John Harrison: Issue-Based Humorist and Occasional Ranter!

I first met John, and his partner, Christine, when they began coming to our Monthly Rothbury Poetry, Writing, and Music Events. We all immediately loved John's energy, enthusiasm, and funny poetry.
I interviewed him for the Northumberland Gazette in December 2019.

What follows is the interview. At the end, you can find out what John did next.

19th December 2019:
Playing Up is a theatre company based at Northern Stage, which showcases local creative talent.

John was born in Preston in 1962. As he grew up, he became keen to leave what he felt was a 'cultural desert'. However, it wasn't until he was 45 that he ended up changing his life, creatively, by taking the great leap of leaving work and studying for an arts degree.

He now lives in Coquetdale.

At school and college John excelled at economics; but it was literature that inspired him.

He found work in a shoe factory. He was popular with the workforce, if not the management, after figuring out how to improve the odds of qualifying for the weekly bonus. 'It was an awful job on the production line, but the people were great'.

John left for a less well-paid post, but in a sector within the local council that really did interest him - social housing.

'I knew a lot about council house building, and also, tower blocks.' Later, employed by a housing association, he became proficient at the computing aspect of the job.

All this time, however, John had been writing poetry and reading literature. His main hobby was (and still is) cycling. He has completed some of the classic climbs of the Tour d'France and the GiroD'italia, and cycled much further afield.

After his marriage broke up, John re-evaluated his life. It was at this point he took the brave step of enrolling on the prestigious Literature and Creative Writing degree at Lancaster University.

'I loved it. Loved studying novel writing, poetry, short stories. But it was play-writing that I developed a strong interest in'.

Unsure what to do next, thinking about teaching, an opportunity for change arose:

'I was offered a job, out of the blue, at Cheviot Homes (now Bernicia). Accepting would mean moving to the North East. I decided to go for a six-month trial, but I loved the area so much, I stayed.

Newcastle is wonderful place for those interested in culture.

'I was never home! I went to poetry gigs, dancing, comedy. It was wonderful'.

Then John enrolled on a play-writing course at the Live Theatre, and had his first play staged.

'It was a thrill'.

Since then his energy has gone into play-writing; and supporting new and emerging playwrights.

Photos of actors in the plays. Northern Stage.

John and a number of others established Playing Up in 2012. Their 12th event will be taking place in February.

Short plays are submitted by new writers. Selected dramas will be directed and performed at Northern Stage.

'I am currently reading through the submissions. We usually have around 40-50, so it is time-consuming. There are some wonderful ideas and it is a pleasure to be part of a small team making this happen'

John has had several plays performed and is happy to offer feed-back to people who submit their work.

John and a number of other people established Playing Up in 2012.

Playing up managed to produce 12 sets of 6 short plays between 2012 and 2019. All the plays were submitted by new writers.

Selected dramas were directed and performed at Northern Stage.

In autumn of 2019 Playing Up made a successful bid for an Arts Council Grant to run an open competition for short plays. The funding was to be used for a small monetary prize, but in the main so they could pay actors and directors for the winning plays.

The competition ran, and winners were selected, and awarded, but unfortunately, they were unable to get any of the plays produced. This was because of the restrictions on theatres during the pandemic.

The grant was largely returned to the Arts Council, and when theatres re-opened, Playing Up found that what they wanted to put on had 'moved on'.

John has had several plays performed and is happy to offer feed-back to people who submit their work.

During the pandemic John wrote a 90,000-word book, 'Back on The Rails - a return to non-essential travel'. This was an ironic anticipation of the issues facing the privatised rail network once the pandemic was over, focusing on how people, (tongue in cheek), might be enticed back onto the train.

Unfortunately, the book wasn't enough to entice any publishers!

Continuing both the Railway and rejection themes, John's next radio play, 'Around the rails - Plus ca Change' has just received the 'No thank-you' from the BBC.

John continues to be a regular contributor to the monthly Rothbury poetry evenings, where he continues to experiment with poetic form, but would present himself as an issue- based humourist and occasional ranter, rather than a bard of a more aesthetic, contemplative tradition.