The next interview in our stagey chat series is with David J Keogh: writer, producer and actor in a rip-roaringly funny, powerful new play, Past Tents. Past Tents is set to open today and is running at the Golden Goose Theatre until 12th October.

Get yourself comfy and join us for the next segment of Stagey Chat!

Hi David, how are you? Thanks so much for chatting to Stage to Page today! Would you mind introducing yourself and telling our readers how you first got into the theatre industry?

Hi, my name is David J Keogh (I had to put the J in there as there is another me out there somewhere) – I had a change of career ten years ago after 20 years in Finance and decided to get back into acting and writing after 25 year break!

Seth (my Co-Writer and director of Past Tents) gave me my first opportunity on stage at The Moors Bar in Crouch End when it used to have a small theatre. I had a small amount of training but learnt fast how to be on stage, thanks to Seth’s patience and his preciseness as a director. This led to other opportunities – I’ve been in Richard II, Edward II, Twelfth Night, Journey’s End, Vengeance: The Demise of Oscar Wilde and worked my up from bit player to lead, by watching, listening and taking direction! I’m lucky to have learned from brilliant people and having such great roles. Letting go of yourself and embodying the character is something I’ve really had to learn and I get such a thrill from it!

You're the producer of show, Past Tents, about to end its tour in Camberwell in October. Can you tell us about the story?

The story is about three men – Alan (Played by Seth Jones), whose wife and step-family have left him; Justin (Played by me), who seems to live on the campsite; and Virgil (Played by Mark Keegan) who runs the campsite. It’s set over one night – Alan crashes his car and stumbles on the grotty campsite with no mobile phone signal or working phones, in the dark – Justin is delighted as this is in opportunity to make a new friend, but Alan is having a bad day and wants none of it – so things start to escalate quickly.

Poor Alan has to navigate the lunatic campsite owner and somehow survive the night and the ever-keen Justin, sheep traps etc, without losing his sanity.

It’s a comedic tragedy about how men often fail to talk about their mental health issues but how even talking to strangers can make a difference. Hilarious and silly, but also dark and deeply poignant. It’s a rollercoaster of a play which rattles along at pace! It’s not really like anything we’ve seen before, so be prepared to be... surprised.

The piece focuses heavily on men's mental health. How did you tackle writing about such an important and powerful subject matter?

Suicide is the biggest killer of men under 50 in the UK and up there for other age groups – 75% of all 6500 plus suicides, are men. The play doesn’t hold back in dealing with this because we want the audience to be moved into thinking about themselves, but also the men in their lives. It’s not an easy subject but the classic British way of deal with dark things, is to use comedy – it helps the discussion and makes it more accessible without needing to preach.

We had the play read by a mental health charity (Manup?) to make sure we were sensitive to our audience - because it does deeply affect some people – they resonate with it themselves or have a family member or friend who is struggling or has sadly taken their own life. We don’t take that responsibility lightly – in fact, it can be a little overwhelming at times. Often people wait for us at the end of the play to tell us their story and that is deeply affecting.

The play is dedicated to Seth’s friend Sean Smith, who sadly took his own life a couple of years ago. Seth and I have had our own challenges too and this helps with the authenticity of what you see on stage. It’s a deeply personal play – the darkness in the play comes from us - it’s both cathartic and terrifying. If we reach one person, however, even make the tiniest difference, that can only be a good thing.

Is comedy a genre you find yourself most drawn to? Or was this piece more outside of your comfort zone?

Seth and I are massive comedy fans – Mark too. We love comedy like The Office, the more edgy stand- up comedians like Ricky Gervais for example. Seth loves Only Fools and Horses too whereas I love Bottom, Red Dwarf & Father Ted and my favourite film is Planes Trains and Automobiles. Because of these different influences, we have lots of types of jokes in the play – clowning, play on words, classic joke set-ups – it means whatever your humour, there’s something in there for you.

It’s a little bit rude at times and deals with adult language and subjects, so people do need to bring their sense of humour with them – it’s not for the easily offended. We once had a couple leave after 12 minutes and post on our Facebook page how vulgar we are – it’s a bit edgy at times and we make no apologies for that. But we believe comedy should challenge people a little, it should walk that line and we think we got that balance right. By the way, Seth’s favourite film is ‘The Rock’. That alone is hilarious (and very wrong).

With the tour close to its end, is there anything else you're currently working on? We'd love to hear about future projects you have in the works!

We are working on that right now – it’s (probably) a play about a collapsed mineshaft in Victorian times and a couple of people who are trapped below the surface... It’s a bunch of jumbled thoughts at the moment but we are planning to start writing it during the London run of Past Tents. By the time the play comes out, it will probably be about something completely different – watch this space! Past Tents had been very expensive to put on as we fund it ourselves – so we are hoping to get funding from sponsors or elsewhere to make this possible without bankrupting us again!

What does your writing process look like?

If it was a formula it would read: ‘RANDOM THOUGHTS+CHAOS+ARGUMENTS+MORE ARGUMENTS+REWRITING EACH OTHER’S JOKES AND HOPING THE OTHER WON’T NOTICE+PUBS+ARGUMENTS=SUCCESSFUL PLAY’, would not be far off. It’s a lot of fun and pain.

With Past Tents we wrote it initially as a bunch of sketches – we mapped out the characters so we knew them, but struggled to find the story at first. We then glued them together, worked on the plot and went through a lot of rewriting where we added in the much darker undertones and character traits– we do hundreds of redrafts to get it perfect.

Comedy and drama is a precise art and while not every joke or stomach-punch has to land with everyone (we all laugh at different things), there is a method to it. We also listen to our audiences in the very early preview shows and make sure the big moments and dialogue lands well – if not, we rewrite until they do.

We are still rewriting, updating, tweaking, improving. We are quite ruthless – we once took the script to a pub and spent all day reviewing every line and word – is it a joke, a clue or something important, is it exposition, are we trusting the audience? If not – delete. We reduced 30 pages in a single sweep. It made the play much tighter and pacier to the point where we no longer need an interval (unless the venue wants one).

A question I ask everyone we chat to - my blog is called Stage to Page. But if you could turn any book, from page to stage, what would it be and why?

We’re big fans. We love your blog and of course, your great reviews – your personal story is also very moving and your passion for all things stage is so helpful to this industry – please never stop! Back to your question: I’m going to be greedy here and pick three. Sue me. (Please don’t really sue me, I can’t afford it).

Not comedy but I’d love to see an adaption of Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt – it’s pure drama but that book deeply affected me.

And not a book, but a TV series: I’d love to see Afterlife, the Ricky Gervais series, adapted to stage. There’s something quietly beautiful about that series, which would suit the stage.

Lastly, also not a book, there was a brilliant TV series called The Peter Principle in 1995 which had Jim Broadbent in it. He was perfect, it was very funny and deserved more than 2 series. I loved all the characters and think it would make a very funny play.

You may have been hoping I would say War and Peace or something else more studious? Can I pretend it’s The Count Of Monte Cristo? That would make me sound classier. Never read it though, so hope it’s good - it’s sat on my bookshelf for ten years now, just staring at me and making me feel like a failure. I do need to read more but my ADHD means I often get bored quickly, so TV and film is easier on my noisy brain these days. Maybe I could get the audiobook...?

And finally, why should anyone reading this book tickets to Past Tents?

There’s nothing else like it. It’s a rollercoaster – if you want something different, care about mental health, need a good laugh – or just want to see what everyone is on about and why people keep leaving us 5-star reviews on our Facebook page, then come along – what’s the worst that could happen?

We’ve toured around the UK, sold out many venues and... we’ve also won 2 Cormac Richards Theatre Awards already – ‘Best writers’ and ‘Best Actor’ for Seth who plays Alan (Mark and I were also nominated for awards) - and have also just been nominated for 2 Standing Ovation 2024 awards for best ‘New Writers’ and ‘Best Comedy’.

The Golden Goose Theatre is also a great new venue and we really want to support this level of theatre in the UK.

Lastly, Mark Keegan who plays Virgil in the play, has a rider in his contract that says we have to buy him a gold toilet at the end of the run. We need the money because Gold Toilets don’t come cheap. So please book tickets.

You can buy tickets to Past Tents at the Golden Goose Theatre, here.