Meeting Joe Strummer

Meeting Joe Strummer
Written by	Paul Hodson
Characters	Nick Steve
Date premiered	2006
Place premiered	Edinburgh Festival, Edinburgh
Original language	English
Genre	Comedy; Drama
Setting	Various

Meeting Joe Strummer is a two-handed play by Paul Hodson.

Introduction

The play was an Edinburgh Festival Fringe First winner in 2006. The play originally starred actors Steve North and Nick Miles and was produced by Brighton Theatre Events at The Gilded Balloon. It subsequently toured the UK in autumn 2007 with Steve North and Huw Higginson taking the role of Nick, and in March and April 2010 with Steve North playing Steve and Jason Pitt playing Nick, produced by The Future is Unwritten Theatre Company and directed by Paul Hodson.

Story

Nick and Steve, two men in their forties, meet again for the first time in years at a gig by Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros. As teenagers, they watched The Clash play the Rock Against Racism rally at Victoria Park in 1978, and lived through divorce, class warfare, acid house, the Thatcher years and soap stardom; however, they retain their passions for punk idealism, or "inner Strummer". With a cast of only two, the play is performed with no props on a bare stage in front of a large banner of Strummer. There are rapid jump cuts in time and place between scenes.

External links

• The Future is Unwritten Theatre Company set up by Paul Hodson and news about future and current tours of the play.
• Strummerville, the charity set up by the friends and family of Joe Strummer in the year after his death. The charity seeks to reflect Joe's unique contribution to the music world by offering support, resources and performance opportunities to artists who would not normally have access to them.
• Obituary in The Independent by Chris Salewicz, later author of the biography Redemption Song