Olivier Award-winning actor, Paul Jesson, explains how Richard Nelson came to write a solo play for him.

In September 2022 I had an email from my American friend Richard Nelson: "Would you like me to write you a play?" Such an offer probably comes the way of very few actors and I was bowled over by it. My astonished and grateful response was tempered with a little uncertainty.

I didn't want it to be too much about my illness, and Richard assured me it would also be about many other things. He said, "I'll send you something." Two days later an attachment arrived which I thought would be a couple of pages of ideas or an outline. It was a 42-page script.

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In February 2021, during the second Covid lockdown, I was diagnosed with oral cancer and had surgery at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital for the removal of my upper-right jaw and part of my palate: pretty devastating for anyone, let alone an actor, but the prognosis was good.

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The script was a tapestry of stories and quotations – some funny, some bizarre – as well as incidents recalled, people remembered. Across seven scenes, it encompassed loss, friendship, poetry, questioning – a conversation on a journey…

 

Click the link below to visit The Arts Desk online to read the full piece.

 

An Actor Convalescing in Devon plays Hampstead Downstairs until 11 May.

 

READ THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE

BOOK AN ACTOR CONVALESCING IN DEVON HERE