Interview: Jack Thorne on ‘Junkyard’

“My Dad built it. He was the first leader there. And he opened it. So we spent a lot of our childhood going up there. Some of my fondest memories are of sitting on the playgrounds, eating a hotdog and watching fireworks…”

Bristol’s BAFTA-winning playwright Jack Thorne is discussing the origins of Junkyard, his play that follows a motley crew of Bristol teenagers who grudgingly agree to create a junk playground. And Jack’s connection to the story is deep – as he explains, his father was the leading figure in the early-1970s creation of The Vench, the Lockleaze adventure playground – still operating today – that inspired the tale.

In Bristol Old Vic’s new co-production with Theatre Clwyd, Headlong and the Rose Theatre Kingston, Jeremy Herrin directs Jack’s funny, vivid new musical (with an original score from Academy Award-winning composer Stephen Warbeck), about a miscreant group of misfit teenagers who come together to build an adventure playground.

So, how did Junkyard come together? “About eight years ago, Jeremy invited me to the Royal Court and asked, ‘what do you want to write about?’ I told him I’d always wanted to write a play about junk playgrounds – in particular, about the kids that built them, how they got involved and how it changed them.”

Jack’s father inspires Junkyard’s play leader. “Dad lived many lives before eventually becoming a town planner – driving buses through Belfast, teaching economics, working on a kibbutz – but this always seemed the most exotic to me. The idea that he worked to build this beautiful and (to me, at the time) vast place just seemed extraordinary.”

How did the research process work? Were there many conversations with Lockleazers past and present? “I made sure I got the details, of why the scheme existed, correct: but a lot of stuff is not entirely historically accurate because it didn’t suit the story we’re telling. For instance, there were a lot of people involved behind the scenes, and I think Dad’s annoyed I haven’t found space for them because he feels like I’m trying to give him all the credit. I’m not: I just wanted this to be a show about the kids, so I only wanted two adults in the play.”

Bristol Old Vic is planning a series of accompanying activities during the play’s run, as Engagement Director Lucy Hunt explains. “We are meeting people from Lockleaze in a range of ways, letting them know about the production and inviting them in to see the show that was inspired by their local playground. We are running various sessions in the local area with families and local teenagers, attending networking breakfasts and older people’s groups as well as setting up theatre trips. Eagle Coaches are kindly supporting the production by offering free transport to and from Bristol Old Vic for people from Lockleaze to watch the show.”

The play is billed as “a coming-of-age story about friendship and standing up for what matters.” What, do we learn, does matter here? “These playgrounds were one of the first outreach projects that tried to reach kids that school couldn’t,” Jack explains. “These projects are the ones that have been cut to death by first the Coalition and now the Tories. We’re really going to feel the loss of them, as that generation grows up without ever feeling care from the wider community.

“This play is about kids feeling that care, and what it does to them – because they learn to deeply care about the playground, and it screws with them a bit. None of this work is about easy fixes, where kids go in as one thing and come out another: life is too messy for that.”

And what sort of a picture of 1970s Lockleaze emerges through the play? “I was born in 1978’s Winter of Discontent. Dad worked on the playground in the early 70s, but we transposed it because I wanted it to be set at a time of true chaos, with rubbish on the streets. Bristol was about to catch light with the riots and there is a sense of the danger of that time, as kids searched desperately for direction.” 

Jack has an impressive writing CV – including the stage adaptation of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and the This is England TV series (upcoming work includes a BBC adaptation of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy). “Last year I got to do Harry Potter, National Treasure and Graeae’s first ever show at the National Theatre – and my son was born. If I could have that year on repeat forever, that’d be good. But Junkyard has been immense – working with Stephen, Jeremy and Tom Morris has been really fun. I’m nervous as to what it will look and feel like, but so far it’s been a total highlight.” 

Junkyard is at Bristol Old Vic from Feb 24 to March 18. For more info, visit www.bristololdvic.org.uk/junkyard.html

Jack Thorne pic: Martin Godwin / The Guardian