After appearing in The Southbury Child on the main-house stage in Chichester a couple of years ago, Josh Finan now switches to the Minerva for The House Party, Laura Lomas’ modern adaptation of Miss Julie by August Strindberg.
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00:00Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Southland Sussex Newspapers.
00:06Really lovely to speak to Josh Finan, who is one third of the cast, effectively, of
00:11the opening play in the Minerva Theatre. Now, The House Party is based on the Strindberg
00:16play Miss Julie. Josh, you are playing John. Now, as far as your character's concerned,
00:22class comes into this rather a lot, doesn't it?
00:28It is. John is a working-class lad from Liverpool who has moved from a single-parent family
00:36and he's moved with his mum to London, which is where our play is set. So he is an outsider
00:45geographically but also, crucially, class-wise, he's from a different bracket to a lot of
00:55the other people in his social circle, particularly Julie, who is from a wealthy background. And
01:06his mum, as you learn quite early on in the play, so don't think this is too much of a
01:10spoiler, but his mum cleaned for Julie's father.
01:16So it's fair to say he's aware of these social differences then?
01:19Yeah, yeah, yeah. Not necessarily on a kind of, I don't know how versed any of them are
01:26in Marx, for example, but there is a guttural kind of feeling that he is othered by this
01:34kind of opulence of Julie's house. But what's quite nice is that, although it's crucial
01:44to the interpersonal relationships of these characters, it doesn't sort of define them.
01:50They are able to kind of be fully fledged and real and Laura Lomas, our wonderful and
01:56sensitive, empathetic writer, allows them to be kind of, they're not mouthpieces for
02:03any political kind of message. They're allowed to be messy and horrible at the same time.
02:10That's one of the most interesting things. I often think that the smaller the cast, the
02:14more intense and more interesting the play. Now, there's effectively, in terms of speaking
02:18roles and dialogue, just the three of you. It's not going to be much let up for you guys, is there?
02:23I know. Do you know what? It's a big, it's a big learn. And it is very intense. But there
02:31is also an ensemble from Frantic Assembly, which is a physical theatre company, who join
02:38us for kind of movement sections, which kind of like only adds to how intense it is. Like
02:44I was ordered when I read the script. It's quite a knotty, like messy three hander. That's
02:48quite a lot to learn. Now we've got to do physical sort of montage and stuff as well.
02:53So yeah, there really is no way.
02:54So you're saying you want to be stretched in a play, don't you?
02:56Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.
02:57And does it help you in any way, the fact that you noticed that you were here on the
03:01main house stage, was it a couple of years ago in the Southbridge House?
03:04Yeah.
03:05It's a different play, a different theatre. But does it help you coming to somewhere you
03:08do know?
03:09It's, it is. It's nice to look forward to coming back to a place rather than being daunted
03:15about what you might find. I had a lovely time when I was in Chichester. And I'm really
03:20looking forward to being back.
03:22Yeah. And also, you did last time take a look in the Minerva, didn't you?
03:26I did. Yeah, I saw The Unfriend in that space and found it like a sort of more, I don't
03:33know, it has an intimacy that I feel suits the nature of this play. So I'm looking forward
03:38to opening it there, you know.
03:40Fantastic. We're very much looking forward to seeing it. Lovely to speak to you, Josh.
03:43Thank you.
03:44Cheers, Phil. Thanks, mate.
03:45And I'm happy to stick back and re-sign with you. Thank you ever so much.
03:47Cheers.