Ruby Iverson, Co-Director and Producer of ‘Our Town Needs a Nando’s’ on why she decided to pitch the second ever production of this new play by Samantha O’Rourke at the Corpus Playroom.
When asked why I decided to pitch 'Our Town Needs a Nando’s' to be shown in Cambridge , I thought the answer was glaringly obvious - who wouldn’t want to see a fun show all about their slightly cringey teenage selves as they lament their woes of GCSE-girlhood and their boring British high streets.
Yet as I have been working on this show over the last few months, I have begun to realise that this isn’t exactly reason enough for people to want to come and see the show as the stories of the girls in ‘Nando’s’ are not necessarily reminiscent of some students at Cambridge’s school years as their stories aren’t particularly glamorous. But why shouldn’t their stories be told?
I know that their stories talk to me, and remind me of myself, my friends, my sister, my cousins etc… And they must speak to others too, or at least I know they definitely speak to the wonderful women involved in bringing this production to life. And I know these girls and women exist in Cambridge too, even if I don’t always see them on my way to lectures and as I go out to Spoons on the weekend. So why up until now have we seen so few stories of ‘normal girls’ on stage?
In preparing for this show, the incredible cast, prod team and tech/design team and I have had many discussions about wanting to see and be involved in more that are representative of the many different people we have at both Cambridge and across the UK - shows that tell stories of people like those I grew up with, whose lives may not be lavish nor exceptional but are just as important as the stories of the types of the often-privileged and sheltered characters too frequently seen depicted in theatre shows.
But perhaps I am underselling the lives of the characters at the centre of Nando’s story - Ellie, Zahidah, Beth, Rachel and Chloe are all undisputedly unique and multi-faceted but maybe their stories are very much alike to many others and I think that is kind of the beauty of this show. These characters, who seem like ‘normal’ and ‘messy’ 16-year-old girls who have extraordinary and quite intense things happen to them in the formative years of their absolutely ordinary teenage lives, allow such stories to finally be given the space to be told aloud, and I think that is something that feels long overdue in Cambridge Theatre.
Nando’s is a tender play about girlhood with characters from a range of backgrounds and cultures, each with their own nuanced, vulnerable yet relatable stories and we hope to have at least one audience member leave the theatre after our show and feel seen or as though they recognise the characters on stage.
In a show unapologetically about a boring town, our team has decided to tackle a script that makes it clear it is trying to avoid over-romanticising or villainising many of the dull towns that make up the UK and that instead tries to highlight that the gravity of being up against many challenges of modern-day girlhood whilst feeling stuck somewhere that is undisputedly unremarkable. With no heartthrob Hollywood love interest to turn to, no supermodel best friends to go to epic house parties with nor a perfectly curated designer pillow to cry into at the end of a long day - Nando’s feels like a ‘cry from the heart’ that doesn’t shy away from the monumental growing pains of being a teenage girl for those of us who never quite got to be the main character in a coming of age story set in Suburbia.
I eventually realised that it’s okay to acknowledge that our coming-of-age stories in our boring towns though painful were quite ersatz in comparison to what we are told coming-of-age stories are meant to be - but it doesn’t make them any less worthy of being depicted in a creative space.
And that’s why I decided that our university theatre scene was very much in need of ‘Our Town Needs a Nando’s’.
'Our Town Needs a Nando’s' is a funny, touching and riotous showcase of what it's like to be a teenager, and we very much hope you will come and see our show and help us to continue to tell these very real girls’ very real stories!
Our Town Needs a Nando's
by Samantha O'Rourke
Tuesday 29 October - Saturday 2 November 2024, 7PM
Corpus Playroom
Click here to book your tickets!
