Intervu Tommy Fletcher McMeekin

“Reformed” Rehearsal Photos

I sit down with Tommy Fletcher-McMeekin to talk to him about his new company and his brand new play: “Reformed.”

“And this idea of, well, why does someone vote for Reform? If someone votes for Reform, it doesn't mean they're just a racist. And it doesn't mean they're just, you know, they like Nigel Farage and all that. There's more to it. Humans are complex. Working class men are complex.”

I ask who Tommy is and what he does?

“Yeah so my name is Tommy Fletcher-McMeekin, I am a working-class actor from North London, and I've recently also moved into writing and producing. We've just launched something called Notebook Studios, which is my production company. And Notebook Studios will focus on theatre, short films, and also live comedy. We're very, very freshly launched, and we have our first project, which is the first full play I've written, called “Reformed.””

“I'm very into politics. I'm very into football. I'm gay. So I sort of emerged all these things of these different areas of life. And it became this sort of melting pot, which is the show. And it really feels like that. It feels like it's condensed, raw, gritty, and it keeps building and getting more and more tense. And then eventually it all comes to a head. And yeah, yeah. But that's our first project. And then we also have got another project coming up, which we haven't announced called “Boys With Blue Lips” which focuses on the chemsex epidemic and that will be at the Lambeth Fringe Festival this autumn. 

I ask about Reformed?

“We had an initial sharing in February, which sold out, and we got a lot of amazing audience feedback. And now we're going to be at the Bread and Roses Theatre on the 17th, 18th, 22nd, and 23rd of June. It's directed by Rikki Beadle-Blair, MBE, who is a prolific director, really, on the French theatre scene. He's been working in it for decades and decades and decades. We're very lucky to have him on board. Reformed is…”

“It's quite a dark play. It's very political and current. It's set in 2028. Nigel Farage has just become Prime Minister. I guess that will. Yeah. Yeah. So it's set in 2028. It's two years in the future. Nigel Farage is PM. And it's set on the build-up to the European Championship final, which is at Wembley.”

“And we follow three young white working class men, Joe, Mark and Lewis, and we sort of see them navigate identity, their places in modern Britain and what it means to be a patriot and what it means to be from England now and to be English and to be, you know…

“White working class men are sort of not less represented, but not at the forefront of conversation really anymore for a lot of political movements whether it's in our industry or like employment and stuff like that. So it's focusing on their perspective, a perspective that for a long time we had a lot from and now not so much. It sort of explores them and where they are. It's very diverse, the show. So it covers, again, the themes of identity, masculinity, I'd say it's the core of it. 

“We have LGBT characters. So Mark, one of the three main boys, is Reform voting, Stella drinking, football-loving, hyper-masculine, but he's openly gay. So he's sort of a different thing of what perhaps came in and represented as in media and stuff. And then we also have Harry, who's more feminine, and him and Mark collide. He collides with the other boys. We also have Wayne, who’s sort of a middle-class non-white man but he's like high up in a company and we see that unravel and yeah we have a cast of men apart from one which is a woman who is an MP and she is basically the only one with real power in the play which I enjoy like it's like essentially men having this pissing contest. And the only woman is the one who comes out unscathed and comes out, um, powerful as the home secretary, um, by the end of it. So, um, she, yeah, yeah. The play, it was really born out of me. I'm a working class boy. Um, I grew up in a council estate, uh, and yeah, it came from there. I wrote it last year. 

“Reformed” Rehearsal Photos

I ask him about his process behind his work?

“Yeah, so for “Reformed…”

“I was very dramatic. I locked myself away last summer in a hotel room in Bournemouth for a weekend and I came out with “Reformed.” 

“I write in images. So I have an image of like, okay, that's cool. Let me write from there. I write the ending first and then I write the beginning and then we do what's in between. Reformed was, the image I got was a bloody England flag…something there and then it became about you know it's a weird thing of like sort of feels a bit dirty now to say you're proud to be English because of like what's been claimed and stuff like that or like the flag like the St George's flag feels really weird and political even though it shouldn't be you know it's something we all have in common but it's been taken, that identity of us has been taken one way.”

“So I really want to try that. I wrote it. And then a month later, all the stuff with the flags kicked off of people drawing St. George's flags on everything. So, um, what's really scary from what I've written on it, it's really becoming a bit too close to home now.” 

“Um, a lot of things are coming to pass. Uh, and yeah, my experience is I grew up from a single mom to three kids. I grew up in a council estate. Um, and there is this feeling of sort of, especially my younger brother is going through school now, of the young white working class men are sort of being left behind and dismissed. And that isn't right because society should be equal for all. I like that. I'm big on it. And, you know, it is this sort of an ignoring of the working class is really where the show was born from. And this idea of, well, why does someone vote for Reform? If someone votes for Reform, it doesn't mean they're just a racist. And it doesn't mean they're just, you know, they like Nigel Farage and all that. There's more to it. Humans are complex. Working class men are complex.”

“And, you know, the masculinity aspect of it, of like trying to fit in. You're told to be this, but not too much or not too little. And then they're told to be this other thing and not too much and not too little. And we see them all really struggle with that in the show. Each of the characters have very much their own voice, very much their own, like that's them. They're not all, none of them are the same. They all have troubles.”

“And then “Boys with Blue Lips,” again, it's a show we're developing now. It's really, that show really has been born out of sort of my fear of where we're, you know, chemsex is a massive epidemic now in the gay community. Like more people die of chemsex related overdose doses in London than stabbings now and it's from a community that's been through a purge before, you know with HIV and AIDS, it's bizarre to me this isn't being spoken about more I think it's a real growing issue um and there are plays about it um by far i've thrown my hat in the ring I do have like previous- uh I've had people in my life who have been addicts, you know, gay culture. And it follows a group of young gay men, all friends, and we see them, you know, drugs and abuse in relationships and sort of that shitty aspect that's going on right now. And, you know, some of it I have seen firsthand in that show.”

“That's been a much harder show to write. A lot of it was very real a lot of it's me reconstructing nights I've had um I'm very lucky I've never really had to deal with addiction personally but I've had people in my life who have and that their stories have to be told um and it just felt right do you feel there's  more,” 

I ask him if he feels pressure to get this story right?

“Yeah, no absolutely I was certainly. I say that to everyone. I mean I do feel a lot of pressure even though it's going to be a Fringe festival you know we're not uh um not at The National yet!”

“Yeah, I really do. Because again, there have been other chemsex shows, but I think a lot of those shows focus on, I think either we see not a happy ending, but an ending of someone in recovery, or there's a light at the end of a tunnel a lot of the time, not all the time, but a lot of the time. And I think the harsh reality of things is that's not how the world goes right now. And again, it is getting so, it's spiralling more and more and more and the show is very explicit. There's going to be like frontal nudity and there's going to be like drug use on show. Like, and we're going to see a lot of explicit things, but it's not done in a way where we're trying to sell it as sex. We're trying to sell it as vulnerability. Um, someone being naked off their face on drugs isn't a sexy thing. It's, it's, it's vulnerable. It's a really vulnerable thing.”

“And like with Reformed, Reformed was a different type of pressure, and it's still, I mean, we're going through rehearsal and I am really stressed out. It's a different type of pressure because Reformed, we had to get it right in the sense of, weirdly, if we didn't go far enough with some of the things we did in Reformed, it would be offensive. You know, there is a real fine line we found that and Rikki my director who's this fabulous, black, queer, you know he's been working since the 70s he's seen it all um his biggest bit of advice to me was like we need to go the maximum we absolutely can because if we half-arse some of these issues then people will take issue because it is a very but the subject matter in “Reformed” is we focus on discrimination and homophobia and just really horrible actions with some characters and stuff like that and it is important for us that that's done right and it was important for me that the characters weren't portrayed as black and white a lot of them some of them are just arseholes but especially the three main boys there is a greyness to them and like that aspect of “everyone's the hero in their own story””

“I didn't want to write, you know, Mark, one of the main boys, the gay guy, he is such a complex character. Although the character I play, Joe, as well, he has loads of twists and turns to him that we learn throughout the show. So that was a pressure of making sure we've done right. We didn't fall into stereotypes. We tried something new. We tried to really push the limits of everyone. The audience are really involved, but they're not involved once in the show.”

“But it's a lot of the onus is on the audience to think and listen and feel and deal with it. And, yeah, so, yeah, two very different pressures, but both massive, massive pressure to get right.” 

“Reformed” Rehearsal Photos

I ask him why he wants people to come to this show?

“I feel we're at a crossroads right now, politically. It's very much us versus them, no matter what you vote, which isn't great, which really isn't great. I think us as a democracy and us as a very advanced country in that sort of sense and civilization, we should be able to encompass all the views and not be afraid to talk about things but at the same time not brutalize and attack other people because they're different to us or alienate and that is a real issue I’ve had with uh like cancel culture and stuff like that and that's why I’ve written the show mainly because you shutting someone down for a really horrible view they have isn't going to make that view go away, it's going to make the view stronger and that's something we're really struggling to understand right now, I think. And that is why I think in particular you've seen the rise of such far-rightness, because people have been shut down and then they've realised, oh, nothing's stopping us from doing these things. Well, because I've been shut down, I'm still going to... And that frustration is where it was born from. And they talk about these issues that the left wing won't talk about. 

“The left wing won't really talk about immigration. The left wing won't really talk about crime because they're hard conversations. And because Reform and parties like Reform are the only ones talking about it, even if people don't really agree with what they're saying about it, they'll go to them because they're the ones talking about the issues that matter to people. So that's why I wrote the show, to open debate and to make an audience understand every side and not listen, some people who vote for them are monsters. Some people are horrific, really horrific views. But some of them are men like me. You know, I'm very... Because of the show, I want to be careful. But I'm not that way inclined. But there are, again, young working class men in particular. We've seen it rise in the right wing. And in America, you see it as well, young men, it's been a massive rise they've really gone more to the right because they've been told no for so long and it's important that we don't see them as monsters we talk to them and we show them oh okay you have these issues let's do something about these issues and that's what the show does the show opens up perspective and that is why I wanted people to come and see it that's why I want people to come and see the complexity of where we are now and if we can, look it's a fringe show, if we can have one person- this is my mentality with anything I write or make um one person it's job done if we can have one person with anything that's amazing um and it's the same with “Boys with Blue Lips,” if we can have one person nothing I don't I don't want anything else.”

I ask Tommy what he wants people to take away from his other show, Boys with Blue Lips?

“Oh, I mean, the show at its core should be awareness. It's seeing the deterioration in front of you. Again, I've seen it first-hand. I've seen people, you think they're fine. You think it's fine and they're drinking and they're boozing and, you know, the drugs and da-da-da until it's not.”

““Boys with Blue Lips” is just to get people to sort of open their eyes this really massive thing that's happening right now and it's getting worse because it's so accessible, and that's the tricky thing it's so someone can go on Grindr and within 10 minutes find three different chemsex parties you know it's so easy to get especially in London.”

“So, yeah, it’s to make people aware of that and to see it. Because the thing is with these shows, I think things are glossing over a little bit. And for us, it's really important to see the rawness and the mess that's left and the brutal side of it. Because one minute the show is like a massive night out in Soho, the next minute it is a brutal next morning or sometimes no sleep and a brutal look into what happens next. 

“And it contrasts from the fun to the darkness very, very quickly, the show. And it bounces between the two. And it's to show people the slippery slope, to take a look at what's around them, to people they’ve met just to help and what to do, really. Like, yeah, it's very much awareness is the core of that one.”

I ask him if there’s anything that he’s excited for?

“Yeah, there's so much great theatre on right now. Like, we're actually in a really good time. It was a bit worrying. It was sort of like everything was being rehashed and bounced about. I mean, I'm really looking forward to the Lambert Fringe Festival, which is in... But that's in the autumn. I was lucky enough to be a part of it last year, and they've done such an amazing job. My friend, Adam Loboda, is the producer of it, and he is phenomenal. Adam is absolutely brilliant. The shows they have there are going to be fantastic. They've also got loads of comedy this year, loads of music as well. That festival is really growing every year. Embrace, which is going to be on at the Clapham Omnibus and in Manchester, in July uh who one of our cast members, Evan, Evan Reynolds wrote that show um and I was lucky enough to see it earlier this year when it was at the Hope and Anchor and it's a brilliant show it's I'm so happy it's coming back it's absolutely fantastic.”

 “From a broader point of view I'm a big Quentin Tarantino fan so next year he is making his debut. I can't wait and see that, that's going to be nuts. I don't know what he's going to do, but it's going to be fantastic on the West End. There's one more, I completely forgot the name of it, but there is a show that was on at Leeds Playhouse and it's about Leeds United and it follows a man with dementia and following Leeds and stuff like that. And he really is a beautiful piece of theatre that I can't wait to see…uh uh…there is one more on the tip of my tongue… nah it’ll come back to me there's like like i said we're in a really good really good place right now with theatre like we are finally getting back these fabulous shows like Fringe theatre is booming again which is great it's exactly what we've needed at this time um yeah we're in it we're really really lucky um yeah.”

I ask him if there’s any  advice that he would give to another creative who wants to do the kind of work that he does? 

“Yeah. Work hard. I mean, it's such a simple, simple thing. But if you don't put the time in, it's not going to come. Like me now, like again, it's my first show. I'm still working a full-time job on top of it. But like you do, yeah, you do need to remember it is a job and you need to treat it like a job. And for me, somebody's just launched a production company and all that. It's nuts. Like it is working 40 hours, you leave work and then you go into the other job and you need to be disciplined.

“And also, don't be afraid of no. I learned that with the sharing for Reform. We did a lot of industry outreach, and we got a lot no's. But I was talking to a lot of industry people, and they were like, the fact that they're emailing you back and telling them you no is better than them ignoring you, which happens a lot in the industry. So yeah, don't be afraid of no. Ask questions.” 

“Rikki, my director, he said, well, because he's mentored me a bit with writing in general. And he said, “Who are you going to get to direct it?” I went, oh, I don't know. And he went “Well, you're obviously not thinking of me.” I was like, no, I would love you, but I'm too scared to ask you. And he said, “just ask.” If you don't ask, it's never going to happen, is it? And he came on board and he's been amazing and a really pivotal part of the show. Yeah, just again, work hard, grind. I got my agent this year.”

“As an actor and then I've also signed into creative recently and that happened through cold emailing so it's like it's you get out what you put in I really do believe that and again I'm not at this stage right now where I'm going this is my life and this is what I'm doing and this is the only thing that matters and my only income but Rome wasn't built in a day and it's very if you're lazy or if you're not committed, it's not going to come out. Again, that's my biggest advice. Just work hard, believe in your project, and it will work.”

I ask him what's next? 

“Oh, that's the million dollar question. That's what we're worrying about right now.”

“We... In terms of Reformed, we'd really like a three-week run somewhere. We have got targets. We're trying our best to get it off the ground. It obviously is a very competitive market. We do believe it will find a home somewhere. The show is so current. And from the feedback we've got so far, very good, we believe, which always feels pretty shitty for me to say. I wrote the thing. We would love to do that with Reformed just because it deserves it. There's been a lot of work into this show and it is so modern and it's such an important story. So that we want a three-week from. Boys with Blue Lips, I'd love to take it to Edinburgh next year.”

“It’s starting at Lambeth Fringe this year we'll see how it goes I’m still writing it so it's um it's still under construction um and it can change from there but we would love that it is a fringe show, “Reformed” isn’t. “Reformed” I couldn't take to the fringe as it’s about an hour and a half um and I refuse to cut anything because it's all very important because we did have the chance, I was offered the chance and I didn't do it because I didn't want to cut the show because it's a completely different play if we do that. Yeah, so “Boys of Blue Lips”, we'd love to get to Edinburgh next year, really.” 

“In the bigger picture, I mean, for me as an actor, you know, I'm sure I'll pop up in little bits here and there where I can. Notebook Studios, we've got projects lined up so we've got we're going to make our first short films this year um which are written is just about finding the time now and rewriting and reading through we are going to branch out into live comedy nights my friend Chess who's in reformed is an amazing sketch comedian and stand-up comic um and I will be very much taking a producer role on that I will not be creatively involved in the live comedy shows, But we do want to do a stand-up night for new comedians some point later this year. Again, it's about finding the time and stuff.” 

“Early next year, this is a bit of an exclusive for you, we are planning on doing Macbeth, which is my favourite Shakespeare, and I'm big onto Shakespeare because it's my dream role and why make things you don't want to do? So...We are. Macbeth would be great. I have got another show. My life is non-stop! Which is a gay adaptation of Romeo and Juliet set in the modern day. And it is very, very modernised. We're still figuring it out where we're going with that because that is a big project it's an issue with a lot of our projects we do need money um so the yeah there are lots going on and we've got lots of moving places really exciting times um “Reformed” you know we can't wait for people to see it we're so excited um it's our first proper project under this banner.

“And then the sky's limit from there, really, I'm going on holiday once “Reformed” ends, which is my first break all year. And then I'm coming back and I'll be going straight into “Boy's Blue Lips.” So it is all go, go, go. But I wouldn't have it any other way. You create and you create and you you push and you never know what leads where and you know right all these connections and everything just does fall into place like you are in the places you're meant to be I really do believe that and you know you just got to grasp every opportunity.”

The instagram page for Notebook studios is: https://www.instagram.com/reformedplay/

Tickets for “Reformed” can be found here: https://www.breadandrosestheatre.co.uk/whats-on.html

“Reformed” Rehearsal Photos