Enjoy – Director’s Notes

Enjoy – Director’s notesI haven’t directed any Alan Bennett before, so when Damian Cruden asked me to co-direct Enjoy with him as my first production at York Theatre Royal, I didn’t really know what to expect – I had no idea this play would turn out to be such a gift. It plays with you: you think you are in one kind of play and then find out you are in a completely different one. On paper, one can wonder if it will really work, but as soon as it is performed it makes all kinds of sense. By turns it is funny, quirky, moving, mysterious, painful, utterly absurd, truthful and farcical. Farce at its best is like abstract art – it is surreal and extreme, the language of dreams, and yet it’s underlying truth means that we watch and however bizarre it becomes we still recognise that yes, that is how things are – and that is the beauty of this play.A large part of the action involves the silent observation by individuals sent from “the council” to document the way of life of the inhabitants of the “last back-to-backs in Leeds”. But what happens when people are observed in their everyday life? Do they continue to behave normally? Do they present how they wish to be seen? Do they genuinely believe this version of themselves? Or, do they find themselves becoming more honest? Does it become impossible to maintain the normal façade of day-to-day existence, with all the usual self-censorship and coping mechanisms in place when there is someone watching you? The play also explores our relationship to the past, our fascination and glorification of it. What elements of our history, personal and social, do we choose to preserve and idealise? What do we choose to edit out? What happens when we suddenly find our own lives have become part of history? Throughout rehearsals we have had more questions than answers about this play, but I think this has led to an intriguing result.Writing as a recent Alan Bennett convert, I would encourage you to come and judge for yourselves.Juliet Forster,Co – director