The actor chatted to us about starring in Delivery at Chiswick Playhouse.
Hi Gordon, could you explain what Delivery is about?For me, Delivery is the love story of Angela and Joe. It’s the story of two soul mates, taken
from a first meeting, their love at first sight, to the imminent birth of their first child. This life changing moment sends Joe into a panic. He doubts he could be a good father as he struggles to return to civilian life, suffering PTSD from his horrifying experiences of serving in the Falklands War.
For Angela, she finds her world is turned upside down as she fights to save the man she loves from himself. It’s only in the aftermath of returning from the War, the couple discover their battles have only just begun.
What was it about Andy Walker’s play that caught your attention? After first reading I laughed. Having worked on the play for a few weeks now, I’m still laughing. That’s a good sign for me. Andy is able to take a subject like PTSD and make it immediately accessible – certainly to me. I love how he is able to use humour and absurdity to highlight moments. For me, that resonates more deeply. It’s thrilling as an actor to mix comedy or lighter moments with intense emotional upheaval and devastation. Perhaps most importantly I get to play a number of characters including a bullish Sarge
Major and a sex-starved Slug – what’s not to love?!
How are you finding working on the production so far? I’m loving it. I’ve found myself amongst a really strong, supportive cast. The themes
explored in the piece demand careful consideration and we have a responsibility to uphold that. I’d like to think we’ve achieved that. I’ve been lucky enough to work with director Lesley Manning before on a number of
projects and I’m continually amazed with her patience and precision. Delivery has been no different. She is able to strike the right balance between the real, raw human emotions explored in the piece and the almost heightened absurdity of certain situations and characters that
we encounter throughout. Lesley is able to weave between the two worlds without ever sending up the script or compromising the story.
What are you most looking forward to about presenting this play?
I’ll be fascinated by the audiences response to the piece. PTSD is such a private, personal mental health condition that I don’t believe is talked about as much as it should be. Working on the play has certainly opened my eyes to its devastation. I hope watching this play might encourage someone in need to reach out for help. On a purely performance level, I’m looking forward to seeing if I can successfully play the moments of comedy and gravity with equal success.
How would you describe Delivery?One and a half hours of a blisteringly paced, always heartfelt, often heart-rendering, love story which mixes War with football with fruit flies with Sea Lions and a new born baby!
Why should people book a ticket? Delivery is wonderfully exciting new writing. It’s a fascinating, detailed exploration about
the trauma of PTSD and how it comes close to destroying the lives of a young couple in love. It’s heartfelt, it’s heartbreaking. You’ll sob and you’ll roar with laughter. It’s pure escapism for an hour and a half to a world that we perhaps don’t know much about and you’ll get to meet a number of characters that I guarantee you’ve never seen before.