Why Write?

The Almeida’s Writer in Residence, Roy Williams, on why he writes.

Why do I write? I write because I cannot do anything else. I write because I do not want to be anything else. I write because storytelling is a great gift.

From an early age, I had much envy for people who could tell stories; take me to another world all through the power of words. One of my earliest memories is the final thirty minutes on Friday afternoon at primary school: Miss Graham would sit in her chair, look down at us, open a novel and read another chapter from a children’s book. It was usually Enid Blyton. If I knew then what I know now, I would not have appreciated Ms. Blyton’s less than flattering descriptions of black people in her books.

But I’m glad that it went over my head, it may have destroyed my love for those Friday afternoons where the power of those words would take me away for half an hour. This was the only place, the onlytime where I was allowed to listen, take in, and daydream. It very much suited mycharacter.

It was when I first read Class Enemy and Barbarians, two remarkable plays about British working class youth in the seventies and eighties, that I was totally struck by the fact that these plays, performed in theatre, were about people I knew. I was the black kid Snatch in Class Enemy, I was the black youth Louis in Barbarians, and all the other characters were my mates. Theatre wasn’t all Shakespeare. It could also be about my life’s experiences, my own take on the world. And so I began to write.

People often ask me, how do I churn out scripts? I’m sure Nicola, Kate and Lydia would agree that this is a crude way of describing our work. Writing any script is bloody tough; each one becoming harder and harder. This is why I congratulate them on their achievement. To start a play is brave, but to finish one is braver. You have to love hard work, love writing and all the things that come with it, research, interviews etc. I love it so much I can sometimes go through days, weeks, when I do nothing but write and sleep. Even when I am not at my computer, I am always thinking about my work, letting it run through my head, only putting pen to paper when I believe I have something figured out. Are we mad? Definitely! But we’re writers.

Roy Williams, July 2006