‘SO MUCH FUN’: Student writers of ‘The Egg Moon’ sat with their lecturers following the performance of their script. (Front row, left to right: Jude Wenban, Tallulah Gosset, and Hilary Thain). The Lighthouse, Falmouth University. Photo supplied by Jude Wenban.
Students at Falmouth University are hoping to get Dawn French to read their latest comedy script, following a recent performance on campus.
The piece is ‘set in Cornwall where an eccentric billionaire [Drew Finch] believes an egg has the answers to save humanity’.
Tallulah Gosset, Hilary Thain, and Jude Wenban staged a first read-through of their mockumentary script on Thursday 21 November.
The thirty-five-minute piece was read by their lecturers at the Lighthouse on Falmouth Campus, home of the Creative Writing department.
‘WANT TO KNOW THE TRUTH?’: Join the studio audience as they watch the first read-through of ‘The Egg Moon’. Held in The Lighthouse, Falmouth Campus on 21 November. Footage supplied by Jude Wenban and edited by Danielle Hutchinson.
Student writer Tallulah said the lecturers were enthusiastic to get involved.
“We actually got too many to say yes at one point so we had to reject one!”
Collaborator Jude was also surprised by the response.
“I think it was the fastest response anyone has ever gotten from David Devanny [Course leader for Creative Writing, and English and Creative Writing] – we sent the email and two minutes later he replied saying, ‘Yes, I’m in’!
“It was an honour to have them read it.”
Hilary said that the performance helped them to get a better idea of who their characters were.
“It was really nice to see the lecturers put their own spin on the characters… [they] brought them to life”
‘HUMBLE SERVANT OF THE EGG’: The egg sculpture at the centre of Drew Finch’s cult movement. Photo: Danielle Hutchinson.
Screenwriting lecturer Nic Coplin played the lead role and contacted the writers to see how they wanted the character to be played.
“I had a dilemma actually before the day… do you want me to play this straight but quirky or do you want me to play this completely nuts and funny?
“And we decided on straight but quirky because then that brings out the truth of the story and it brings out the drama and her fragility and her vulnerability.
“Otherwise if you play it as a kind of caricature where you’re just going for laughs you might lose some of that.”
Drew Finch was partly inspired by comedy characters played by Dawn French, who is also the Chancellor of Falmouth University.
“[Drew Finch] it’s not quite an anagram, but we tried our best,” admits one of the writers.
Nic said she was proud of the students for putting their script out there.
“It’s a really brave thing to do, it’s like handing over your baby and hearing it come alive and in some ways its really inspiring and in other ways a bit nerve-wracking.
“And people were genuinely laughing, that wasn’t polite laughter.”
‘STUDIO AUDIENCE NEEDED’: Poster advertising ‘The Egg Moon’ read-through. Photo: Danielle Hutchinson.
The writers put out a call for a studio audience, expecting only a handful of friends, but ended up with an estimated thirty people in attendance, from across the different creative writing courses and year groups.
Third-year Creative Writing student Lottie Razzino was one of those who attended.
“I was dying for more of this, as soon as it was over, I went up to Jude [and asked] are you going to write more?
“I know they have lives, but quite frankly I think they should drop everything!”
She said that the script was hilarious but also inspiring as a fellow writing student.
“It was absolutely hilarious… and you could tell because the lecturers/actors were trying hard to stay composed and they kept making each other giggle.
“It was so much fun but it was such a good mix of modern humour that references various bits of social media and other satirical references… You had the camera man that was an active participant, that felt like something like ‘The Office’ too.
“I would’ve loved to be in the room for their creative process… I’m just very proud of them.”
WHERE IT ALL BEGAN: The writers of ‘The Egg Moon’ in their writers’ room, as part of their collaborative creative writing module. Left to right: Hilary Thain, Jude Wenban, and Tallulah Gosset. Photo supplied by Hilary Thain.
The writers found the feedback from the event uplifting.
“We’ve been immersed in it for two months, but for people to come in that know nothing about it and laugh and tell us it was really good… it’s just given us a boost.
“We’re on a bit of a high right now… a bit of a rush… tomorrow we’re going to wake up and be like ‘now we’re gonna have to write a report’.”
Tallulah confirmed that their aim is still to get Dawn French to read the piece.
“Absolutely, we decided that on day one… we will get her!”
Dawn French is known as the ‘Queen of Falmouth’ and the writers hope that she will be interested in their script following the success of the initial performance.
‘QUEEN OF FALMOUTH’: Dawn French pictured in the 2022 Falmouth University Prospectus. Photo: Danielle Hutchinson.
Hilary shared that it has also given her confidence to pursue other projects that she’s been hoping to write for years.
“It’s been such a good experience because now I know I can write a script, I can write comedy, so I can go and write my other script now and see where that goes.”
Meanwhile, the writers haven’t dismissed the idea of writing a full season.
Hilary said that there had been lots of questions about their mystery character ‘David’ who is only alluded to, but never appears on screen.
“We did map out the season arc… everyone wants to know what happened to David.”
Tallulah also mentioned that the script could be adapted for radio.
“Craig [Craig Barr-Green, Creative Writing lecturer] thinks we should put it through on a radio play, because actually imagining it was just as good as seeing it on TV, so that’s quite an interesting thing to explore.”
Whatever happens, it’s clear that there are egg-citing things to come for these writers…