FRED LAWLESS’ new play started with a title.
Wouldn’t A Fistful of Collars be a great name for a show, suggested Royal Court chief executive Kevin Fearon.
So the writer set himself the task of creating a script upside down.
“Normally I get an idea for a story or a situation or characters and then fill in the detail,” says Lawless.
“But on this occasion Kevin suggested a name. I asked ‘What’s it about?’ and he said ‘I don’t know but I bet it’d sell’.”
So here we are, a few months later, and there’s a story behind the title: A dry cleaners in Liverpool takes in posh frocks to wash for unsuspecting customers and hires them out to others with – you’ve guessed it – hilarious consequences.
They also seem to have kidnapped Coleen Rooney and there’s a girl with a gun in a suitcase that is causing concern.
Fearon is pleased with the way his initial idea has evolved, calling the show “a laugh a minute”, while Lawless appears quietly confident.
He is in a break from rehearsals and the cast, which includes some of the regular Royal Court crew – Lock Stock actor Jake Abraham, Eithne Browne, Pauline Daniels, ex-Brookside Suzanne Collins, Lindzi Germain, Alan Stocks and Lenny Wood, are brewing tea in the other room.
“I wrote an outline of the play on a sheet of A4 and then sat down with Kevin and Bob Eaton (who also worked on Lawless’ Christmas hit Merry Ding Dong) and between the three of us we ended up with something we were all happy with.
