It was great to have Adam Leyland and Callum Forbes on the podcast for Episode 5. It’s been a pleasure knowing these creatives since last year when we were lucky enough to see Adam Leyland’s hilarious debut play, ‘At Heavens Gate’ which Cal performed in. It was very entertaining from start to finish, it’s a play that you would definitely want to see on a Saturday night. To describe in a few words; controversial, hilarious and brilliant. It was funny to hear what inspired him to write this play. I’ve said it to Adam on a few occasions, it needs to come back or taking to the Edinburgh Fringe. At the bar after the showing, I introduced ourselves to Adam and quickly hinted that we need to meet up to chat about a possible collaboration on a project which was soon to be Theatre Addict. Unfortunately due to current circumstances, we had to postpone the event.

From the development stages of this podcast, I wanted these two creatives on one of the episodes because I knew they would be brilliant on it and very funny, I wasn’t wrong as you will hear when you listen this Sunday. It was great to hear the memories they had of the infamous ‘Bob the Russian’,  a production by the award winning production company, Naughty Corner Productions. The play was written by the artistic director, Mikee Dickinson. I personally didn’t get to see the show but got the chance to see it when the company very kindly released the footage through the first lockdown. 

I could see why they had a great time on the road with this show. They talked about both their time at the Edinburgh Fringe and the antics on the mile.  It was great to especially hear Cal’s time at the fringe because he has been a number of times with Naughty Corner, as well as his own production: ‘The Muckers’. Cal wrote ‘The Muckers’ with his friend Adam Nichols, who also co-wrote the groundbreaking immersive play, ‘Rave r us’. The 5 star show went online during lockdown in March under the new title;  ‘Madras with the Muckers’.

It was brilliant to hear the writing process of ‘The Muckers’, getting bladdered one night and coming up with such a play that highlights a powerful but disturbing reality. We have all come across characters like the two Dave’s, that were portrayed in the play. It was very insightful where the ideas came from for a production like this, hats off to the lads. You can see this on Naughty Corner’s Facebook.

The lads also touched on how they both came to collaborate creating the company, Script Suppliers alongside Warren Kettle. The company specialises in writing showreels for actors, among other things. We are hoping to collaborate with these creatives in the future on a project. The company recently released a radio drama series about current events called, Floors Apart. Have a listen here.

Overall it was great to have these two creatives join the team for Episode 5. It was a lot of laughs and we hope to see a lot of these two next year once the world goes back to “normal”. Make sure to check out Episode 5 on all major platforms this Sunday 1st November.

Words by Christopher Woodward
Images by Andrew Smith