A FREE HOUSE

Written by ROGER MORLIDGE, CHRIS MEADS and the COMPANY

A Free House was a play about the emotional gap that can arise between fathers and sons. It was commissioned by the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, for their PUB season, in which the Royal Exchange Studio was transformed into an authentic, fully-functioning pub, with audiences seated around bar tables, real ale on draft, a darts board, and pool tables. The cast of A Free House were a combination of professional actors and also the fathers of grown-up children. These remarkable gentlemen were recruited to the project via the Royal Exchange Theatre's Acting For Scared People initiative. The experience of A Free House had a profound impact upon my directing practice, not least through the particular demands of staging a theatre work, and engaging an audience, within the informality of a lively pub environment.