Angie Johnson finds playwright Nick Gill ‘feels lucky’ ahead of his masterful depiction of dark themes

One of my favourite blogs on the Internet is called Advice for Newish Playwrights (if you are considering taking up writing for the theatre I advise you to have a look!). Witty and insightful it will either inspire you to go for it or find a more sensible way of earning a living.

The author is Nick Gill, a 34-year-old writer, musician, printer and typefounder. I ask him why he practises in so many different media. “Sometimes I come up with an idea but it might not be right for a play or a film short, yet it will be right for a piece of music. “I am lucky I have several avenues where I can express myself when I think I have something to say.”

A very modest chap, he often uses the phrase ‘I was lucky’ to explain his steadily rising success over the last decade. When I ask him about his work with prestigious theatre groups, such as The Apathists, Theatre 503, Paines Plough, and the Royal Court, he says: “I was just in the right place at the right times. There was a lots of experimenting — and opportunities to learn what was possible, or sometimes not possible, in the theatre.” He also values the chance to work with some talented people. “I was just hanging around and they let me be a part of it,” he adds.

One of the people he worked with in those days was Alice Mallin, one of the producers of Gill’s highly acclaimed play Mirror Teeth. She is now set to direct his fiji land, which is currently at the Burton Taylor Theatre until Saturday. A former student at St Edward’s School and Lincoln College, he knows the Burton Taylor Studio well. His first play there, back in 2002, was called Narcolepsy. “It feels a bit like coming home to be back”, he mused.

Gill was one of the winners of the Amnesty International Protect the Human Awards for fiji land. The script was then picked up by Three Streets Productions for this mini-tour. “I was glad to get this opportunity to rework the piece”, says Gill, “because I always felt it had potential to grow, and this company are great to work with. I knew Matthew [Trevannion] by reputation and it was exciting to imagine him in the role of Wolstead, and also Stephen Bisland and Jake Ferretti as Tanc and Grainer.”

The play is set in a nameless warzone. Within this is an area called fiji land, where anything goes in terms of conduct to captives. In this surreal environment three soldiers are drawn into ever more extreme behaviour towards those they are guarding. I asked why he was drawn to such a dark subject. “At the time that Amnesty International happened to be running the Save the Human competition I was very struck with the revelations coming out about Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay. I wanted to write about a weird, horrible subject in a non-naturalistic style — and the stories about the surreal torture methods being used seemed a good area to explore.”

Gill reflects on this further: “It seemed to me to be an interesting idea to ‘up’ the surrealism and paranoia to include imprisoning non-sentient beings, and to see the effects paranoia would have on their captors. “But, though I thought at the time some of my ideas might seem far-fetched I now wonder if the truth of what happened in such places was actually much weirder than any fiction could be.”

These are exciting times for Nick Gill. He has just been commissioned to write a full-length play for the Royal Court Theatre. When I ask what that one might be about, he laughs.

“Well it’s early days yet, but at the moment I’m very interested in the area of political rhetoric — so maybe it’ll be something about that. No guarantees though...” One thing is certain; whatever subject Gill’s lively mind alights on it will be brought to life through the prism of his quirky and intelligent awareness — and worth watching.

fiji land
Oxford Playhouse
Until Saturday
Tickets £5-£10. Call 01865 305305 or oxfordplayhouse.com