FAMILY TIES

11 September 2003 Bristol Evening Post

Fairplay productions are certainly keeping it all in the family - debuting a new musical written by dad John Turner, inspired by mum Sue, and directed by son Tom. Vincent - based on the last three years of Vincent Van Gogh's life - will be getting its first outing at the Redgrave theatre next week. But it only got written in the first place because Sue got sick of her husband half-finishing songs he was writing, and suggested he ought to write a musical to give him a sense of purpose.

"When I was a young man I used to play in a band, and from that I went off and wrote a few songs, " John says. "I was driving my wife mad with half-finished songs, so she said 'Why don't you write a musical? That way there would be a purpose to writing songs'." That was 10 years ago. But over the years John's masterpiece grew and grew, however slowly, until he finally managed to get all the songs written.

"There was no pressure on me to get it finished, and I didn't have any real intent for my own production, " he said. "When there's no pressure life gets in the way, like the kids or DIY. I just toddled along doing it at my own pace." But once the songs were finished, Sue turned up the pressure by inviting a tutor from Filton College (where son Tom was doing a music and performance course) round for dinner to see the play.

Suddenly, John had three weeks in which to write all the dialogue and turn the collection of songs into a play. Despite having never written any dialogue before, John decided to get the thing finished.

"There wasn't that much dialogue to write, only about 15 per cent of the play is dialogue, so it's almost like an opera really, " he says.

"There's just three scenes or so at the beginning to establish the characters because otherwise it takes ages, unless you've got something like Jesus Christ Superstar where everyone knows who everyone is. But it was surprising that, while I didn't find it easy, I didn't find it too difficult either." And he can't have done a bad job because Vincent impressed Tom so much that he decided he'd like to put it on with the company he formed, Fairplay.Which shows as much ambition as his dad - Tom's been in charge of a cast of 17 non-professionals, despite the fact he's only 25.

"When my son finished college he started Fairplay with a friend of his, and at the end of last year he made a list of resolutions, " John says. "One of them was that he wanted to put on a new musical - and that musical would be Vincent. Of course, I wondered whether he really meant it and thought nothing further of it.

"But in February, he said 'Dad, we want to put it on.' So we found someone who was prepared to arrange all the music, which is a big job because there's 22 different pieces of music in it. Luckily we found Phil Dixon, who's doing a MA at Bristol University." After composing all the music on guitar and piano, John says hearing his music played by an 11-piece orchestra sounds completely different. But he was pleased that his music hasn't actually changed much.

"I thought people would say 'That doesn't work', but actually we haven't had to change things that much.We've changed bits and pieces, but nothing like I would have expected; which did surprise me, " John says.

John has been kept out of the way while rehearsals have progressed, so he only heard the orchestra for the first time on Sunday. But he has been in some rehearsals with Tom, which sounds like it could have been a bit of a nightmare, but John says they have actually been going very well.

"It hasn't been difficult working with my son, we really do get on most of the time and I know the director's job is the director's job, " John says. "But he's been very good with me and I've told him to say 'Shut up dad' - and I have when he's told me to. In fact, it's been great for me to work with him, because I've got no experience and I don't have to put up any front. If you've got a relationship with somebody you can say 'I haven't got a clue'. But if it was somebody I didn't know, I might be more worried." The idea for basing the play on Van Gogh's final, troublesome three years came courtesy of Sue.

"It was my wife's idea to write the musical about Van Gogh, and I knew a bit about him to realise it might work.When I sat down and read the book I realised it really was a story that could work."

Vincent is at the Redgrave Theatre, Clifton, from September 16 to 20. Performances start at 7.45pm and you can book on (0117) 979 3223. Tickets cost £8.50 (concessions £6.50).