At 21, Anya has had a sell-out production at the Royal Court, written an adaptation of Chekhov’s classic ‘The Seagull’ and is currently writing a screenplay… the novelty of collections is starting to ebb away at this point. Having enrolled in a course at the Royal Court she won a competition and was accepted into the adult course, where she received a lot of support from the theatre in her early career. I wondered how, at the prime age of 14, when I (and many others like me) was merely awaiting my GCSEs, she got noticed in such a way that it started her career – for her it was simply a case of “doing the same as everyone else on the course”, she says.
Her age seemed to me and to others a huge bolster for her success within the industry – not only is she successful in her own right, but this success seems to have come so early on. She describes her age as a positive force, giving her publicity, but also unremarkable to her: “I only only noticed it once articles were being written about it” she recalls.
Despite this she says that “constant focus on her age” from the press has been “frustrating” as it gives license to undermine what she means to do with her plays. It is undeniable that most interviews with Anya and reviews of her plays (which have been hugely complementary) reference her age, with one applauding her ability to understand and portray the emotional stand-point from each character in her plays (ranging from teen to middle-aged parent). She is able to fully understand these different generational figures and viewpoints but yet her age is sometimes used as a defence for something that she did very readily intend to portray in her plays.
Her age has both evidently helped her with publicity, but at the same time has been a bit of a kick in the teeth, she muses. As someone who is four years fully integrated in the industry, she says that after a few plays you’re “experienced whatever your age”.
A lot of Anya’s work has been based around young people: one of her most recent works has been part of a collaboration with the National Theatre in their “Connections” project.
Projects are “essential” for young people, a happy relief from being “frustrated that there were so few real plays which young people could perform” as a teenager.
Ten playwrights were commissioned this year to write plays, the National Theatre then cast young people from all round the country for these plays as a way to involve a younger generation with drama. Working with the likes of Lenny Henry and Howard Brenton, Reiss has been described as part of a “stellar line-up” but denies any hint of this simply expressing her enthusiasm for the project which is “exciting because [the plays] are written about British teenagers and for British teenagers” rather than just using them as props. Although Reiss had a personal interest in the project, having been part of it from a young age helping to develop the plays, she claims that these types of projects are “essential” for young people that were a happy relief from being “frustrated that there were so few real plays which young people could perform” as a teenager. In fact her most enthusiastic statement about the industry is when she starts talking about her friends’ engagement with her work, saying “Nothing has felt better than when I get a friend who doesn’t go to the theatre to watch a play and they’ve had a good time.”
Reiss’ interaction with her friends and peer group is normal, she claims that she does “live mainly like a student, a very lazy student in that I can go out whenever I want and unless I have a meeting I don’t have to worry about a hangover or a late night” but that the difficulty of her job lies in the fact that “free-time” isn’t really a thing – at any point she “could/does feel like [she] should be working” as her job isn’t a 9 to 5 affair. So her lifestyle is not that dissimilar in the sense that her time-constraints are personally motivated rather than being in an office environment. Despite her assertion that she is a “lazy student” she stresses her obsession with her work (which might not be a steady feature in a student’s lifestyle…). The fact that her job has “no point where you feel like you’re allowed to switch off” is “bizarre” to a lot of her peers as well as being seen as an “excuse”. Apparently “most people seem quite bemused” by her job and “often jealous of the freedom and flexibility of being self employed” as apposed to the weighty confines of “deadlines and dissertations”. So although she is not an office 9-to-5-er Reiss’ dedication to her job is pretty intense, her mention of hangovers and procrastination later on in the interview bring her back down to my level at least!
So after considering her own place in her peer group how does she think younger people can engage and get involved in playwriting? The answer is experience, experience, experience according to Anya – the Royal Court Young Writers program helped her in this respect and she describes the course (and other courses like it – for example the BBC Writers Room, the Lyric Young Company and the Young Vic Direc- tors program) as “invaluable”.
Last year she tackled adapting Chekhov’s The Seagull having been approached by Russell Bolam. With her adaptation not only being prone to criticism from “the wrath of classicists” but also from comparison with other versions by distinguished playwrights – Mark Lawson of the Guardian comparing her to Michael Frayn, Tom Stoppard and Christopher Hampton, found her emerging “creditably from the comparison” – it is remarkable that it has been reviewed as “fresh, colloquial, sexy and downright perceptive”. Despite Reiss feeling “very nervous” and even expecting “disappointment” in her effort she says that “Chekhov won out” however at this point I’m trusting the good reviews rather than Reiss’ modesty! In terms of adapting Chekhov’s themes Reiss says that it was “surprisingly easy”, with “universal” themes for the most part but still some “radical” thinking. We have all seen the dark side of modernisation and connecting the youth to old plays; Reiss speaks of “gimmicky Facebook references” never being part of her vision for the project but also of the difficulties of actually regenerating the play rather than just putting a “modern dress” on it, describing the difference as a “difficult line to walk”. As adaptations are in the line of fire from not only critics and previous lovers of the play it seems that Reiss has come out on top, giving the classic a modern-day focus.
After branching out into adaptation, Reiss is extending her grasp even further into TV and Film. Currently writing a screenplay and contributing towards a TV series, the focus has changed dramatically (excuse the pun) with “rules unlike in theatre”. The move into this medium seems to have been a bit alien for Reiss as she jokes “if you’re writing a Rom-Com and by page 7 the boy and girl haven’t met each other, you’re already in trouble… apparently” but far from her initial attitude towards these “I don’t think anything can beat your first play: it was full of quite steep learning curves but because the Court was so fantastic…I never felt that daunted by it at all, I just enjoyed myself.”
Restrictions as “arbitrary” her understanding of this medium has grown to acceptance. Obviously the content and the target audience of different TV slots change the brief for a program but Reiss stresses the reversed importance of the story and the audience with the audience being number one for TV. She seems excited by this new venture but incredibly wary of the precarious TV and Film industry resolving “to treat it as a bucking bronco and not to take it personally when you inevitably get thrown off”.
My last question to her was asking what the most enjoyable production that she has written, she responded with a happy but slightly apprehensive advertisement for the industry: “I don’t think anything can beat your first play, it was full of quite steep learning curves but because the Court was so fantastic, and because, as I keep on saying, I knew nothing about the workings of Theatre when I started, I never felt that daunted by it at all, I just enjoyed myself. Now I know better.” However, would she do another adaptation despite the mass of external pressure? Yes. Will she continue to work in the TV and Film sector? Yes. Can we eagerly await another Anya Reiss original? Of course and many of us already are! So however “daunting” it may be after losing her naivety in the industry she’s powering through like noone’s business.
Reiss plays the part of successful playwright well and she was a pleasure to get to know.