Edinburgh Fringe Interview: Double Act

1972: Imagine a world without Morecambe and Wise? Step forward Arthur Douglas and Eddie Adams! A comedy drama exploring the last two days of the imagined Douglas and Adams’s summer season tour, but for Arthur Douglas this tour is to be his last, with plans of retirement firmly in his mind.

More information on their show can be found at the end of their interview.

How are things going, you all ready for the Fringe?

Things are going extremely well, we have under a week to go and it’s all looking very exciting, we’re like a bunch of caged tigers ready to be let out of their cages. It’s been a slow build to get the show to the stage it is at, a lot of hard work. I was a little worried before this week that we didn’t have the show at the level I wanted, but after our latest rehearsal on Monday I feel that we are ready. Our Director Lee James Rosher summed it up, he said “We’ve out grown the rehearsal space”, that’s very true, we’ve taken it as far as we can without an audience.

Best five words that describe your show?

Intimate, honest, funny, poignant, exciting

Tell us a bit about your show, what can we expect?

Double Act takes place in an alternative world where Morecambe and Wise don’t exist, instead you have another double act – ‘Arthur Douglas & Eddie Adams’. The play mainly focuses on the last two days of their summer season tour in 1972, however Arthur takes you on a journey backwards in time allowing the audience to see what has led to the double acts current situation.

It is an intimate show consisting of a cast of five:

Martyn Grahame playing Arthur Douglas
Sean Hanlon playing Eddie Adams
Steven Winnie playing Ronnie Stature
Katie Whitehouse playing Joanne Spencer
Robyn Ainslie Doherty playing Shirley Douglas

Though entitled double act it is an ensemble with each character having their own story arc. An audience can expect a great story, acted well with interesting characters and a script that will have you laughing one minute, crying the next, but for what reason? Well no spoilers here, you have to come to find out.

How do you write your show, what/who has inspired you?

For my third year at Newcastle College I was told to try and come up with a project that would help me integrate into the professional industry. I took that idea and ran with it, I wanted to create one of the biggest projects that the BA Acting course had seen and I succeeded by putting it on in February, it was heavily inspired by Morecambe and Wise, the structure of the show was the same as ‘Jus’ Like That’ The Tommy Cooper play. However there were a lot of problems with it that needed rectifying before the Fringe. From hearing people’s opinions on the show it was apparent that the structure was a major flaw, they didn’t want to see a forty minute comedy routine with ten minutes focusing on the duo’s personal lives. The audience wanted to know about the characters and their off stage relationships, they wanted to know how the duo got together for example. As a result I decided to completely reinvent the show and concentrate more on character development, specifically creating five original and unique people that the audience can either warm to or loathe, there is not one stand out character, the audience member can choose their favourite character journey if they wish.

Who would you say have been the best double acts of the past 30 years?

This is a toughie, I absolutely adore comedy and I know of so many double acts, past and present. The biggest inspiration and influence when I was growing up were Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer, they took the style that Eric and Ernie had created and completely flipped it on its head. I always think of Vic and Bob as Morecambe and Wise but if Morecambe and Wise had gone for so long that they felt restricted. Vic and Bob took the light entertainment tradition and added a twist of surrealism, made it almost dream like in presentation.

As a child of the nineties Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson were heroes also, I like double acts that break the mould, they appealed to a different audience, teenagers, university students and adults. Like Peter Cooke and Dudley Moore;s ‘Derek and Clive’ they shied away from pleasing the masses, instead they focused on the topics that made them laugh. There are some great occasions when Rik and Ade appeared on morning television shows aimed at child and they became lost, try and find the video of them on ‘Going Live’ on Youtube, amazing.

Other favourites are French and Saunders. Morecambe and Wise are just outside the 30 years but are my personal favourites. Why? There are simply not enough words to say.

Have there been any challenges you have faced getting your play ready for the fringe?

There have been challenges getting our play ready, there are problems with every production, not necessarily to do with the performances but also things such as finance. We have a very dedicated team thankfully, the hardest part of our show I feel is the last ten minutes, the play explores the doubles acts history and personal lives before giving the audience a demonstration of the duo in action. In the original version of the play it was too like Morecambe and Wise, we worked very hard to create a fresh and vibrant new double act that wasn’t really an imitation of any others. Our co-director George Holliday put us through our paces with the fictional Douglas and Adams comedy act, he tried the act numerous different ways and no matter if we were getting fed up with it he always had a way of positively looking at it, he was vocal if something didn’t work but always welcomed ideas. The show for me playing Arthur is challenging because it is emotionally draining, but I love it. It’s why I love acting and performing, I want to take the audience with me.

What would you want your audience to take from the show?

Putting it simply, I want our audience to go away and tell others that they have seen a brilliant piece of theatre, and that they themselves need to go and see it. Most importantly though, I want them to leave saying that they believed in both the characters and the world that we created, that would be our finest achievement.

What advice would you give someone bringing a show to the fringe?

I would say think carefully about whether you can afford to take the risk. This show has taken its toll on me, mainly due to finance. I underestimated how much it was going to cost for me to do this. I have had scares and nearly lost the accommodation but because I had a network of support behind me, I’ve been able to continue along my way, special thanks to Grahame Bell who saved us at the last minute. So my advice would be to think carefully, make sure that it is a project that you believe in and that you feel has a future. The Edinburgh Fringe is the start for us, we have a tour shaping up for 2012 and so this is our debut. But if you can do it, then do it because there will be no better experience.