Everything Theatre Reviews, interviews and news for theatre lovers, London and beyond
Naomi Obeng and Júlia Levai on We’ll Be Who We Are.
We’ll Be Who We Are immediately caught the attention of the ET team when VAULT Festival was announced. After all, how can you not be intrigued by a description of “A plant-filled play that embraces quiet tenderness and envelops you in its playful logic.” You want to know more as well, don’t you. So we were delighted to talk with writer Naomi Obeng and director Júlia Levai about the show and the challenge of keeping plants alive underneath Waterloo station!
Lovely to meet you both, shall we do introductions first then?
Naomi: I’m Naomi, the writer. I also do other things. Like dramaturging. Occasionally performing.
Júlia: I’m Júlia, the director. I also dabble in other things, like dramaturgy and theatre-making. The past few years I’ve been finding myself drawn to new writing that attempts to push what theatre can be, and invites audiences to wonder (so working on Naomi’s play has been a dream).
And what can you tell us about We’ll Be Who We Are?
Naomi: Where to start. Well, it’s my first play. I wrote it in 2019, when I was on Soho Writers’ Lab. It’s an ambitious, playful and strange play about not fitting in, and possibly not wanting to. The world the characters live in isn’t ours, but it’s related. People have told me more than once that they’ve never read anything like it, but come see it and you can be the judge! I think I wrote it as an attempt to honestly distil and transmit a lot of tricky feelings I have had as a person who was often ‘in between’. Not quite fitting categories that people seem very intent on putting you in provides a certain perspective on the unwritten and invisible social expectations that steer our lives. It’s full of feeling, but not the kind of play that tells you what to think, which hopefully will be exciting for people to experience.
Júlia: The play starts with three friends in their 20s, a school reunion, and a missing shoe. It’s an unsettling, funny, and mesmerising new play about outsiders seeking a hide-away from a rigid world. I think Naomi’s play holds so much in every inch of the text which we have been discovering in rehearsals, and I hope that audiences will be able to wonder and enjoy its invitation of a different pace, fighting our constant need for productivity.
We are really intrigued by the description of a plant-filled play! Can you talk about the role of plants in the play and how they contribute to the overall atmosphere and themes?
Naomi: Aha! I’m glad you’re intrigued. We’ve already had some fun durational plant studies and improvs as part of the process of finding the play’s theatrical language. The plants are a big part of the story and the characters’ journeys. It’s a nice little challenge for us to see how to keep plants alive in the Cavern. And it will add to the play’s strange atmosphere for the performers and audience to be sharing the space with other, silent, living beings.
Could we get a little teaser about the absurd social norms the characters might be looking to escape from?
Júlia: The play takes the idea of people being labelled and told from a young age what they can be to the extreme. It’s a world where changing as a person is unheard of, and everything has been created for the convenience and optimisation of the system they live in. It’s a heightened, but not too far off version of our society. I think it’s chillingly recognisable.
Naomi, the play was shortlisted for the 2020 Women’s Prize for Playwriting, what’s the process of submitting the play and what does it mean to you to be recognised in this way?
Naomi: The process started like it usually does for me when I see an opportunity – I decide I’m not good enough and that I won’t submit my play! But I did submit this time. I was incredibly surprised and honoured to be shortlisted, and in such brilliant company on that shortlist. Certainly because it’s my first play, but also because it’s such a strange, non-traditional one – and those are often casualties of how prize reading processes are constructed. I felt so encouraged and so validated.
Júlia, how did you become involved in the project then?
Júlia: I am a reader for the Women’s Prize for Playwriting, and I remember reading the description of We’ll Be Who We Are on the shortlist and instantly connecting to it. I got in touch with Naomi, who kindly sent the play to me. I am drawn to non-traditional writing, to the abstract, to images – all of which were not just present but weaved into the essence of the play with so many mind-bending ideas. After reading it, I carried the play’s atmosphere with me for the rest of the day. I then sent a possibly (definitely) too long fanmail to Naomi. It was followed by a joyous and inspiring chain of emails sharing art that we love leading us to collaborating on the R&D of the play and now to working towards its first previews at the VAULT Festival.
How have rehearsals been going?
Júlia: Rehearsals have been filled with exploration – diving into Naomi’s text via lots of conversations, image making, movement, and playing. Joshua Merara, Joanne Marie Mason and Adam Tutt have all been incredibly thoughtful, kind & playful, truly embracing all the possibilities of the text! We are at a phase where it’s all slowly coming into focus which is exciting. There’s been a lot of giggles!
Naomi: A lot of giggles. The deepest chats but also the most joyful nonsense. There isn’t an existing blueprint to approach a play like this, so Júlia’s been brilliant at guiding us all through.
Have you been to VAULT Fest before and do you have any final thoughts to share on the VAULT Festival being left without a home for 2024 and beyond?
Júlia: It’s most of our team’s first ever VAULT show, so we are really excited to have our show at the festival! It’s the first chance for us to share Naomi’s play for 3 preview performances following an exciting development period. We are incredibly lucky to be in the Cavern that’s such an atmospheric space, which TK, our designer & all our team are so thrilled to embrace.
Naomi: It’s pretty sad to realise that we’ll be one of the last VAULT shows in that iconic space. The Cavern is weirdly perfect for this play. As a new writer, the theatre sector lately feels like outrunning the Indiana Jones boulder – opportunities disappearing just behind you, if you’re lucky. It’s worrying. So it’s bittersweet to welcome people into the space for one first/last time. We always wanted to offer audiences a unique and meaningful theatrical experience, so that’s what we’re striving to do and we can’t wait to see what people make of it!
Our thanks to Naomi and Júlia for taking time to chat with us.
We’ll Be Who We Are plays at VAULT Festival from 10 – 12 March. Further information and tickets can be found here.
