When Mike Cullen wrote
his play, The Collection, he was riding high on the back of his debut
work, The Cut. Where that play had looked at the aftermath of the
1984 miners strike, The Collection focused on the equally gritty if
somewhat murkier world of debt collectors preying on the most
vulnerable sector of society. That was in 1995, when the gap between
rich and poor was widening by the day. As Rapture Theatre revive The
Collection some eighteen years on for a Scottish tour, the austerity
culture that has become the norm for many now make the themes of
Cullen's play appear more pertinent than ever. As with The Cut, the
Tranent-born former mine-worker's second play came from a very real
place.
“It came from my
personal experience in the 1980s when I was on the dole and in debt,”
Cullen explains. “One company in particular, the tactics they used
were pretty dodgy. I remember one time my young daughter getting to
the phone before I could, and the guy from the company engaging her
in conversation and asking her all sorts of questions.
“Since then I've done
loads more research, and I know that the play is far more relevant
than it was when it was first done. There are all these high interest
loan companies operating legally, but on TV all you see are debt
collectors represented as these cartoon characters. So although The
Collection came from my personal experience, I was kind of driven,
and still am, to try and make all of my plays modern classical
tragedies.”
For this production of
The Cut, following an earlier revival by Rapture in 2006, Cullen has
revisited the play for the first time since it was first done.
“I hadn't read it for
years,” he says, “and going back to it was a bit like looking at
a photograph of yourself from twenty years ago. You're the same
person, but so much has happened that you're completely different, so
you have to think yourself back into your younger self. There were
practical things that needed looking at, like how in the original the
main character uses cassette tapes to record his conversations,
whereas now you can just do that on your mobile phone.
“Other than that, I
basically gave the play a good edit, and got rid of the crap. I just
felt it was time to address it. The Collection was my first full
commission by The Traverse, and after the success of The Cut, it was
my difficult second album, and if it had been my first play it might
have fared better critically. As it was, some people were maybe
expecting something different. The kind of person I was, that whole
world of commissions and deadlines was new to me, and by the time we
put it on the play wasn't really finished. I hadn't had time to fully
understand it, and I don't think I fully understood some of the
characters either, so coming back to it after all this time, I can
see it more clearly.”
Cullen first fell in
love with language while at school, before becoming an electrical
engineer at the Tranent pits. With no idea of what he wanted to do,
Cullen quit his job, played in bands and signed on with the intention
of becoming a novelist. An avid reader of horror and pulp fiction,
Cullen attempted to do something similar, but found he didn't
understand enough to make his own prose work.
Cullen took an access
course and went to Edinburgh University to study linguistics. While
there he attended writing workshops at the Traverse Theatre, then
based in the Grassmarket. This led to a mentoring scheme at the Tron
in Glasgow, where he came into contact with actors Kenny Glenaan,
Frank Gallagher and Jim Twaddale. The trio worked on early drafts of
The Cut, and, with both the Traverse and the Tron declining to
produce the full play, offered to do it under their own steam. The
company that became Wiseguise turned The Cut into a hit that opened
doors both for them and for Cullen.
“The first scene of
The Cut was the first dialogue I ever wrote,” Cullen remembers,
“just as an experiment to see if I could do it, and that's still
the first scene.”
Cullen's follow up to
The Collection came in 1997, when a young Vicky Featherstone directed
Anna Weiss, again for the Traverse. Despite the success of a work
that pivoted around the psycho-therapist that gave the play its
title, and which looked at the ambiguities of repressed or false
memories, Cullen hasn't written for the stage since. For the last
fifteen years or so, Cullen “got lost in TV la-la land,” penning
assorted crime dramas, including McCallum, which starred John Hannah
as a forensic pathologist, Robson Green vehicle Touching Evil, and
The Vice, featuring Ken Stott. Cullen also wrote Donovan, which
starred Tom Conti as a retired pathologist, as well as episodes of
Taggart, Primeval and supernatural thriller, Afterlife.
While there is much
here for Cullen to be proud of, Cullen also found himself caught up
in a money-orientated treadmill, while many of his original
treatments are still languishing in development hell.
“I got caught up in
that whole world and TV lifestyle,” Cullen says now. “It all
became about mortgages and money, and when you've spent most of the
eighties skint, as I had, you can understand the appeal of all that,
but in the end I became dependent on that kind of money coming in.
TV's a very different world to theatre. As a writer you're brought
into someone else's idea, which is fine, but it's not exactly cutting
edge drama that you're doing. Look at TV now. If you're trying to
make a point or write something with depth, it will be considered too
risky, and no-one will touch it.”
With such observations
in mind, Cullen has downsized, and is now living with his family in a
cottage in the Penicuik woods. With a small-scale production of Anna
Weiss preceding Rapture's take on The Collection earlier this year,
Cullen sounds hungry to write for theatre again. Without seeking out
any kind of commission, Cullen has already begun work on two pieces.
“I've changed my
lifestyle so I don't need TV money anymore,” he says. “I want to
write a black comedy about a serial killer and the people who
satellite around him, and I want to write a five-act epic, a massive
thing that's like King Lear, but contemporary. Mind you, I'll
probably do it and no-one will want to put it on.”
The Collection, Tron
Theatre, Glasgow, tonight until Saturday, then on tour.
ends
Mike Cullen – A Life
in Words
Born in Tranent, Cullen
left school aged sixteen with dreams of being a rock star.
After a stint as an
apprentice electrician at the local mine, Cullen quit to go on the
dole, where he attempted to write two novels before studying
Linguistics at Edinburgh University.
Cullen's first play,
The Cut, set in the aftermath of the miners strike, was produced by
Wiseguise, who toured it extensively in 1993.
Cullen was commissioned
by the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh to write The Collection, which
appeared in 1995.
In 1997, Cullen wrote
Anna Weiss for the Traverse, featuring Anne-Marie Timoney, Iona
Carbarns and John Stahl. A new production, starring Catherine
McCormack, Shirley Henderson and Larry Lamb, appeared on the West End
in 1999. An Italian language TV film was made of the play in 2002,
with Cullen providing the screenplay. A new production by Rekindle
Theatre appeared in Glasgow earlier this year.
Since Anna Weiss,
Cullen has written extensively for television, including episodes of
Taggart and Primeval. He also created, wrote and executive produced
crime drama, Donovan, in 2006.
Cullen is currently
working on two stage plays.
The Herald, September 10th 2013
ends
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