We chatted to Olly about his show Old Fat F**k Up heading to the Riverside Studios from the 5th November until the 20th December.
Hi Olly, what can we expect from the show? It’s funny! It’s unexpectedly tender! It’s a searingly honest exploration of the crisis of masculinity! It’s a show about seeing your naked body in the mirror and crying, discovering your career’s uncontrollably disintegrating, and realising that suddenly everything costs a bomb. Oh, and now you’ve got kids too, so there’s that. Hilarious, right?
It’s kind of like a sort of masculine Fleabag meets a more pathetic Fight Club, but with parenthood thrown intothe mix. I have no doubt it’s going to piss some people off. I’ve got no doubt the show will strike a nerve with some people, and that’s alright. I’m not
interested in being right or wrong; I’m interested in putting a feeling on stage
that I think a lot of people quietly carry, even if they’d never put it into words.
There’s a part in the show I still can’t get through in rehearsals without
flinching. I’m still not sure how that moment’s gonna go down. And yes, it’s
about men, but it’s really about anyone who’s ever felt like they’re running out
of road, trying to hold everything together while pretending they’re fine.
How did the idea for the play come about? I know hope is an obligation, but it’s really hard not to see the world as so f**ked, right? We’re poorer than our parents, the planet’s boiling, it feels like everyone hates one another (even though they actually definitely don’t), and no one thinks things will get better! Hurrah! And now I’m a dad, and it’s the
hardest thing I’ve ever done. And so I wrote a show about all that.
How does it feel to be returning to the Riverside Studios? So great. I can’t tell you how good it feels for an artist to know that a venue like that believes in your work. Rhys Williamson (Head of Programming at RS) took my last show, Fking Legend, transferred it from Edinburgh to London, and then immediately commissioned my next show, and now both are playing this autumn. It is just so great. And, at a time when it’s so, so fking hard to be an artist, it’s allowed me to take a step forward. If you’ll forgive a rather dated
and potentially grandiose analogy, Fking Legend was my Revolver, Old Fat Fk
Up is my Sgt. Peppers.
What do you enjoy the most about being part of the theatre industry? Ha ha! At the moment, not a whole lot! Joking. Kind of. So many of the most profound moments of my life have come watching theatre. And you know what, at a time when screens are everywhere, algorithms are unrelentingly manipulating us and we’re bombarded with advertising everywhere we go, maybe the theatre, where there’s none of that, a place where storytellers and audiences come together to explore the mystery of the human condition, maybe the theatre is exactly what we need right now.
How have you found the experience of putting the show together so far? It’s had everything! Joy, desperation, dread, excitement. I guess it’s a bit like being a parent, or a bit like just trying to get by in the UK in 2025.
By Emma Clarendon
Old Fat F**k will be at Riverside Studios over 25 performances from 5 th
November – 20 th December. Ticket link HERE.