Patrice Etienne is a writer, actor, director and co-founder of Action35, a social enterprise that helps to tackle youth issues such as knife, gun and anti-social behaviour crimes. An Anna Scher Theatre graduate, he has been acting since the age of seven and played the role of Paul in BBC1’s Byker Grove. After studying film studies and drama at Anglia Ruskin University, he went to the Central School of Speech and Drama to do an MA in classical acting. Keen to hone his skills further he studied directing at the Young Vic, scriptwriting at the Soho Theatre and completed a teaching qualification for his youth work.
Hailed as a new writer to watch his play Venus/Mars, a contemporary and raw take on modern relationships, has played to packed audiences and rave reviews. Joy Francis discovers she isn’t the only person who thought the play was written by a woman while Etienne reveals his own relationship challenges and why he takes writing advice from his friend, E4’s Phoneshop star Javone Prince.
Your play Venus/Mars just completed a successful run as part of the RADAR season at the Bush Theatre and attracted great reviews. You must be buzzing?
It’s been very humbling. I wrote it hoping that universally people would be able to connect with it. It was a nice experience to see that no matter what age or race you were you could connect with the characters’ journey. After watching the play a white middle class woman in her 60s said to me – that’s exactly how it is.
Venus/Mars first ran in the summer at the Old Red Lion Theatre. Did you make any changes to the script for the Bush Theatre?
The original cast members Samantha Pearl had another play that coincided with our rehearsal date and musician Jill Cardo was unavailable. We had to recast both parts and cut the script down from one hour and 35 minutes to one hour and five minutes. The cuts improved the overall story and pace but there were some moments missed as a result. However the positives totally outweighed any negatives. It’s the nature of writing, rewrites are a must.
What prompted you to write a play about relationships?
A lot of my friends – male and female – are quite confused about this relationship/love battle and have similar and conflicting viewpoints. I wanted to have this discussion about what happens when we fall in love and get into a relationship. A lot of the time we don’t say what we want to say or what we think about our partner. We often think one thing and say another.
At first when I watched Venus/Mars I thought it was written by a woman. Is that a typical reaction?
A common reaction is oh, you are a man. I thought you were a woman. How did you know all that? I have female friends and there are a lot of women in my family. My mum, sister and gran are all quite strong female characters so it was nice to put a very strong, well rounded female character on stage. You don’t always see that.
Has writing Venus/Mars impacted on your romantic relationships?
When you are in a relationship, sometimes it may be better to hold back on the truth as the truth can be hard to deal with, or be hurtful, but it does depend on the situation. Just because you don’t say something it doesn’t mean it’s a lie. Sometimes you can say something without thinking about your partner’s feelings first. The idea is to be diplomatic.
You are also managing director of Action35 which tackles youth issues like knife crime. What takes precedence – teaching or writing?
During the week teaching takes precedence. At the weekend my writing does. I went to drama school and then went to the Young Vic to study directing and got onto the Soho Theatre young writers programme at the same time. I wanted to equip myself with the tools and creativity to produce new works and share a voice that has not been well represented, which is what I’m doing. Acting is taking more of a back seat now that the writing is going well. It’s a marathon. In this industry you don’t have to rush to do everything at the same time.
Do you have any advice for budding writers?
The actor and writer Javone Prince gave me this piece of advice. He said never be scared to kill your babies with regards to writing. What he meant is that you may have to kill a scene to benefit the whole play. Don’t be precious.