Alan Harris - Cardboard Dad

What was the inspiration behind ‘Cardboard Dad?’

I saw a newspaper article about Flat Dadies in the Observer one Sunday. It was an amusing enough article about a scheme introduced in Maine, USA, for Marine personell – the Army would send cardboard cutouts of serving personell to loved ones so they wouldn’t forget what they looked like. I cut out the article and forgot about it for a while.
I suppose as a writer the things that interest you lurk in the back of your mind, ready to pop to the fore when they are ready to take shape. I think ideas attach themselves to other thoughts and gradually...well, you’ve an idea for a play, something which interests you. I was interested in people who are left behind – not the ones that go off to fight but those left at home and it developed from there.

How did the style of the play develop?

There’s only so far it can develop when it’s still in your head. It came on leaps and bounds when the director and, perhaps more importantly, the actors were involved. In the play Donna goes on a marvellous journey (without moving too far physically) and there is a full-sized cardboard cutout of a soldier on stage. How the Cardboard Dad was moved, how it fitted in with the world of Dona and then with the world of the play on stage, was a challenge. At first it was manipulated, used as a puppet. But that was too restrictive and the moment that Simon Nehan did a run and used his own body instead of Cardboard Dad was a revelation – as if a light had been switched on. A moment of freedom.

Discuss the journey ‘Cardboard Dad’ has been on from first draft to production.

It’s been a long old process. The play was commissioned (by Simon Harris originally at Sgript Cymru which later merged with the Sherman Theatre) over two and half years ago. That merger happened at around the time of the first draft so, for me as a writer who wants to get stuff put on, it was a waiting game. I did several more drafts and a decision to produce was reached. But all of this accelerates when the director (Juliet Knight) was appointed. I had seen a production of White Boy by Tanika Gupta at the Soho which Juliet directed and knew she was the right person fo rthe job. 

Casting was a long-ish process. We saw Simon early on and knew he was perfect for the job (we offered that week, he accepted). We saw a lot of great potential Donnas but offered the part to Shelley Rees. I attended the first week or rehearsals and then popped in now and again – each time I went in Cardboard Dad was further on his journey.

How did you become a writer?

As long as you’ve a desire, everything leads to something else, doesn’t it? I’d always known I had wanted to write but had no direction. I went to university to get away (reading History because it was the easiest subject I could do) and after that I didn’t do anything, just part-time jobs. I was working with a man called Roy Ellis who said I should be a journalist. So I tried it, enjoyed it and became a reporter. Then I drifted into the production side and found if you want to discover some truth, journalism isn’t the way to do it. I have a friend who is a writer and he was under commission to Sgript Cymru at the time. We were always chatting about stories and he said I should write a play and send it in. So I did. I received a letter, a little nicer than the standard rejection, and I sent in another play and eventually I got a meeting (I was so nervous). Then I was invited on a residency, then I was commissioned. This a potted version, but I hope you get the gist.

What advice have you got for anyone interested in new writing or playwriting?

• Write about things that interest you
• Don’t try and “guess the market”
• Go to the theatre as much as possible
• Read as many plays as possible
• Know your characters
• Write a play in which stuff happens. Not car chases or gun fights but in which things are constantly changing.
• Keep at it.