Could you first introduce yourself to the reader?
My name's Ben Norris, I'm a writer and performer. I am the writer of Autopilot and some people may recognise my voice from The Archers on Radio 4 where I play Ben Archer.
How would you describe your show?
Autopilot is a new play about class, power and the murky ethics of self-driving cars. It's a two-hander that tackles big themes, but also - I hope! - contains big laughs. There's nothing worse, I think, than writing very seriously about something very serious. So, I wanted to create warm and likeable characters who we fall in love with, while they themselves fall in love, whose company we really enjoy for 70 minutes, against the backdrop of which the bigger themes of the play unfold.
Why do you want to perform at Edinburgh Festival Fringe?
Well I'm not personally performing in this one, which is a bit of a departure for me (and one that I'm very excited about), but I will still be at the Fringe for the majority of the festival. I absolutely love it there. I really wanted Autopilot to have a life in Edinburgh because there truly is nothing like it. It's where I started my career and it will always have a huge place in my heart. Wherever I am in the month of August, spiritually I will always be in Edinburgh, so any opportunity I get to take my work there, and my actual physical self too, I will take. It is such an exciting smorgasbord of stories and talent and energy from all over the world, and even though it exhausts you, it recharges your batteries too. You feel part of a community of artists, and nothing is more valuable than that.
What differentiates it from other festivals?
The size, the noise, the sheer breadth of work on show, the macaroni cheese pies, the speed with which the weather can change, the street performances, the fact that there's probably only 2 hours in every 24 that there are no shows happening. It's got everything.
What first motivated you to enter the industry? Who were your inspirations?
I grew up reading Royal Court plays, and new writing more generally, and going to watch plays at the Nottingham Playhouse, my local theatre. So those were my first theatrical inspirations, and I also got into poetry around the same time, through Simon Armitage on the GCSE syllabus (although obviously I didn't tell anyone, because you absolutely were not allowed to like poetry as a 14-year-old boy). I also started reading a lot of novels as a teenager. Then when I went to university I discovered spoken word, and my theatrical and poetic palates began to broaden as I saw and read more work, and started making more regular work of my own. I particularly enjoyed discovering writer-performer work, and the ways in which different practices and traditions can overlap, e.g. spoken-word theatre, stand-up and music, physical theatre, clowning, storytelling etc.
How has your background, upbringing and education had an impact on your artistic career?
I went to a state school that didn't have a drama department for the first two years I was there, and then one was set-up, and it's not an exaggeration to say it completely changed my life. The teacher I had was amazing and saw something in me that set me on the path I have been following, albeit haphazardly, ever since. I was incredibly poorly behaved up until that point, frequently suspended and in danger of being excluded. And drama changed everything for me. It gave me a non-destructive outlet for my energy. And my parents were very welcoming of that change (relieved, I think!), and very supportive of this new pursuit of mine. But I often think about what would have happened if we hadn't had that drama department, as so many state schools didn't, and increasingly don't today. Funding for the Arts is being cut and cut and cut, in education and more broadly, so it is increasingly the preserve of the privately educated, seen as a dalliance, a nice little cultural extra for those with the resources and the time, but not for anyone else. This obviously enrages me, and is such a dangerous direction to be heading in. Art and self-expression is what makes us human, what connects us and helps us understand the world and each other. It is fundamentally linked to identity and emotional well-being, and if you take away the art and the ability to communicate and to process feelings and experiences, and to share that with others, then you take away the humanity. So, I write a lot about class and community, about opportunity (or lack of it), and about what makes us human.
What is your earliest childhood art memory?
Probably panto at Nottingham Playhouse. We also used to go to a lot of ceilidhs, because my mum was a Morris dancer when I was little, so we'd drive to places like Cleethorpes, Skegness, Scarborough and Whitby in a borrowed campervan and I'd bob through the town on my dad's shoulders watching my mum dance, and there would be fires and music in the evening and I'd attempt to join in the adult ceilidhs, often baffling people with the diminutive size of their new dance partner in his shiny multi-coloured waistcoat. I once got knocked unconscious by a rogue elbow! All good stuff.
If you didn’t have your current job, what would you probably be doing?
Gently weeping. And/or still trying to be a long-distance runner. But I'm sure my knees would have given in by now.
Did Covid-19 change the way you create work? Do you approach shows with a different mentality now?
I think, like many people, I'm more aware than ever of the community of an audience, gathered together for that hour and a bit to have a collective experience, and within that a set of entirely individual experiences too. And I'm especially aware of collective joy. I never want to take the act of gathering for granted again. What it is to laugh and to feel things alongside others. I want to give people A Good Night Out. In this case at 1:35pm but whatever.
Describe the last year in 5 words or less?
Quite the fucking rollercoaster.
Do you subscribe to the idea that art should be exempt from ‘cancel culture’?
Erm, yes and no. I think that everyone has a right to air whatever thoughts and feelings they want to air. But I also think that people have a right to respond, and if something is anathema to a particular community, contributing to a toxic conversation that isn't helping anyone or advancing or enriching society in any way, or actively endangering the well-being of people, then I understand why people would no longer be interested in programming that person's work or hearing their point of view. They're not obliged to listen to it. No one should be persona non grata in society in general, everyone should always be able to share an opinion or a belief, but that doesn't mean they have a god given right to have a platform for those views wherever they want one. Art is a fantastic medium for the exchange of ideas, and for debate. Autopilot is a play inspired by exactly that kind of tension. But there are certain 'debates' that I think are less helpful or relevant or necessary than others. It's an incredibly difficult question though, and one that is a lot more nuanced than this medium allows for!
If you could work with anybody, from any point in history, who would you pick and why?
Maybe Oscar Wilde, for the cucumber sandwiches, the witticisms, and the big nights out.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to take a show up to the fringe?
How are you going to pay for it? Can you afford to lose all that money? Can you really? If no one comes to see your show, will you still have a good time? Are you working with people that you like? Ok good. Climb Arthur's Seat at dawn and watch the sunrise at least once. Remember that it all matters deeply, and that none of it matters at all. Have a deep-fried mars bar. Have another one. Have a dance. Now sleep.
When and where can people see your show?
They can see it at the Pleasance Courtyard at 1.35pm from the 3rd to the 29th August (Except for the 15th – that’s our day off!)
And where can people find, follow and like you online?
BEN NORRIS
- Twitter @BenNorris7
- Insta @BenNorris777
- Facebook @BenNorris7
- bennorris.net
BILL'S MOTHER
- Twitter @BillsMum_
- Insta @BillsMum_
- Facebook @BillsMumProd
Autopilot is performing at Pleasance Courtyard (Forth) at 1.35pm, 3-29 August (not 15). For tickets, visit https://www.pleasance.co.uk/event/autopilot
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