TIME OUT CRITICS’ CHOICE

Tamara Harvey, director of the UK national tour of The Graduate and the sell-out Something Cloudy, Something Clear at the Finborough Theatre (Financial Times and Time Out Critics’ Choice) returns to open the Finborough Theatre’s writers-in-residence season.

“I have come to the conclusion that the manuscript must be destroyed and not get into the hands of strangers… Please don’t try to persuade me to do anything different, as a book that is not fit to be published now can never be fit.”

Young Emma is the brutally honest tale of a man’s search for a young wife among the prostitutes of 1920’s London. Unpublished for over 50 years and never brought to the stage...until now - in a new adaptation commissioned for the Finborough Theatre by Artistic Director Neil McPherson.

But who was its secret author? None other than the toast of the London literati, the one-legged Welsh poet W.H. Davies, then famous for his adventures across America in his bestselling book The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp.

Few knew that the author of such verse as ‘What is this life if full of care / We have no time to stand and stare?’ had decided to “trouble no more about respectable women but to find a wife in the common streets”.

Young Emma tells the unflinching, bawdy tale of Davies’ escapades, the many women he bedded, the venereal disease he developed and his dream of escaping London life.

The Sunday Telegraph described the book as “a masterpiece, and stranger than any fiction”, while Bernard Shaw called it “the record of a fully developed, vigorous, courageous, imaginative, and specifically talented adult - with the outlook of a slum boy of six or seven.”

Writer-in-residence Laura Wade was born in 1977. Her other plays have been seen at the Bristol Old Vic, Sheffield Crucible and the Royal Court Young Writers Programme.

The Press on Young Emma
"After moving to London, the first intimation of success was an opportunity to write an adaptation of WH Davies' little-known novel Young Emma for the Finborough Theatre. This was directed by Tamara Harvey, now a friend, and commissioned by Neil McPherson who "finds mad little novels to adapt". The experience worked well: "we had a really good time and it opened lots of doors".
Interview with Laura Wade with Philip Fisher, British Theatre Guide 2006

"I keep a mental list of five shows to see in heaven, in case anybody asks. Nobody ever does, so here it is, the most subjective list you could possibly imagine, from my years in London. Indulgent yes, but surely this is what blogs are for.
1. Young Emma. Laura Wade’s adaptation of WH Davies’ memoirs at The Finborough made my Christmas in 2003."
Kieron Quirke, Evening Standard blog, 3 January 2007

"As Christmas shows go, Young Emma lacks a few traditional ingredients: rosy cheeked children, supernatural occurrences . . any actual mention of Christmas. It also adds a few you wouldn't expect in such an offering, such as frottage and venereal disease. Nevertheless, for sheer heart warming, frown line smoothing, step lightening bloody loveliness, this is the Yuletide show to delight and send you home full of love for your fellow man. . .Middle aged poet WH Davies ('What is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare?' that's his)goes looking for a wife on the streets of London. As if in a fairy tale, he tries three women of different kinds to no avail before he meets Young Emma, a girl whose homely love wholly enraptures him, until he develops an STD. . . The piece is adapted from the poets memoirs, and Davies narrates his own story accordingly. It's a device that can be stale, but Laura Wade (Writer) and Tamara Harvey (Director) are in control, adding self aware quips and bits of business that freshen but never undermine. . .its a help that David Cann is glorious as Davies, his chauvinism carried off with endearing wit and sincerity of manner, with the kind of Welsh vowels that could make poetry out of TOs listings. Anna Ledwich perfectly renders the charms of WHs three very differently attractive early conquests. Margot Molinari's Emma shines with wholesome primness while just leaving room for Davies' doubts. . . The drama is slight, but Wade's script never makes too much of it, skipping through the tale, spicing all with gentle humour. This is a sweet bawdy Fringe gem. Go see it. Its enriching." Kieron Quirke, Time Out

"Tamara Harvey's highly enjoyable production brings such warmth and charm to this strange love story that its possible to feel affection for its protagonist . . .David Cann is captivating...This is a fascinating glimpse of an extraordinary life. I suspect even Davies who after writing Young Emma lost his nerve and suppressed its publication would have approved." Sam Marlowe, The Times

"Intriguing view of a once well-known poet's concealed life, skilfully staged with fine performances. . . Tamara Harvey's Bright Angel company provide as strong a production as their rare Tennessee Williams revival at the Finborough last summer. Gabriella Csanyi-Wills miraculously creates a three-room set on the tiny stage, aptly dominated by a bed, while also suggesting in its cramped compartmentalisation the nature of Davies' temporarily urban life." Timothy Ramsden, reviewsgate.com