Jenifer Toksvig

A brand new musical about life and Death
with book & lyrics by Jenifer Toksvig
and music by Dominic Haslam

Death comes to us all eventually, but if you want to meet him ahead of time - and enjoy the experience - the place to go is the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre this week.

Librettist Jenifer Toksvig was thrilled to be commissioned to write a show for Youth Music Theatre UK, and even more thrilled when they gave her carte blanche to write whatever she wished - so what did she choose? Only what I would consider to be the most difficult of Terry Pratchett's Discworld books to stage - a fantastical tale of a world supported on the back of a giant turtle swimming endlessly through space, and peopled with wizards, witches, a magical flying horse and Death himself. . How can you possibly translate this crazy comical implausible Discworld novel into a show which will not only tell the story, but present it in a way which will entertain, and also show off the talents of every one of the thirty five performers? They have been chosen from country-wide auditions and are, says Toksvig "the cream of the crop and I don't want to waste any of that", so she tries to make sure that each and every one has a fulfilling experience and a chance to shine.

Well, all I can say is that cast and creative team have succeeded brilliantly, putting on a show which many a seasoned professional would envy, keeping Pratchett's quirky comedy, enhancing it, and adding a little of their own. Maybe they were a trifle nervous at the beginning - opening song on opening night can be a bit daunting - but any initial tension disappeared in seconds and these talented teenagers kept the audience enthralled.

Even with a large cast, a multitude of characters meant there had to be a great deal of doubling up and also many scenes were of 'multiple locations' which together kept designer Sharon Davey frantically busy. I was particularly impressed too with the expertise of director Clive Paget and choreographer Lucie Pankhurst in their organisation of the busy crowd scenes, with every performer having their part to play, whether central to the plot or not. There are some lovely sketches here too with parents instructing their sons how to behave in the marketplace to impress prospective employers.

Poor Mort is the only one not to be chosen - until Death makes an appearance in search of an apprentice. Death is in the form of a black cloaked and hooded eight foot skeleton expertly managed by Daniel Hall, although as he gingerly approached a flight of steps the audience collectively held its breath, letting it out in a gale of laughter as he nearly toppled on the last one, emitting a sepulchral "Oh Bugger!" I'm still not sure whether this was a deliberate slip or not!

As the show progressed, and Death was attempting to experience human emotions, he became more ambitious - tried gambling, cooking, and dancing - even attempting a high kicking (well fairly high) number with four lovely dancers. There are some beautiful dancers in this show, some gorgeous singing voices too, and some exceptional acting. Jos Slovick is definitely one to watch out for in the future, playing Mort with sincerity, conviction and sympathy as his character progressed from humility to self-assertion, taking in infatuation and love along the way, but always with complete honesty.

Haslam's music is as delightful as it is varied, from tender love songs to rousing choruses and mystical Latin wizardry, and swinging numbers for the first-rate dance sequences.

Laura Woodward is a beautiful and arrogant Princess Keli - her dance with the 'evil' Duke certainly showed Benjamin Norris's comic (and slightly camp) capabilities. Death's daughter Ysabell progresses from petulance to comical romantic fantasies and finally tender true love in the hands of an enchanting Phoebe Fildes, while Marcus Dobson holds the story together as 'The Writer' narrating the sequence of events.

The show is truly magic, and hilariously so. It's amazing how you can be drawn into the Discworld and almost begin to believe in it. Well worth seeing - and preferably more than once!

It was almost lunch time when I arrived at the boarding school where I had arranged to interview librettist Jenifer Toksvig, but rehearsals were still in full swing for the production of Terry Pratchett's Mort to be performed by youngsters from Youth Music Theatre UK, and the large school hall was a hive of activity. "We are very lucky," said Toksvig, "to have the use of so much space here" and the hungry teenage thespians also showed their appreciation of lunch provided by the kitchen staff.

Luck, she thinks, has played a large part in her life. She was very lucky to have worked at the Yvonne Arnaud, lucky that Artistic Director James Barber had no hesitation in allowing her as a young unknown writer to take over the main stage for her first show, and extremely lucky to be commissioned by the YMT:UK to write.

"I'm so lucky - I walked into the YMT:UK office when I first met them and they said, 'We'd like you to write for us, what would you like to write?' No one else in the world would ever say that to you - the most lucky thing for a writer to hear - and I said I'd like to do the Discworld (I'm a huge fan) but we'd have to ask Terry's permission and we didn't know if we would get it, but he was so generous with it and very hands-off, allowing us to do whatever we would like to do with it. We hope he's coming to see the show, but I'm a little bit nervous".

I can't help feeling that a great deal of talent, dedication and hard work has improved her luck no end, but Fortune was definitely smiling on her the day she walked down her village street and came across a man carrying a large shark. Here was the answer to the problem of how to represent Death onstage, and before local puppet maker Richard Johnston knew what was happening he found himself creating an eight foot skeleton - and very realistic it is too, I can vouch for that having now met Death, courtesy of Daniel. I forgot to ask what happened to the shark.

Toksvig was a performer at a very young age, but then turned to stage management (studying at Mountview) and believes that experience with both these fields helped a lot with her writing. It was when stage manager for the Yvonne Arnaud Youth Theatre that she wrote her first show and from there went to University in New York to study musical theatre writing, returning to live in Guildford, her home for many years, and her first four musicals were performed at the Yvonne Arnaud.

"I was very lucky," she says again. "I worked with the Youth Theatre for four years and you can really learn from working with young people. They can never really (as good as they are) make a bad line work in the way that a professional actor can, so you can really hear when the writing's not working, but also it's lovely because they give you great feedback and we encourage the collaborative process. We have lots of sessions in the rehearsal period where I've said we need to cut some of this dialogue and make it a little bit cleaner - can you help me with that? They're very smart - very stage savvy!"

With no children of her own Toksvig considers these youngsters her family and the show her 'baby', but she also lays claim to her sister's three teenagers, and, being a very close family, they all helped by reading for her with Sandi playing Death, while their mother has gained the title "Patron of The Arts', mainly it seems by doing the food shopping.

In their most ambitious project to date, YMT:UK auditioned at major cities all over the country to choose from over a thousand entrants those suitable to perform in the new works they had commissioned, so these youngsters are, as Toksvig says, the cream of the crop.

"They are all tremendously talented young people and you don't want to waste any of that and you try to focus everybody individually if you can. Mort's character gives you Death's overview of life - an objective view - all the different crowds and society, so that's very useful for when you've got a big chorus, and there are lots of smaller parts which is very important for a company like this where you want to give everybody a chance to show their talent."

There are thirty five performers in this show, ages ranging from twelve to twenty, and three will be in the band with two as assistant managers. Some will go on to work professionally, and already have places at theatrical colleges, but there is a lovely mixture of people who do it just for fun. The first day consists of 'getting to know you' games, and the second is auditions for parts - then it's straight into long working days. They really need their food to keep up the energy levels.

When I first arrived there was a group singing around the piano and I commented that the music, though beautiful, sounded very difficult. She considered this for a moment.

"Well, when I first wrote a show for children - and these were young eight to twelve year olds - we put in a four part harmony section, just one verse, and wondered if they could cope... we needn't have worried, they were fine! Now Dominic (Haslam) and I write as if we were writing for professional adults - we don't write down for children, they're not stupid - but when we do something like this we have the luxury of saying this is exactly how we would like the show to be if it was in the West End, and we ask the young people to do it - and they do!

"They're amazing - not just complex musical harmony, but also complex understanding of comedy - how to land a joke - all of those things. Once you explain to them 'this is why that pause is funny' - they get it, and they do it."

Although she was trying to eat lunch at the same time as answering my questions, Toksvig felt she had to also talk about Mercury Musical Developments, an organisation which supports and encourages musical theatre writers with seminars and lectures, and offers writing opportunities where producers will go and offer a commission - she was commissioned to write a show about Nelson. It forms a community of people with the same experiences - "quite a small circle, but people you can call if you've just had a rejection letter for a show and it's good for your craft because you can't write a musical if you're not actively writing and seeing them with actors... Without these things you're very isolated."

Were there any problems with actually staging a show which is such a fantasy?

"Well," she says, looking pointedly at Clive Paget, "the director made me cut the flying horse!"

Jenifer talks very fast, and eats lunch fast too. It's a case of getting on with the important things in life - the show and the children. Mort opens at the Yvonne Arnaud theatre on 20th August and it promises to be an unforgettable experience for both audience and performers, but she already has her next project in mind - an adaptation of her sister's book about family experiences in wartime occupied Denmark. Her motto would appear to be 'keep learning, keep sharing and keep doing'.