WE’LL LIVE AND DIE IN THESE TOWNS
A gritty and compelling new musical has hit the stage in Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre. We’ll Live and Die in These Towns (WLADITT) tells the tale of a young rock musician suffering a crisis of confidence just as he’s about to enjoy his big break and the career he’s dreamed of.
Directed by the talented Hamish Glen and designed by Patrick Connellan, the play is written by acclaimed Coventry writer, Geoff Thompson and features music from another Coventry native, The Enemy’s Tom Clarke who serves as the show’s musical director.
The musical incorporates the music from The Enemy’s debut album also titled We’ll Live and Die in these Towns. This isn’t the first time Tom Clarke has had to adapt the album to a different format “A few years ago I stripped the songs right back in order to do an unplugged tour”
So what was it was like incorporating them into a story? “There was the additional challenge of making them musically speak to the narrative of the piece. Geoff has done a tremendous job in weaving in and out of the songs throughout the story, so arrangement wise the goal was to try to ensure that instrumentally I’d judged the music appropriately for the scene, and to pull out some key lyrics which help to reinforce the narrative. It’s been thoroughly enjoyable!”
The musical deals with the familiar themes of insecurity and anxiety as the protagonist, Argy, struggles to sing just as he is set to perform his biggest concert yet. “His struggle is one I’m familiar with, there are a few commonalities we share.” In an effort to defeat this anxiety Argy’s manager encourages him to walk through his hometown visiting friends and family in order to make sense of his feelings
“There are other aspects of his life which are either pure fiction or relate to Geoff somehow, but I think in essence anybody will relate to Argy and his predicament because we’ve all felt fear at some point in our lives.”
Changing something that previously had a different objective to its creation and turning it into something else entirely brings a new outlook, and Tom admits that this new narrative has given him a fresh approach to the songs involved.
“I thought after eleven years I’d explored WLADITT in its entirety, but Geoff has cleverly reinvented the whole record for me. Now when I sing the songs live they have multiple meanings. It’s an album which seems to have a ridiculously long life, I’m very surprised by it to be frank. Pleasantly surprised.”
(Image by Robert Day)
An undeniable link throughout this production is the presence of the city of Coventry, our hometowns have more of an effect on our influences than people immediately realise. For Tom, who’s never really left the West Midlands’ city, he recognises this link but highlights how it doesn’t impede the message.
“There’s a lot of Cov’ in the musical, but not so much that it becomes a local production. It’s a universal tale, with some nods to a city that Geoff and I know and love. Ultimately I think you could change those references, pick it up and place it in any town or city in the UK and they’d feel it was written just for them, such is the genius of Geoff’s writing.”
Regardless of the elements within the story, WLADITT tells a tale we are all familiar with. A musical that deals with confidence issues and insecurity when our dreams that once safely resided in our fantasy become a reality.
We’ll Live and Die in These Towns is currently showing until the October 20th at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry.
Words: Eleanor Forrest
