Interview: Rory Aaron, ‘This Town’

Ahead of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2024, we’re chatting with a range of creatives who will be heading to the city over August to find out more about their shows. Today we’re chatting with Rory Aaron about This Town.

Can you tell us a bit about you and your career so far?

Of course I can, I’ve always written since I was young, and loved drama. I studied drama at school, and sixth form, but then moved away from it for years. I spent the majority of my twenties working in the youth sector with young people from working class backgrounds in and around Manchester. At 27, I decided to start performing again. I’m not totally sure why, I just felt something was missing in my life. So I began hitting up open mics, and poetry slams up and down the country. After a year or so of doing that, I was lucky enough to get a collection of poems published, one of which called Doglike, got commissioned by the BBC, to be turned into a short film. I acted in the film, and loved it. I guess things started to snowball a bit from there. Derby Theatre saw the film, and reached out asking if I would be interested in turning it into a longer piece for the stage, and I said I would. So I went away and wrote this huge narrative poem called Within These Cobbled Streets, that got published by Verve Press, and began to turn it into a two person play. Contact in Manchester joined as a co commissioner, and the play debuted last year in April. It was an amazing experience, and the script ended up getting longlisted for a BBC Writers award, which I still can’t quite believe.

Over the last 12 months, I’ve been working with the South Bank Centre, as one of their new writers, and at HOME Theatre, writing and directing a show for their Young Company alongside the ever amazing Kao Hove, who will be co directing this show. 

What is your show about?

This Town is basically just about mine and my friends' life growing up in Derby and the towns to the north of the city. The whole show is written in third person, and you’re told the story by a narrator who is sitting in a pub. As the story unfolds you realise why the narrator is telling this story, and who the narrator is. 

The main story is about two characters called Dean and Joe, as they navigate growing up, their friendship, and who they want to become. Through these characters we look at mental health, male sexuality, and masculinity. As characters they are based on myself, and a number of different friends I had, and still have, but I’ve played about with it, to keep everyone's privacy safe, and so it's not exposing in any way. Through creating this distance, I’ve actually found it much easier to speak about certain topics. I think my favourite character is called Clara. She is this woman who runs the local pub, and holds the whole community together. In a lot of ways Clara is based on my Mum, how she holds our family together, but also constantly cared for her Mum whilst we were growing up who was diagnosed for early set Alzhimers. 

What was the inspiration for This Town and what’s the development process been to get to this stage?

To be honest, I just wanted to write something that would have interested me as a teenager. I didn’t see loads of theatre growing up, and what I did see, didn’t always interest me. At the time I was writing it, I was doing a lot of work with a group of teenage lads in Salford, and I could just see so many similarities between their friendships, and my teenage friendship group. The same kind of solidarity mixed in with toxicity. The same kind of damaging humour, that comes from a place of insecurity.  

What made you want to take This Town to the Fringe?

Well I’ve never been! So I’m a total newbie and really naive. Obviously working in the arts, you’re constantly surrounded by people who talk about it. So when I saw the National partnership programme, with The Pleasance and Curve Theatre, I jumped at the chance. Derby Theatre have also financially supported the project, and Contact have provided so much in kind support. Without any of this I wouldn’t be there. 

Apart from seeing This Town, what’s your top tip for anybody heading for Edinburgh this summer?

I don’t know if I can give anyone any tips, as I’ve never been before! I guess eat a good hearty healthy breakfast is always sensible, don’t drink before midday, stay hydrated and try to give a standing ovation as much as possible.

 Why should people book This Town?

It’s a really unique show. The writing is really beautiful and honest, Kao’s direction also has this really beautiful vulnerability to it, and the music by Blythe Pepino is stunning. I think it balances the right line between serious, sad, and funny. There is a moment where Dean tries weed for the first time, that is hilarious, and I’m so excited to perform it. 

I also think it challenges people’s perception of what working class communities are like, but also the type of characters you meet there. Joe in particular is a very complicated character. He is violent, but caring, angry, but sad. He has a lot of talent and discipline, but he feels the weight of the world on his shoulders from a very young age. He is both the stereotype of a young working class male, but also manages to continually break that stereotype. 

When and where can people see This Town?

It’s on at The Pleasance Courtyard in the Bunker 1 space at 16:45 pm. Please come and watch it!