Exploring all the 
fun of 
Hull Fair

“It’s massively exciting, the most exciting thing I’ve ever been involved in,” says Morgan Sproxton, before adding: “Apart from having children and falling in love and all that.”

It’s a display of the comic timing and enthusiasm that is set to make her enormous community show City Of Light, opening in Hull tonight, a success.

Sproxton’s play, which receives its world premiere tonight, is an example of the importance of the writer’s Bottom Drawer.

“It was an idea I had back in 2007, when I wrote a first draft,” she says.

“Nothing happened with it, but it was one of those that I told myself that I mustn’t forget about. It was a story I believed in and one that I thought I would come back to eventually.”

‘Eventually’ turned out to be 2012. In what could easily be described as the Year of the Volunteer, Hull Truck theatre was looking for a big community play to put on in the dying stages of the summer and forward stepped Sproxton.

“The theatre was looking for a big, lavish community drama for the season and it seemed the time to say ‘I’ve had this on the back burner’,” says Sproxton – and she was right.

The trouble was that the idea from back in 2007 wasn’t really a big show. It was a small love story, but the key factor was that it was set around Hull Fair.

“My grandparents used to go to it. It’s one of those things that everyone in the town knows about, and everyone goes to the Hull Fair. It’s been here ever since I’ve been in Hull,” she says.

“I love to write stories on these epic scales, and so when I realised that the story set around the Hull Fair could easily incorporate lots of other characters, it seemed like the perfect idea.”

Having worked initially on the idea with director Mark Rees, they presented the show, as a team, to Hull Truck and the positive response was immediate. With just a few short months between the idea being given the green light and the play opening, Sproxton had to get her skates on. Not only did she have to expand her initial idea to include a huge community cast, it was also set to be turned into a musical.

Composer Bernie Laverick came on board and Sproxton was tasked with coming up with original lyrics for the story and music.

“It was great, I treated it like writing poetry, it was like going back to writing bad poems when I was a teenager. Although, hopefully, the lyrics for the songs here are a bit better than what I wrote back then,” she says.

The result is Hull Truck’s first ever community play with the largest cast the theatre has ever assembled, featuring around 50 volunteer actors.

Set among the lights and colour of Hull Fair, the story begins with Rose and Bert in 1935, who make a promise to each other one night on the carousel. The story charts their journey through life and the love they have for each other as it waxes and wanes.

Sproxton, one of three recent additions to Hull Truck as creative associates, is the theatre’s creative associate for young people. She is joined by playwright Tom Wells and director Natalie Abrahami.

“The play is as much about the history of the city as it is this love story,” says Sproxton.

“I may well never again get the chance to write a play with such a huge cast on such an epic scale. Trying to weave all the stories together and incorporate all the excitement of the fair was a huge challenge, but it was something I’ve really enjoyed doing.

“It’s been lovely to sit back and watch it come together. The community cast has been absolutely amazing – the way they have gelled together – and watching people of all different generations come together and work on this has been really wonderful.”

Morgan’s path to playwriting

After working as a journalist and PR manager, Sproxton began her playwriting career with the critically acclaimed Fathers2B. In 2005 she was part of the influential Royal Court/BBC The50 to find the UK’s 50 best emerging young writers. She was also part of 25 Degrees, a BBC/Royal Court Initiative. In 2010 she completed a pilot script for the BBC/Screen Yorkshire Northern Voices. Her theatre plays include Smoke Screen, Mark, Gagging For It, Lost Boy, Love All, Ring Around The Humber and the short film Sofa Dreams.

City Of Light, Hull Truck, to September 8. 01483 323638, www.hulltruck.co.uk