Recruitment Officer Oliver to stage production at Shakespeare North Playhouse
Oliver Back, a Recruitment Officer within the Student Recruitment, Marketing and Admissions team, is delighted to share that his latest production is set to be staged at the Shakespeare North Playhouse next month.
Caged Time: Strip & Echo of Nothing will be performed for two nights only, on Friday 15 and Saturday 16 March, with both performances already sold out.
In this double-bill of tense one-act plays, a prisoner is interrogated by an indomitable force of oppression, leaving the detainee questioning reality and battling for their last shred of humanity. Caged Time is an existential boxing match, a metaphysical game of chess, a duel with language.
Balancing his role as a playwright and theatremaker outside of his work for the university is no mean feat, but Oliver’s passion for the Arts is what drives him forward. He shares with the LJMU staff community how he got into writing and theatre production.
“I started writing short fiction and poetry as part of a creative writing module on my English degree at Loughborough University. I wrote my first play during the summer break after seeing a friend in a drama society production and realising you could submit original work to be performed.
“I went to see a performance of The Cripple of Inishmaan by Martin McDonagh that same summer having loved his films. It was the first time I had seen a piece of theatre that really resonated with me and made me realise theatre could be dangerous, provocative, dark and exciting.
“My play was produced by a student theatre company and following this I completed an MA in Writing for Performance and Publication at the University of Leeds. I was selected for the Young Everyman and Playhouse Writer's Programme in 2016. I would commute back home every other Tuesday and being supported by such an iconic venue, and the amazing people there, helped me hone my craft and strengthen my belief in my writing.
“I moved back home to Liverpool in late 2018 after six years living in various locations in the UK and Europe. I met with various writers’ groups and put on short plays with the Lantern Writers. Following the Covid-19 pandemic I had a double bill of plays Trapped: 12x8 and String selected for the Liverpool Theatre Festival at the Bombed-Out Church. I then had my plays SHEEP, Professional and Playtime performed at Hope Street Theatre with SHEEP embarking on a university tour following its initial run. Playtime also ran at Greenside Infirmary St at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. An extract of my play Forte was a finalist in Tip Tray's 'What Happens Next' competition in 2023. I have just started on the Stage Write Development Programme at Liverpool’s Royal Court.
“I am Co-Artistic Director of Silent Gutter alongside my regular collaborator, Emma Turner. We are a theatre company focused on new writing and we aim to empower Northern voices and amplify their stories in worlds that swerve from the familiar to the fantastical.
“The plays explore ideas of identity, memory, individuality, and reality being warped and consumed by systems and authority. I am interested in how language can be used as weapon in my pieces, and I aim to create Scouse and Northern characters that exist in surreal and fantastical worlds that navigate a space where the boundaries between the natural and the supernatural are blurred.
“I have a broad range of writers that have influenced my work, but if I were to narrow it down, they would be Sarah Kane, Harold Pinter, Charlie Kaufman and Alistair McDowall.”
The whole LJMU community wishes Oliver the best of luck with his production in March – as they say in theatre ‘break a leg!’.
