INFORMAL: INTERVIEW WITH OLLIE MADDIGAN

INFORMAL - AN INTERVIEW SERIES

OLLIE MADDIGAN

Ollie Maddigan is a talented writer-performer, known for his compelling and humorous storytelling. He gained prominence as a rising star in the London theatre scene through his work on The Olive Boy, a darkly comic coming-of-age story that explores his personal experience with grief and adolescence.

After premiering at the Camden Fringe in 2021, the show then had a month long sell-out run at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2022, and toured the UK in 2024 where the show won an OFFIE for Creation. Ollie is now bringing the show back to London where it is playing at the renowned Southwark Playhouse until the 31st January. I chatted with him earlier this week during his tech rehearsals.

It's fair to say that there's been a lot of industry chatter around this show, but I personally didn't know a lot about it, apart from that is was based on lived experiences, so began by asking Ollie about the story of The Olive Boy: "It's a semi-autobiographical, quite crude, solo play following a time in my life when I a teenager when my mum passed away and I went from living in the Cotswolds to Bermondsey to live with my dad. who I didn't particularly know too well."

"It's essentially about this slightly obnoxious, crude, horny teenager who takes the audience on this journey of starting a new school - being a legend and knowing everything there is to know - and we slowly watch as his mask falls off and you realise that he's just a little boy who wants his mum."

I wondered how he approached writing a story that was so personal to him: "As a writer you're always told to write what you know, and when I started writing the big thing that had happened in my life was when my mum had died so it felt like it should be the first thing I wrote about"

"There was never a plan to put on a one man show, I was just kind of writing monologues and jokes and then took a step back and noticed the narrative. I had to look at it as if I were writing a play based on what happened rather than a diary, and thought that this character is not really me but it's based on me, it has all the emotion without tarnishing the memory."

Does this mean that when he's performing he feels as if he's telling the story as himself or of he's playing a character?: "I'm acting and playing The Olive Boy. The reason I have to do that is because even though it is a comedy it gets quite sad, and he talks about his mum a lot. If I had to go on stage every night and think about what I'm saying to the truth and my life it could become very detrimental to my mental health, so in my mind it's very much that this is The Olive Boy and his mum has passed away. This is his life and his story. In terms of the performance there will always be honesty and truth but there has to be the distinction that this is a character and a show."

Ollie is very open and forthcoming but there's one question he wouldn't tell me the answer to! Why is the character and the play called The Olive Boy?: "You'll have to find out! I don't want to spoil anything but the title is perhaps the thing I'm proudest about. It's kind of a joke turned on its head." That's me intrigued.

I asked Ollie whether his role was all-encompassing. Does he do all the lighting, sound etc, or is there a team working with him?: "When I first put it on years ago I was the writer, performer, director, producer, lighting designer, sound designer... everything, up until I did the tour. This time I'm back to being a producer and there's a sense of having a bit of control over everything but it's best to let people do what they're best at. I'm not a lighting designer or a director and I think the show is definitely at its best when I haven't done it all!"

I enquired whether the content of the show had changed over the years: "I think some lines have changed but the story has remained the same. The performance has gotten stronger. I'm no longer a 19 year old on stage desperate to prove myself! Bringing other people on and then touring it has really helped it grow."

The Little at Southwark Playhouse is quite an intimate venue and it sounds like this is perfect for this show: "For me the show always needs to be in an intimate setting. It needs to feel personal and I think part of why the show has been successful is because boys don't go on stage and talk about their parent who they love and miss, so for it to be so intimate makes it feel personal and brave. Being able to be in a room with 100 people and see all their faces is something special."

It sounds like this is really working and that the play has been really well recieved in previous incarnations: "When I toured it a lot of my audiences were older and I worried because the first part of the show is quite crude and I make jokes about porn and sexual innuendoes, but they loved it. I realised that no matter how old you are, everyone has been 15 and been a bit crude in their lives. The jokes in the text are more about laughing at The Olive Boy because he thinks what he's saying is genious, and people really get it."

There's so many shows where crudeness is thrown in for shock value, but here it seems that this crudeness is centered in realism: "He's 15 so when I was writing it I really wanted to tackle Jay from The Inbetweeners! He's such tragic character who is lying constantly and saying all these crude things, I thought about the person behind the mask and how heartbreaking it would be to see Jay not make a joke or to cry. The crudness in my show is that same mask. I think there's a sense of laughing at the character in the show, but the audiences feelings towards him change as they share in his grief. Even if you don't like The Olive Boy as a person you can identify with that part of him."

Grief is definitely a universal emotion: "We all tackle it in different ways and I thought it was important to portray the character accepting rather than getting over his grief. I didn't want to give a timeline to grief, it's about admitting that he misses his mum."

It really sounds like its been written with heart and feeling: "I wrote it thinking about my mum, but I have to perform it taking a slight step away. There's s small part at the end where I'm no longer The Olive Boy and it's just me and my mum. The fact that people identify with it is an incredible thing, and just telling my story feels powerful and it's always beautiful when audience members share their personal stories of loss with me after the show."

Ollie's passion for the piece and for his craft is evident, and I cannot wait to see The Olive Boy for myself.

THE OLIVE BOY

The Little, Southwark Playhouse Borough

Playing until Saturday 31st January

>> CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS <<

Interview conducted by Neill Kovacic-Clarke for Pink Prince Theatre on 13/01/26

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