Conversations After Sex star and producer Olivia Lindsay discusses bringing Mark O’Halloran’s award-winning Irish play to London for the first time, its raw and authentic storytelling and why she’s championing new writers through her company Ye You Productions.
The final weeks before the launch of a new stage show can be an exciting, thrilling and nervous time. But as Olivia Lindsay heads into rehearsals for Conversations After Sex, the London debut of Mark O’Halloran’s award-winning Irish play, her enthusiasm and passion for the show is infectious.
That’s not surprising. Not only is Lindsay taking on the starring role in the ambitious three-hander, but it also marks the first project from her theatre company Ye You Productions.
“We’re calm right now, but I feel like in any moment you just don’t know what could happen,” she tells The Theatre Playbook. “But we’re in a good place.”
The prospect of starring and producing a show is “definitely a challenge,” she admits. “It’s really tough, but it’s rewarding and also weirdly, I have control in a sense that it allows you to understand the full process from beginning to end. Being so aware of and having control over a lot of that is quite freeing.
“This is my first show under my company, so it’s my baby in a sense, and I feel like really responsible to also tell the story in the best way we can.”
Running at London’s Park Theatre from April 30 to May 17, Conversations After Sex is about unexpected encounters, anonymous strangers in hotel rooms and, unguarded intimacy.
When a woman in full possession of her sexuality meets a carousel of different men, she finds herself uncovering more than she expected in a story exploring the nature of grief, loneliness and promiscuity to show us how intimacy can unlock unforeseen connections.
Lindsay (The Least We Could, Picture This) take to the stage in the lead role of She, alongside Julian Moore-Cook (Blue Lights, Derry Girls) and Jo Herbert (Dear Octopus, 3 Winters). Herbert plays She’s sister, F, while Moore-Cook takes on the prospect of playing all the male character roles.
Directed by Jess Edwards (Elephant, War & Culture), Conversations After Sex is described as a funny, sexy and painful story about the magic and loneliness of sex with strangers.
It won Best New Play at the Irish Times Awards in 2022 and O’Halloran’s script was one that immediately jumped out to Lindsay as a “rare” opportunity to bring an original production to the UK for the first time, and the chance to present its “raw, authentic dialogue” in an extremely intimate space.
“It allows you to feel like you’re listening into a conversation,” she says. “You’re going to feel like you’re really in it when you’re in there, which is terrifying, but really exciting.
“There’s no hiding. But bringing that here for the first time, it’s an honour, really. And I haven’t seen work like this, writing like this, for a long time. I read scripts weekly and I’ve been looking for a while.
“Then I read it and was like, ‘This is it, this is it. Oh my God, this is what I’ve been waiting for, for like five months. This is the one.”
Lindsay was drawn to O’Halloran’s “real,” authentic story, and the “super colloquial” writing that makes audiences “feel like they can touch the characters while you’re reading them off the page.”
It’s also a hugely relatable story, Lindsay says, and the fact it’s a story about a woman written by a man makes the script even more extraordinary. “I was so surprised,” she says. “A lot of people, when they’ve read the script, can’t believe it’s written by man because he writes so well for women, which isn’t always the case. It is rare to come across strong female roles.”
Touching on issues of mental health, the story is primarily about “the beauty of connection” – although that theme doesn’t just apply to She, but the male characters she encounters as well. Post-show Q&As with Rhea Norwood (May 6) and Jordan Stephens (May 7) will also discuss issues of strong female leads, masculinity and mental health, drawing on both actors’ own experiences.
“For me, it was so important to have conversations about vulnerability in masculinity and men and the importance of talking, which a lot of people are brought up not to do,” Lindsay notes. “You see this yearning with She and these different men and how they both need each other as much as each other, which is so nice. They both want to be having these conversations.”
Performing in the round at the Park Theatre means Conversations After Sex promises to be a revealing experience for the audience as much as the cast. “Eyes will be on every part of your face, your body, your soul,” Lindsay notes. But the experience means the audience are not just watching the story unfold but, as the actor hopes, being part of it too.
Where the Irish staging of the show focused on a single bed, “we are exploring what we’re going to do in terms the bed and how we can use it,” Lindsay says. “But I’m so excited for people to see, because we’ve got some amazing ideas. We’re just trying to get them executed.”
That development has been taking place without O’Halloran, who has allowed Lindsay, Edwards and the creative team free rein to present his script as they wish. Lindsay also had not seen the original performance before acquiring the script, so she is fully unencumbered by what has come before.
“It will literally be our own take on it,” she says. “It’s not often you get to do roles like this – and there’s not enough of them out there.”
That points to another reason Lindsay was keen to take on Conversations After Sex – an artistic urge to produce work like this.
“It’s obviously a scary prospect in terms of being a producer, on top of being an actor. But if you aren’t seeing the roles come in and you aren’t finding the scripts you think should be out there, then make them. Make it happen,” she states. “From an actor perspective, it’s a hefty one and it’s very raw and there’s going to be a lot of self-discovery in rehearsal and it’s very vulnerable.
“It’s so full on and fast, so it’s a challenge. But I also think that’s really exhilarating and it allows you to dig deep into every aspect. Emotionally it will be a lot, and the script naturally is in a very vulnerable setting. It’s a very revealing setting. Everyone will relate to it in some way. There’s not going to be one person who’s like, ‘Oh, I haven’t been there.’”
The artistic director of Ye You Productions, Lindsay’s previous producing credits include Picture This (Marylebone Theatre), No’s Knife (The Old Vic Theatre) and The Last of the Hausmann’s (National Theatre). But with Conversations After Sex marking the company’s debut, she is already looking ahead at what comes next and is already getting emails about potential new projects even before Conversations After Sex’s London opening.
“That is, honestly, so exciting and nice for an up-and-coming producer. It can feel quite isolating out there,” she observes. “It’s not easy. It’s a real grind in the theatre world and it’s a small world, but it’s really exciting to see people come forward so quickly and we haven’t even opened yet. There’s a lot of potential to hopefully take this script elsewhere and do more with it. I hope it has another life beyond Park with us, but we’ll see what happens.”
Lindsay is also a huge advocate for fresh writing – particularly with strong female leads – and hopes to give emerging writers the chance to see their work on stage.
“I know what it is because I’m in both seats,” she says. “I am an actor and it is rare you get a role where you’re like, ‘Wow, this is so juicy, and I actually get to explore all these things for once.’ I want to create those opportunities for everyone so hopefully we can build the next generation of writers and producers, and even directors.”
With Conversations After Sex, “everyone who’s part of the team is just so excited, because it’s such a rare script to be able to work with,” Lindsay adds. “It’s so fun. It’s so exciting – and sexy! It’s so sexy! And it’s raunchy and naughty, but also heart-breaking. It’s everything at once.”
Conversations After Sex runs at Park Theatre from April 30 to May 17. Tickets: www.parktheatre.co.uk
Top image: Conversations After Sex (supplied image)