Alison Interview

Local Musicians launch new 'ROck Opera"

It’s theatre, but not how you know it. ‘Alison’, a unique, new rock opera from Dan Persad and Leo Butler, has just finished a successful maiden run across theatres in South London and is set to build on this with exciting plans for the project in the New Year. We spoke to guitarist Dan Persad in depth about ‘Alison’, how it was received, what is in store for the future and just how the show came to fruition.

Persad has toured with bands across the UK for over fifteen years and still records and writes music at his south London studio, yet had never produced a piece for theatre, despite always being a fan. “Not sure what it says about me but I’ve always been a fan of musical theatre!” he laughs, “I guess really it’s because my parents would always be playing the stuff on the stereo whenever we went anywhere in the car; Cat Stevens, Billie Joel, Annie, Les Miserables. I remember them taking us to the West End when I was about ten, to see Blood Brothers, and the whole experience has stayed with me ever since. I knew I wanted to created something in a similar vein and when Leo asked me to help him write a rock opera, I knew I’d arrived.”     

Dan and Leo met whilst the latter was on a writer’s course at a drama college in the nineties and clicked instantly through their mutual love of guitar; “I’d been a guitarist, in and out of bands for a while before that, so we used to spend entire evenings just jamming to a bit of Floyd or Stone Roses. Leo soon formed a band with me and we regularly playing our own material on the local circuit around New Cross and Deptford.”

The pair wrote and composed ‘Alison’ together and Dan says that the clash in writing styles between the pair actually helped the writing process; “It’s always been quite interesting to me that me and Leo have pretty different writing styles, it always marries up into something unique and wonderful. I’m from the Hendrix/Clapton school of axe-men where he’s one of your more Waters/Barrett kind of lyricists, and trust me, it works!”

Butler graduated from Drama College and immediately went on to become a highly acclaimed resident playwright for the Royal Court theatre, the RSC and the National Theatre, winning awards for his work such as ‘Made of Stone’ and ‘I’ll Be the Devil’. But whilst Leo was on the up, Dan had a harrowing setback and went through a tough period; “I had a stroke and had to quit music, and other less interesting stuff for a while,” he reflects. However Persad was not perturbed and after recovering was keen to get back into producing and performing. The offer from Leo for the rock opera was just the project he had been waiting for.

‘Alison’ began as a half hour show named ‘A Separate Reality’ and was first performed at the Royal Court theatre in August 2011 as part of their annual ‘Rough Cuts’ showcase. Dan looks back fondly at the experience, which received fantastic feedback; “Every year the Court stage the Rough Cuts which is a chance for up and coming writers to have their scripts read on stage in the hope that someone from the industry might come along and enjoy what they hear.” The opportunity clearly excited Persad but he was keen on doing it right and in his style; “Leo had invited me to co-write a little rock opera but I was never going to produce a piddly bit of story set to some ‘la-dee da-dee’ background!” He confidently exclaims; “The entire audience were properly up for some serious rock’n’roll, which is indeed what they got! We proceeded to put on the most kick-ass 45 minute, two night spectacle the Royal Court has experienced since they first staged the ‘Rocky Horror’ back in ’73!” The ‘Rocky Horror’ did in fact debut at the venue and Dan comes across as extremely talented and knowledgeable within his field, carrying the confidence and charisma that you would expect with a musician.

The show itself certainly isn’t ‘Mamma Mia’; it is the tale of a girl called Alison’s meltdown after a break up and is raw, intelligent and brutally honest storytelling. Dan’s passion is apparent as he speaks of the story; “Following a suicide attempt, Alison loses consciousness and goes on a journey to find herself spiritually and emotionally, only to allow the whole grim cycle to repeat itself. It is a journey musically and narratively,” he says, “one song flows seamlessly into another, telling tales of heartache and woe.”

The show is unconventional for a musical in the sense that there is no orchestra; but an onstage four-piece band, and the music is a fantastic blend of different genres that showcase their incredible talent.  Dan’s brothers Joseph and Nathan Persad play the bass and drums respectively in the band, and it is that fusion of storytelling and music that drove on the creative process; “The whole point I wanted to write this show was to incorporate a live band performing on stage as a story unfolds, so the band were at all times involved in the drama. Live music was always to play an integral role in the storytelling,” he says.  

With the first two ‘pilot’ shows a great success, Dan and Leo were keen to evolve the project; “The audience {from the first two shows} were hugely impressed by the plot, characterisation and involvement of the band. So much so that Leo and I decided there and then that we’d extend it into a full production,” he says. The duo formed ‘Deff Starr’ productions the push the project through, but there were a few knock backs on the way; “Unfortunately, the Royal Court turned us away as they deemed us ‘too loud’ for their little venue, make of that what you will!” he laughs, “No in all seriousness I’d like to say that the Royal Court have been phenomenally supportive of our venture throughout,” he goes on to add.

The rejection didn’t phase Dan and Leo though, going back to the studio they evolved ‘A Separate Reality’ into an hour and a half long show called ‘Alison’, but there was another hitch; “So we’d extended this whole show to about 90 minutes but had nowhere to stage it, that is until the Kings Head in Islington asked us for it. At the time it seemed like a great opportunity,” the Kings Head is nationally renowned for their support of new theatre, “the reality however was a completely different story. They dumped us in an 11pm slot, offered no payment, no help with production fees, not even a promotional poster to stick up in the bar!” he exclaims.

 Like any true professionals, Dan and Leo continued in the knowledge that it was still good exposure for the show, despite the situation. “To be honest, if me and Leo hadn’t funded and organised everything, there wouldn’t have been a show at all,” he states, “One night our director threatened to pull the plug because our lead actress had a ‘sore throat.” In true rock star fashion the show had to go on; “We told him to f*ck off and did it without them both! Better by the way!” he laughs with a beaming grin on his face. It’s evident in Dan’s body language that the experience was one of mixed emotions and he would have preferred to have had the backstage harmony along with the success, but the tensions did galvanise the band in a sense; “It was one of those shows that got better and better every night as we {the band} said a big ‘f*ck it!’ to the venue and our troublesome cast, and just got on with the music. Each night was a different performance and the audience seemed to absolutely love it, so what the hell. Aside from the ball-ache of setting up and packing away every night, performing the shows made it all worth the hassle.”

The project is going from strength to strength and there are exciting prospects ahead for ‘Alison’, which will be playing at various UK venues in 2013. A glint appears in Persad’s eye as he talks about his future plans, you get the sense that he is merciless worker and is always looking for a new idea, he says; ”This is where we’re at right now; while we were at the Kings Head, Leo invited a couple of people he knows at Film4 to come and see the show and they loved it! We spoke afterwards and they said they believed the music was ‘very marketable’ and ‘easily accessible’, also they could envisage the whole thing being extended and developed for film claiming it’s just the sort of unconventional, off the wall production that suits them.”

‘Alison’ will be stretching across to the West Country in early next year to Cornwall and there are more London shows to be announced. Dan explains, “We’re taking the whole show to Cornwall early next year where we’ll film three or four shows and use the live music as a soundtrack. We’ll make an edit of it all to use as a kind of moving storyboard to show Film4 where we’d like to see it going.”

Having spent half an hour in Persad’s company, one thing is absolutely evident and that is his passion for music. He seems the sort of man who could talk music quite happily all day every day and his enthusiasm is infectious. His passion is reflected in the project’s success and he has the charming, cheeky, confident and quirky traits typical of musicians. Hard work and perseverance are moving ‘Alison’ in the right direction; “We’ve begun work on the next show which, although is well in the early stages of writing, is quickly turning into a decent prequel to Alison. Watch this space…” he says with a wry smile as I depart.