Erinn Dhesi reflects on her Nestival Residency with Talking Birds

Writing doesn’t suck as much when you’re not writing from a hovel. Not that where I live is a physical hovel. Just a creative one. 

I came to Talking Birds with one thing on my mind. Planning out a play inspired by a true story of friend who got a naked butler for the evening. Having started off life as one of the Young Vic’s 5 Plays (directed by Khadifa Wong). I realised it had legs as a full-length play. It’s my most ambitious idea to date but quite quickly I knew – I could just not do my usual ‘write-the-crap-out-of-it-for-8-successive-nights-till-3am’ style of writing. It needed to be planned meticulously, with all the skills and acumen learnt from the many writers’ groups I’ve done over the years. 

First, I needed to vomit everything out I could on to the walls. Like this meme from It’s Always Sunny:

Ofc, I had been talking to this play to anyone who would listen or who dared to ask, ‘What are you working on at the moment?’ People had graciously said that the story reminded them of Faust and Richard III, and I was like ‘oh, yeah that’s, like, totally intentional’. Reader it was not.

So, I spent my first few days analysing the crap out of both, finding the links and reading analysis on how both plays did their best at centring their story on a total fuckhead whilst also making you want to root for them.

The opening soliloquy of Richard III was a particular obsession, it had a surprising number of mentions of love and what genuinely helped me was watching different renditions of it on YouTube. In conclusion, the Benedict Cumberbatch is the best one for dummies but the Ralph Fiennes one is the most intense. 

For my own peace of mind, I also had to consume the films, podcasts, and essays that I had been cataloguing and felt had a connection with the story. Whilst I knew the beginning and end of this play going into the residency, I needed some hardcore inspiration for the more … freakier aspects of the play. On reflection, it seems like this was passive work, however it was so much easier to absorb by being in a proper studio to work.

On the opposing wall, I mapped out the would-be structure of my play and needed everything that could keep me engaged – paper in a straight line, things written in multi-colour felt tip pens and memes. This all gave director and dramaturg, Nikhil Vyas, a perfect opportunity to swoop in for the day, armed with many questions about the play that I finally felt emotionally ready to answer. The key to a fruitful dramaturg experience? A writer who is willing to hear it and isn’t totally precious about dumping key elements of their story if it truly doesn’t work. 

This set me up perfectly for the second week which I spent refining the structure until I was sure I knew what I wanted to write and why. I’m glad from the outset that I decided not to write any actual words for this play, rather that I created a solid structure for it so I could break it down into manageable chunks until ‘writing day’ arrived – whenever that may be. I couldn’t have done it without the warm and welcoming space Talking Birds provided with this residency. Any artist who wants focus, clarity and some industrial strength coffee should definitely sign up for a residency!

Erinn Dhesi is a playwright and performer based in the West Midlands. You can learn more about her work here and follow her on Instagram or Twitter.