but it's now gotten to a point that I’m happy with it. Usually when I’m writing stories they start around a specific moment or part of dialogue and the story kind of fills out from there. It means I do have to go back through my work quite a lot and make sure that the structure works, the characters sound like the characters, they don’t like each other - or even worse sound like me!”

She goes on to tell me about the history of Quiet Light. The play, “was developed with the Menagerie Young Writer’s Workshop and it got a rehearsed reading at NSDF which is where Pretty Gross Productions saw it. It meant that I’ve been able to see it read aloud by actors in development and rehearsals and that’s been really really valuable for writing.

“The “Quiet Light” that is being put on at Barons Court is a culmination of a lot of drafts and a lot of work. It’s something that I’m proud of and I hope people enjoy watching it. Pretty Gross do an absolutely brilliant job of putting it on stage with the directing, the producing, the acting, the special effects that are in there. I hope that if people come along they will be scared if not unnerved by some of the play. I hope it's entertaining. I hope it makes them think. I hope it makes them miss the ocean slightly, I grew up quite near the sea and I now don’t live anywhere near it and I think quite a lot of that works its way into the play.”

If I’ve made people feel any kind of emotion by watching my work then I think I’ve done my job well - If you’ve enjoyed it even better.”

I ask Erin what she wants people to take away from Quiet Light?

There is a climate message in the background of Quiet Light as well. Ava and Ray’s world is flooded, there are terrible things happening on land. I’ve been told several times by people older than me that “your generation is going to fix the world and all of its climate problems” - That is an…interesting thing to be told. I think that comes across in the play as well.”

“Ava and Ray are quite young and they do have a lot of problems and they can’t fix the world, they can’t even fix what’s going on in the lighthouse. I’d like people to take the climate message away even if it's not the main point of the play.”

“Quiet Light” Rehearsal Photo

I ask her what is next for her?

I’d like to see what Pretty Gross do next! I’ve seen 113!”

“But in general I’m on the lookout for plays with fantasy elements, there are more of them nowadays. New things, new things with new ideas and more sci fi and fantasy things I can watch!”

She goes on, “I would like to see Quiet Light in other places if possible. It’s been really interesting seeing it in a couple of different venues, especially with the lighthouse setting, seeing how those venues have changed to reflect that.”

“I’ve actually just finished a short film project that I’ve was working on. It was a screenplay for a short film that I co-wrote with someone for OutWrd, where one actor performs the whole screenplay and that was a sci-fi - my other favourite genre. I would like to start a new project! I’d love to write book one day but we’ll see how that goes because that’s a very different format.”

(As someone who is currently writing a book, this interviewer can tell you it is indeed very different - both for better and worse)

I ask her if she has any advice for other writers and creatives?

I would say...let yourself write terrible drafts, the early drafts of Quiet Light were terrible. Because then you can edit them well. Let yourself write poorly and then go back and edit it again and again and again. If you can get people to read your aloud, whether that’s an actor who's interested or a friend who’s willing to help, hearing things said aloud and interpreted and performed differently will help your writing, it will mean you will read it in someone else’s voice as opposed to yours. And enjoy it! If you’re doing this kind of creative writing, often its because you really have a passion for telling stories and try to make sure you’re writing things that you do enjoy rather than just making it a chore - if you’re at all able.

Quiet Light comes to the Barons Court Theatre 14th - 18th of April. Tickets can be found here: https://www.baronscourttheatre.com/quietlight

Erin Hutton