I met Mark in early 2022 through my role as Artistic and Literary Associate at the London fringe venue the Jack Studio Theatre.  He approached the programming team hoping to bring Seven and a Half Years to the venue. Having successfully premiered the show at the 2021 Edinburgh Fringe where it was awarded Runner-Up ‘Best Musical’, Mark was now keen to present it at his local theatre, giving the piece an added resonance since the events of the musical take place in the area.

As the run at the Jack Studio approached, Mark invited me into rehearsals, and we quickly forged a creative connection. He asked me to come on board as director. With just 10 days to its opening, Mark and I created a show that earned a 4-star review during its week-long run at the theatre. We felt there was more to be explored in the piece and worked together to develop it for its run at the 75th Edinburgh Festival Fringe last August which resulted in another excellent review and a host of glowing audience reactions. We learned a great deal about the show from its three-and-a-half-week run at the fringe and Mark and I have developed it further and are now embarking on a small-scale tour of the UK to venues and festivals over the course of this year.

At 16, Mark was one of the youngest students to study percussion at the Royal Northern College of Music. Subsequently he’s worked with Steven Berkoff, Sir Peter Maxwell Davis on his Fires of London, The BBC Symphony Orchestra and The London Sinfonietta. Right from my first reading of the script, I was struck by the combination of music and text to tell this very personal and moving story. The way Mark had used music to illustrate moments from his life was very affecting and I recognised its power as a solo piece and also its potential to be developed even further. I had previously directed a solo show where I worked closely with the writer to empower their presence on stage as a performer.  This was also the appeal of working with Mark. I felt as a director, I could focus on the storytelling aspects of the musical and how Mark would move between the moments of song performance and the moments of character.

It’s not often that you can say a piece is unique, but I feel that can be said of Seven and a Half Years. It is a true story of our times about how, at the height of your career, something can happen, and you can find yourself in a dark place. But this piece, also importantly, is about how you can come through this. The way that the show uses music and text to create a journey in which the audience discovers what happened to Mark is really special, creating a performance that resonates with everyone. As one of the audience reviews from Edinburgh remarked, “I left the theatre with hope that the most difficult problem can be overcome”.  For the challenging times we currently find ourselves in, to see an uplifting and hopeful piece of drama that connects with people is a lovely thing.

SEVEN AND A HALF YEARS written and performed by Mark Glentworth is at the Stables Theatre on Saturday 8 April as part of the Hastings Theatre Festival.