Director Roy Alexander Weise is masterminding our descent into the volatile quicksand of campus politics in the dying months of Obama’s presidency in Jamie Bogyo’s new play Safe Space, the final Minerva production (Oct 11-Nov 8) of the 2025 Chichester Festival Theatre season.
00:00Good morning. My name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Lovely to speak to Roy Alexander Weiss this morning about Safe Space, a new play coming up in the Minerva from Saturday, the 11th of October to Saturday, November the 8th.
00:16And this is, excitingly, your first time in Chichester. First time ever you've been aware of the work from Chichester. How are you enjoying it so far?
00:24You're having a great, great time. So I've been up for like a few site visits to come and see the theatre. I've come up to see shows here.
00:34As you said, I hadn't before this project come to Chichester to watch a play, but I've been aware of Chichester's work and watched a few of the productions in London.
00:43And it was always really exciting for me as a director to see this company whose work is tremendously accomplished.
00:54As a director, it's really, really attractive to like see producers whose work feels really well resourced and really supported.
01:03And actually, since getting here, I mean, I love the town. I love the experiences that I've had so far and the engagements I've had with people in the local area.
01:16And the theatre is really beautiful. All the staff are really warm and welcoming. So, yeah, it's been great.
01:23And fantastic to work on a new piece.
01:25Yes, it's a new play. I'm a really big fan of new work. I love the classics as well.
01:30I've done my fair share of Shakespeare and a bit of Tennessee Williams, but I'm really excited to be directing a world premiere of a new play by Jamie Boggio.
01:41And it's his first play, too. I'm really, really passionate about the development of writers.
01:47And it feels like being a bit like a midwife, in a way, helping Jamie to give birth to his first child.
01:57Absolutely. And when you read the play, it sounds like you were immediately drawn to it and drawn to the themes and intrigued by it. Why was that?
02:06I was. I was really, you know, it's really interesting because I think throughout my career,
02:13there has sort of been an expectation on me because of my identity to make work that is about oppression, about racism and about those challenges.
02:27And I have felt the need to do that sometimes. I've wanted to do that, but not always.
02:33And it felt really exciting to receive a play written by somebody who is not like me.
02:44Jamie is a white American, like, straight man.
02:50And, yeah, he's writing about this, like, experiences that he can relate to, but also experiences that I can, too.
02:59And there's something really powerful about the endeavour of a playwright trying to reach and imagine another experience.
03:07In some ways, that endeavour really relates to what I believe is necessary if we want to push the world forward,
03:17which is, like, a collective responsibility for the ills that we have to navigate as human beings.
03:23And this isn't a play that's trying to preach at you, so to speak, actually.
03:28It's just, like, holding up all of these points of view and going, well, who knows, you know?
03:33And it's really, really funny, too. So that's also a good reason to come.
03:36But there's something about, like, engaging with, like, how we have these conversations all together that felt so exciting to me.
03:45And, like, off the page, like, reading it, it just, like, flew off the page.
03:51And I found myself, like, laughing through every scene, having, like, these moments of, like, gut punch as well.
03:58And Jamie and I had this really brilliant meeting where I actually kind of came to him and was like,
04:04because I'm quite tough, and I was like, it needs work, man.
04:07This, this, this, this, this, this, this.
04:09And he was like, hmm.
04:11And I didn't know that I would have gotten the job, actually, because I sort of thought that maybe I was a bit too heavy-handed.
04:18And then I got the offer and was like, oh, okay.
04:21And when I met up with Jamie next, I was like, you know, to be honest, I was sort of not sure that you would have given it to me.
04:28And he was like, well, I want to work hard.
04:32I want this to be the best play that it could possibly be.
04:35And that was when I was like.
04:36Now you earn respect, clearly, isn't it?
04:38Yeah, I was like, this is good.
04:42And it has been.
04:43It's been amazing.
04:45Fantastic.
04:45Well, Roy, really lovely to meet you and to speak to you.
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