Ahead of its run at The Bread & Roses Theatre as part of Lambeth Fringe 2026, we spoke with playwright Richard Banks about his new play, Painting with Water. Based on personal experience and transformed into a powerful piece of new writing, the play explores human dignity, connection, and the end of life with warmth, humour, and hope.
If you had to describe the vibe of your show in just one sentence, what would it be and how does it manifest on stage?
Painting with Water is an intimate confrontation with mortality, played out with humour and hope in a care-home room where literature, faith, and stubborn human dignity collide.
Why is 2026 the perfect time for this show to be seen?
Today, conversations about the end of life are often framed in medical, legal, or political terms. Painting with Water turns instead to the human experience: the need to be seen, heard, and treated as more than a diagnosis. Through an unexpected friendship, the play asks whether connection can still alter the final days of a life.
What was the ‘eureka moment’ that made you realise this story had to be told right now?
There was no single eureka moment. The story began during a period I was struggling to understand, when both my parents were dying and I was supporting them regularly in their care home. I wrote the first version as a short story, then put it away after their deaths. Five years passed before I returned to the text. By then, I understood that although the characters and events were fictional, the story was exploring something universal: what we owe one another when time is short.
Is this version how you originally envisioned it or has it changed drastically since you first put pen to paper?
When I returned to the short story, I kept its basic structure, but the storytelling had to change before it could become a play. Much of the prose version took place inside Harold’s head. Actors cannot act an idea. Onstage, it must emerge through action, conflict, and what the characters avoid saying. Workshopping with fellow writers helped me move Harold’s inner life into his relationships with the people around him. The central plot remained largely intact, though the world around Harold expanded, making the experience more immediate and communal.
Being fringe and a festival, we all know sets have to be bare minimum, how have you got around this with your set and props?
Rather than treating minimal staging as a compromise, we are making it part of the storytelling. Audiences bring their own experiences and imaginations into the theatre. We will use only the furniture and props required for physical action, allowing each person to complete the care-home room in their mind. My hope is that, as the audience is drawn into the actors’ emotional world, the empty physical space will begin to feel fully inhabited.
Are there any plans for what comes next after the show has finished its run– for you or the show?
Once the play meets an audience, there will be a great deal to learn from listening and watching. If it connects with people in the way I hope, their response, alongside critical feedback, will help determine what comes next. Painting with Water may have room to grow into a longer work and move to a larger stage. For now, my focus is on giving everyone involved the best possible chance to tell the story well.
What does “success” look like for you this August, beyond just selling tickets?
For me, success begins when the story and its characters become a shared experience between the actors and the audience. I hope the play entertains and moves people. Good art stays with us, returning to our thoughts the next day or even a month later. If Painting with Water does that, it has succeeded as art.
If your show was a colour what would it be?
For a play called Painting with Water, colour is a surprisingly difficult question. Water is clear, and that’s the point. The play blends humour, mortality, and hope. It faces loss without surrendering to it. If I had to choose a colour, it would be the blue that briefly fills the sky just before sunrise: subdued and reflective, but carrying the promise of light.
Write a one-sentence “fake” review of the show
“Five stars. Plenty of drama, but not a breadcrumb in sight.” – The birds on the care-home windowsill
Many thanks to Richard for the chat. Painting with Water plays at The Bread and Roses Theatre as part of Lambeth Fringe on Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 October.
