Woo hoo… Fabulous… Congratulations…
The Frost Magazine team cracked open the office fizz when we heard that our erudite drama critic, Paul Vates, had won The People’s Play Award 2018 with Voltemand And Cornelius Are Joyfully Returned.
Some of the team had seen the original run through a while ago at The Hope Theatre Islington and been moved, interested, amused and – the real test; were still talking about it days later, and what’s more, it is with us still – thought provoking is the word we used then, and still do. Hence the revelry, hence the sheer delight at Paul’s well deserved success.
Naturally, when vaguely sober we pinioned Paul to a chair and got the ins and outs of the story behind his successful play.
He told us that Voltemand and Cornelius as characters had been niggling at him since his A level days, when he was studying Hamlet, Stoppard and Beckett.
I mean – our Paul thought – it was OK for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to hog the limelight, but what about Voltemand and Cornelius with their piddly little parts, and just one word referencing their arrival: ‘joyfully’?
Well, what about them?
He says that he knew he wanted to feature the two characters but – he never quite knew ‘where’ they were. It wasn’t until 2013 that he met a professor pal and WW1 expert who suggested that the where could in no-man’s land. There it was, Voltemand and Cornelius had come home, falling into place like skittles well bowled.
Apparently the first draft wrote itself, and then the hard work began, and it is this that aspiring writers will understand: it was Version 6 that won the People’s Play Award.
Paul says: ‘Voltemand and Cornelius represent everyman. Along with the bleakness of it, I hope the absurdity and humour of their world shines through.’
As the Frost team walked away from the original read-through we found ourselves comparing it with Vernon Scannell’s poem Walking Wounded. We’ve talked about the play on and off since then so Paul’s success is not a surprise, just a suitable accolade for a play that hooked us on the first draft. We now can’t wait to see Version 6 when it is performed in Newcastle starting its run on 11th May 2019 at the the People’s Theatre.
One question we will have answered then, since Paul isn’t telling, is: what about the duck?
What do we mean? Come to Newcastle in May and find the answer.
Paul Vates: Comedy actor, writer and drama critic and Award Winning Playwright.
The People Theatre, Stephenson Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 5QF 0191 265 5020