00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, group arts editor at Sussex Newspapers.
00:05Lovely this afternoon to speak to Ben Grant, who is bringing the Brown Ranger to the Nest,
00:09which is Chichester Festival Theatre's newest theatre. You are in the Nest, various dates in
00:15early August, with the show which you have been developing as part of the Artist Development
00:19Programme. And it's a show that encompasses so much, doesn't it? Tell me how the show was first
00:25conceived and how it's developed. Yeah, well, I guess the story was, I mean, I'm trying to think
00:32where to start. I've always been, I think I've always been drawn to solo shows. I think it
00:37showcases, and I, you know, at school and things I love to do, like, you know, I can sort of bookmark
00:46it, but yeah, I was, I think I was drawn to the solo show because I think it was, it was a real
00:52test for me, it was a real challenge for me, but it was a story that I was really passionate about
00:55and exploring. Because I think solo shows, in my experience, have always showcased the most
01:01personal of an artist or a creative.
01:04It's an escape, is there, really?
01:06Exactly, yeah, and you're sort of bearing a lot. And for me, I thought I'd never, I've never had a
01:13space to sort of really showcase a story that is that, it has that much affinity to me as a
01:20creative. So I'm really interested in exploring that. So I pitched the show to CFT, which, you
01:25know, was very much, the idea was, was to explore the relationship between the feeling of art and
01:33belonging, particularly through representation in pop culture from the 90s to sort of, you
01:38know, mid to late 2010s, you know, sort of my kind of lifetime. And, and to sort of, because
01:47I know that it was a, it's a show that it would resonate with a lot of people. And, but also
01:52it was a show for me to do. And if it was, it was for me. And, and, and, you know, I got
01:57to...
01:58Tell me more about what you're saying in this show. What are you wanting to put across?
02:02Yeah. So I guess the biggest thing is, I'm sort of addressing, I'm, yeah, sort of, how would
02:11I describe it. The journey follows Thomas, this young boy from about seven years old and
02:17sort of his mid twenties. And, but for the first half, and I don't want to give too much
02:23away, Thomas exists in this story world. And I won't say what, why, whatever, but he exists
02:29in this story world in which he plays this hero called the Brown Ranger, which is inspired
02:34very much from the Power Rangers, the early 90s version and, and, and those they're after.
02:39And yeah. And in the story world, he's the hero in all these different genres and situations.
02:47And he's the, he's a victor in a lot of them, but the story world gets rocked a couple of
02:52times by these glitches, bringing him back to reality. And then through reality, we see a
02:59reflection on why the story world exists, you know, the real life situations that really
03:05happened. And it's sort of his story world is a way of reclaiming the narrative, I guess,
03:11for his own life. And he hides within it because I think he, he would just prefer that to be
03:16his life. But we, we soon learn that you can't run away from your problems and, you know, history
03:21is history, but we need to look forward. And we have a lovely ending to the show. And again,
03:26I won't say much about, you know, how lovely to do this in the nest. Isn't that perfect?
03:32Oh yeah. It's been incredible. And this, this whole program has been brilliant. It's been
03:36so supportive, you know, it's allowed me to, to, to write a really personal show, um, whilst
03:41feeling really comfortable and supported and, um, and, and yeah, and it's given me so much
03:49freedom to work with it that can work and focus on it more, uh, cause it's been such a
03:52generous, generous program. Uh, and to have the nest as a sort of the, the sort of the full stop
03:58or more exclamation mark, I guess, at the end of this journey has been brilliant because they're
04:02very much, CFT are very much expressed that it is the sort of culmination of the program, but it's
04:07not necessarily the full stop at the end for this show. It's the, it's the point in which you go,
04:13right, that you've all the bells and whistles.
04:14It's the launchpad in full stop, isn't it?
04:16Exactly. And, and the launchpad and, um, and I've had, you know, having connected with other
04:20people in the industry to invite them to see the show, it's opened a lot of doors for me. And I'm
04:25really excited to see how that progresses as, as you know, as hopefully the show has further life
04:30and, um, and it's certainly got a lot of interest and a lot of people are hungry to see it. And that's,
04:36it's been brilliant. And, um, and I've been fortunate, as I said, to, to, you know, work
04:40with, um, do a workshop alongside it with, um, you know, community groups and school groups and
04:46things, which have just been brilliant. And I hope that, um, I've, you know, both, you know,
04:51seen and inspired, um, a lot of people who may have otherwise felt like they couldn't access.
04:56Congratulations on getting it this far and all my wishes for those performances in the nest.
05:01Great to speak to you. Thank you.
05:03Yeah, you too. Thanks.
