A Word with Rosie Race

Totnes playwright and actor Rosie Race is not only knee deep in fringe festival activity but is also in the rehearsal rooms for her play “Daphne” which opens at the Northcott in Exeter the first week of July.Rosie, who I first met while costuming  one of her performances for Dartington Playgoers, says she feels incredibly lucky to be involved in the production.

She told the Pulse:
As a teenager, I’d somehow absorbed the idea that Daphne du Maurier held an almost legendary place in our cultural imagination. I knew the famous opening line of Rebecca long before I ever read the novel itself. It wasn’t until I began researching for the play, however, that I became truly obsessed with her work. What’s funny is, that one of my favourite films (when I was about 16, during my ‘cult psychological thriller era’) was Don’t Look Now by Nicholas Roeg. I was later delighted to discover that it was adapted from a Daphne du Maurier short story. The same was true of The Birds, by Alfred Hitchcock. I had grown up loving these films without realising they all traced back to du Maurier. I had no idea just how deeply her influence ran through the culture I was already fascinated by. Through the research for this play I found a whole host of dark, twisted and sometimes absurd shorts written by her, which are well worth checking out.

I applied to the writers open call through Exeter Northcott Theatres, Elevate program. I was selected from 100 writers to be 1 of 6 invited to pitch a play for their main stage Summer show.

I’ve been incredibly lucky to be very involved with many aspects of the production, working with an incredibly talented team on casting, stage design, music and sound. I am in the rehearsal room every day as Writer and Associate director working alongside Martin Berry (Creative Director and Joint Chief Executive of Exeter Northcott Theatres and director of “Daphne”) contributing to the artistic decisions and final shape of the show.

This year has been quite wonderful since being granted this opportunity, I know how lucky I am and how rare these opportunities unfortunately are. All the playwrights I know have other jobs to earn a crust, it’s not the most sensible career but is more of a vocation and very fulfilling. I’ve never written about a real life, public figure before and I’ve learnt that I love to research- the play is full of ‘Easter Eggs’ for fans of Daphne, but it is also a very human story and full of drama with larger than life characters, so there is much to enjoy, whether you know her work or not.

It can be quite a come down when a project has finished. The process of writing, for me at least, is all consuming and the rehearsal period is very intense- we are working 6 days a week and some evenings. We make this wonderful creative family for a short period of time and then suddenly it’s over. So I am planning carefully on what will fill the void after the last curtain call.

Thankfully, straight after ”Daphne“, I’m diving into the joyful and playful rehearsal room of Quirk Theatre for the research and development of their Christmas show, Yeti (Exeter Phoenix in Dec.) Which will be the perfect antidote to any post show blues.

Then I am getting back to the grind stone building on support I have in place for two of my other plays, “Us Against the World” which is supported by Theatre Royal Plymouth, and “No Woman is an Island” supported by Landmark Theatres.