Beautiful Thing, Jonathan Harvey’s urban gay fairytale, returns to London after a sell out season in January - the first time the play had been seen in London since 1994! Set during a long, hot summer on the Thamesmead Estate in South East London, two teenage boys gradually discover their mutual affection and love for each other as they sleep head to toe in the same bed.

We spoke to Jonathan Harvey to find out more about his classic gay play, the inspiration behind Beautiful Thing, teenage love, the Pet Shop Boys, his love of musicals and Gimme Gimme Gimme.

It’s been over 10 years since Beautiful Thing premiered and yet the play is still as moving and relevant as it was when it was first written. Why do you think it’s struck such a particular chord with gay audiences?
Listen, if I could answer questions like that I’d have written more like it! I guess it strikes a chord because it’s a coming of age play. Most of us can remember what it was like to be young and fancy someone, and not be sure if they fancied you back.

In terms of gay audiences, I suppose it is welcome because there is still very little for us to identify with in drama. The play is slightly rose tinted and has a happy ending, something that’s still quite rare in plays. That’s not to say it’s unbelievable, a lot of it is autobiographical. Part of the reason I wrote it was because I do think you can be working class and have your sexuality accepted by your family.

What’s it been like re-visiting the play for the London revival?
Really rewarding. I’ve seen a few productions up and down the country in the last few years and each time I’ve enjoyed seeing it, but it’s been weird as I’ve had nothing to do with it - yet it still seemed to work as a piece of theatre.

However, each time there was always something I didn’t really like. When the London producers approached me I thought I could redress the balance and have a version of it that I was happy about. So I got involved in casting and attended some of the rehearsals.

Although I’m not a London snob, there’s suddenly a whole other calibre of actor available to you when you say you’re putting the play on in the West End. So hopefully we’ve got the best people going!

In 2006, is love still as innocent and teenagers still as troubled about their sexuality?
Some things never change, but as I’m now 37 it might be better to ask a younger person that question. I know that ‘queer’ is still a derogatory term in the playground, and that ‘gay’ seems to have been picked up as a cover-all term of abuse. So if you don’t like your homework you might call it ‘gay’. That hardly bodes well for acceptance, surely?

What was it that originally inspired you to write Beautiful Thing?
Several things. My agent had got rid of me and said I had no future in the business, so it was a good kick up the arse to make me prove him wrong. I had a six weeks summer holiday from my teaching job so I wrote it in longhand in the first two weeks, typed it up in the next two, and spent the last two trying to find a new agent with the script. I managed to pull it off!

It’s very definitely a working class gay love story with a happy ending. Was this a conscious decision?
I was very keen to dispel the myth that every lad from a working class background, when they come out, ends up selling their body down Piccadilly for twenty Woodbines and a bar of Dairy Milk.

I’ve read that it was also a political comment about the then unequal age of consent for gay men. Is this true?
Yes it was. The Age of Consent debate was raging and so I made the boys in the play 15 and decided to show them falling in love. It wasn’t just about sodomy, which is what the public school educated toffs in the House of Lords seemed to think!

So, is Beautiful Thing at all autobiographical?
Slightly. I had a best mate at school who was beaten by his dad and would often stay over at our house, though nothing ever happened between us. And though my mother’s nothing like Sandra, the coming out scenes were very much based on my discussions with her. That scene still makes me cry. Jamie, I suppose, is very much me. Leah was based on a girl I used to teach.

You’ve said before that you believe the relationship between Ste and Jamie would probably last a year. Do you still believe that?
Yes. These two lads are very young and I think Jamie will probably go to University and meet someone else. But then the play was very much about first love and coming of age, rather than creating a bond that would last for life. Still, they’ll always share something very special and I’m sure they’ll remain good friends for life.

Maybe I should write the sequel and we can find out!

Do you think the new Civil Partnership Act will make ‘coming out’ and sustaining same-sex relationships easier for today’s youth?
Who knows? Hopefully. It’s certainly the best state of affairs we’ve had yet, but the cynic in me says it’ll change nothing in the playground.

Would you ever consider a Civil Partnership?
Yes I would. Why, is that a proposal?

There’s a great line in Beautiful Thing that quotes The Sound of Music. Growing up, were you a fan of musicals?
Huge. I was a bit of a freak. I joined the Liverpool Music Library and would dance round the living room to My Fair Lady to bewildered looks from my parents. By the time I was eight I had seen The Sound of Music 50 times and told everyone I wanted to be a nun when I grew up.

You collaborated with the Pet Shop Boys on the musical, Closer to Heaven. Were you disappointed by its short run?
Not at all, as I don’t view it as a short run - it was on for six months. The only other play of mine to have run for that long was Beautiful Thing.

I was disappointed with the show though, as I felt it became bastardised along the way. From a starting point of something quite special, I think we sold out at some stage and didn’t stick to our guns. But then that’s very easy to do with a musical, there’s so many cooks to spoil the broth. I’m still proud that we wrote the first musical featuring a gay love scene to be seen in London.

I love the Pet Shop Boys to bits, they were gentlemen every step of the way. However the same can not be said about everyone else involved in putting the show on. Let’s just say, when we came off we were replaced by The Vagina Monologues. The irony was not lost on me. I’d been surrounded by cunts for the previous six months.

Has the experience put you off writing another musical?
It did at the time, but I've changed my mind. I wrote a play with songs which was performed at the Edinburgh Festival in 2004 called Taking Charlie. It was a one woman show set in a rehab clinic. Say no more!

Perhaps you could do a Mama Cass compilation show? Her music runs throughout Beautiful Thing. What is it about the music that you like?
I happened to be listening to her when I wrote the play and thought her upbeat mood and life affirming lyrics seemed to be very apt for the piece.

Beautiful Thing obviously wears its sexuality very much on its sleeve. Do you think it’s important for the gay community to see themselves represented onstage?
Not just on the stage, everywhere.

So, what do you think is the biggest cliché in gay theatre?
Not sure. Perhaps me?

If you were a gay drama, what would you be?
Full of cheap gags and liking the sound of my own voice.

Plays apart, you’ve also been a hugely successful television writer, working on Coronation Street and Gimme Gimme Gimme. Do you prefer working in either of the genres?
I like having a mix of both.

The extremes of Gimme’s Tom and Linda are a world away from the lives of Ste and Jamie and you obviously had a lot of fun writing it. So is camp, bawdy gay humour ultimately your style?
When I was writing Gimme it was a very different approach to playwrighting. The aim with Beautiful Thing was to change people’s opinions. The aim with Gimme was to make people laugh, full stop.

I like to do ‘serious’ and I like to do ‘silly’. That’s probably why I enjoy writing Corrie so much - in the space of an episode you can be both serious and extremely silly.

And finally, what’s next for Jonathan Harvey?
I have my own production company and we’re developing lots of comedy stuff for telly. In terms of theatre, I have been commissioned by the Liverpool Playhouse to write something new for 2008, when my home city will be the European Capital of Culture - hoorah!

Read our interview with the two original stars of the London revival of Beautiful Thing (which ran at the Sound Theatre from 10 January–4 February 2006), Gavin Brocker and Andrew Garfield, and our review of Beautiful Thing.

Beautiful Thing, by Jonathan Harvey
Sound Theatre
Swiss Centre
10 Wardour Street
London, W1D 6QF
0870 890 0503 / www.seetickets.com

19 July-9 September 2006

Find out more at www.beautiful-thing.co.uk.

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