The performance that changed my life: Jack Shepherd’s jazz performance was another | Theater

JAck Shepherd’s games have a very simple way of doing things, a type of design that I had never experienced before. I saw and admired him directing his play, At Lambeth, in 1989 at the Donmar Warehouse. So, in the spirit of business when we set up the Southwark Playhouse in London in 1993, I asked him to come on board. He gave us – and acted on it – Chasing Minutes.

What you see in this play is a group of jazz musicians who arrive one by one in the basement of a pub. The pianist is already there, an old professional from Leeds called Les. Jack, who sadly died in November, was also a pianist – he always played Les. Then we are waiting for the veteran actor, a little drunk. His weapon is bigger than he is, going down the stairs is slow. Then the drummer and his instruments arrive, one piece.

Then it is the drummer’s sister, who is going to answer the door, with a box of small coins. And finally the owner of the pub. They all talk and settle down.

Then he starts playing: it’s time for a gig. And four or five numbers in, it’s: “See you back here next Friday.” In the second act, they start packing again, but many things have changed.

What Jack cleverly does is give each player a moment to show who they are and what their life is about. It’s amazing. Where do you think the records are? You don’t see it, you see the characters. He was a great playwright. If it wasn’t real, they wouldn’t have made it. However it’s a play, it’s obviously a production type: you have to get your band in, do your concert, get the band out, and show that lives have changed. (Broken hearts are mended. Someone has died.) And on his way out, he talks directly to the audience.

I’ve worked with a lot of writers – a lot of new writing in Southwark, and over the last 25 years as artistic director of Arcola in London. But I’ve never seen anyone else who can give the impression of real life moving in front of you. The real idea is theater, but inside, you don’t have to be theater. You just do the behavior, be the behavior. You don’t need to show off.

Controlling Jack was not difficult; things can happen naturally. They will say “it doesn’t sound like I did that” if I have a bad attitude. He was like my mentor in that way, very theater driven.

He directed King Lear in Southwark in 1996, and the actors would say to him, what does this or that mean? And he says, “I don’t know, it’s your character.”

We’ve done Chasing the Moment a few times since then and we plan to do it again in 2027 – it will be the first time without Jack.