On what was probably the hottest day of the year, members of The Art Society Chiswick (TASCH) found themselves amongst a sold-out audience in the gloriously cool Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation Theatre, ArtsEd, Chiswick. TASCH had again sponsored the Chiswick Book Festival (CBF), this time Michael Frayn at 90.
Acclaimed playwright, journalist and novelist Michael Frayn was in conversation with Torin Douglas (Director of CBF). A great raconteur, he told us about the people who have shaped his life, some were friends; some not; some more than friends. Some have had a profound effect; some only a passing one, as revealed in his moving collection of short essays Among Others: Friendships and Encounters.
These included: Bamber Gascoigne, his close friend from Cambridge University who introduced him to theatre; Michael Blakemore who went on to direct 10 of Frayn’s plays; people he had met who formed the basis of characters in his novels and his time as a journalist at the Guardian. His advice to any budding novelist, go and work as a journalist as “the invented world is not like the real world”. He only included one woman, an early love “It’s not that there aren’t women in my life who influence me, two of them I married, the others I fell in love with. I just found it difficult to write about them”.
Then we came to Noises Off! the play for which he is best known. It came about when he was watching a previous play The Two of Us from backstage. “There were a series of quick changes and I thought ‘this is funnier than what was going on out front’”. Theatre critic Frank Rich "Butcher of Broadway", wrote "it is, was, and probably always will be the funniest play written in my lifetime." Frayn said he found the global success “puzzling” but was “equally puzzled why other plays had been a flop!”
Frayn turned 90 on 8th September, the day before the lecture; and the Guardian had republished some of his columns. But to celebrate in Chiswick CBF had organised the most fabulous cake by local baker/cake decorator and TASCH member, Sara Gronmark.
Michael Frayn receiving Birthday Card from Olivia Freeman (TASCH Chair) with cake in foreground
Photo: The Arts Society Chiswick by Torin Douglas