16c Fair
History of Falling Things, Mold Clwyd Theatr Cymru
AWARD winning playwright James Graham's new work, called A History of Falling Things, is a 21st century love story about what it is to be young, confused and afraid. Robin and Jacqui find each other online and fall in love. Only they can't meet because they both suffer from a fear of falling things - and neither can leave the house.
For Robin it started at the age of seven when a shoe flew through the sky and fell on his head. It changed the course of his life. For Jacqui, nightmares of being trapped under things began one July morning in 2005, after an incident on the Tube.
Writer James, 26, says: "I wanted to write a modern love story that was both uplifting and entertaining and yet also addressed issues I feel are close to me, and my generation, and in fact any generation.
"This notion of ‘fear' and how crippling it can be. Fear of the threats we are constantly told we face from terrorism or the collapse of the global financial system, to fear in relationships. Fear to commit, to open up, to dive in and take a chance. One that explores the new methods of social networking and how ‘friends and ‘relationships' mean very different things in the age of Facebook and MySpace to what they meant even a decade ago."
James is now flagged as a rising star after his comedy-drama Caught in a Trap was ITV 1's Boxing Day drama last Christmas. near Mansfield and attended Ashfield Compresenisve School before going on went to Hull University. Remembering how he got started, he saysdown the phone from his London home: "I spent a lot of time on my own, not in an anti-social way, as a child. I'd frantically, obsessively read magazines and watch the news. And I'd lie back and think of stories. My mum would fold sheets of A4 paper and staple them together like a book. I'd write tonnes of stories on them and make my dad read them. "
At both school and uni he acted but felt drawn to writing.
Much more recently, James, who has a twin sister Laura, a drama student, and brother Richard, 28, a film editor, spotted a word in an almanac.
It was keraunothnetophobia: the fear of falling satellites.
He says: "It inspired me. I really wanted to write something about fear."
And that led to his current production.
Does he have any fears himself?
London-based James says: "I don't know if I'm afraid but I really dislike tomatoes - the evil redness, the seeds. They give me the shivers. Also the opening night of a play is quite nerve wracking especiall@y if it's new writing. It's like giving birth to a child and packing them off on their first day at school. You hope they come back healthy, well and alive. But it's exciting as well."
History of Falling Things, Mold Clwyd Theatr Cymru, until May 9. Tickets 0845 330 3565 or clwyd-theatr-cymru.co.uk.
