As the excessively long title suggests, The Friend was a surrealist comedy which I co-wrote and performed in with Rhys Speight and Jean Evans. We created the piece for our Funny Words module in our 2nd year at university.
This performance was an extreme reinterpretation of the popular 1990’s American sitcom Friends with the twist that the character of Ross (played by myself) was a cannibal. Interspersed with this were scenes heavily inspired by The Late Late Show with James Corden in which we depicted the titular talk show host (played by Speight) alienated his celebrity guests with his overbearing personality. As the piece progressed, these two worlds were brought together through the actor who plays Ross, David Schwimmer, and an omnipotent force known as the Void which demanded that he consumed human flesh.
The scene in Friends where Joey gets a turkey stuck on his head is one of the many scenes we parodied in The Friend. In our version, Joey merged into a part human, part turkey hybrid. 
James Corden, with his divisive, loud personality, was turned into a heightened caricature in our piece. Our depiction of him made guests feel uncomfortable, the opposite of what a talk show host should do.
Creating The Friend taught me a lot about constructing comedy, particularly creating a successful parody. We created a comic incongruity between the original pieces of media and our parodies of them to play with the audience’s expectations. Elements of the shows being parodied, such as the personalities of the characters, host and guests, were heavily exaggerated to highlight their flaws. The act of parody also fitted comfortably within the context of postdramatic theatre making, lifting directly from popular media and displaying self-awareness of traditional dramatic devices.
Our act of parody was also greatly enhanced by remaining authentic to the style and world of the shows which we imitated, as this allowed for the parodic elements of the piece to have an even greater impact. By abiding by these principles, our group was able to develop a parody which truly resonated and consistently surprised our audience.
Additionally, The Friend was the first time in my degree that I had to create an original performance without being led by a tutor or an external practitioner brought in for the module. Although this was at first an intimidating challenge, it taught me a lot about theatre making, such as the importance of collaboration in the arts. Working with two other students, I got to see how valuable each creative voice was, with each of our unique perspectives helping to elevate our work into something greater than what any of us could have created independently.
The Friend was also my first time collaborating on a project with Rhys Speight. Working with Rhys was a very positive experience as we found that we were able to have a very natural working relationship. Each of us were able to quickly understand what the other was trying to achieve with our work and make useful and appropriate suggestions. I have collaborated with Rhys on various projects since The Friend, with Rhys being in the cast for my performance Father’s Day and myself performing in Rhys’s play Woz the Great and Powerful. In both of these projects this creative chemistry was maintained. I found Rhys’s perspective and contributions invaluable to the development of my piece and Rhys often asked for my thoughts during the development of his play, being open to any ideas which I suggested. I hope to maintain this working relationship in the future.
