Rob Ward marks the first North American performance of his latest play, Gypsy Queen, in Barrie this month. He also stars in the show, sharing the stage the fellow UK actor John Askew.
The story, which was two years in the making, marries sports, romance, and discrimination. The latter was a subject Ward tackled in his previous play, an award-winning one-man show called ‘Away From Home’. While it centered on football, Gypsy Queen is about boxing.
“What I discovered when Away From Home - the football play - was touring we realized we tapped into something, an anomaly in a society where most areas in modern life are moving forward and are more inclusive - the army, church - but sports seem to be still in the dark ages,” said Ward.
He was inspired to write Gypsy Queen after a controversial interview world champion boxer Tyson Fury gave after being nominated for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2015.
“He did an interview and basically came out with homophobic and misogynist stuff about women and it made big news over here, people protesting outside the BBC, who refused to take him off the short list,” he said.
Some also justified his comments but it created what Ward called a fascinating debate between sports, society, and religion. It made him wonder, what if Fury was gay? He created a bunch of different characters including two fighters, one a bare knuckled traveler (gypsy) and the other a professional gay boxer and tweaked Fury’s real nickname from Gypsy King to Gypsy Queen for the title.
It premiered at the University of Manchester theatre, where Ward studied English literature and theatre. Sold out shows all over the UK followed. It was also nominated for Best New Play and Best Fringe Production at the 2018 Manchester Theatre Awards and was long-listed for the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award 2017.
Ward, who has been into sports most of his life, did some boxing training to prepare for the role.
When he’s not touring Gypsy Queen, he’s involved with different theatre companies producing shows and touring them, writing plays on commission, acting as well as medical role play work which is used for the education of medical students. He also runs a youth theatre group.
His hope for this play is that it will open up conversations outside of the theatre. To connect with audiences, he wanted to create a “tapestry of life” story with all of its tragic and comedic moments, told by characters with personality that people could warm up to.
“When you’ve got a play that’s about something serious it’s the best way to get it across, to get the audience to feel it, rather than a serious piece that bashes them over the head and goes you know, homophobia is wrong you will listen, you know that I mean?,” he said. “Ultimately it’s a love story with two characters to root for and you’ll have a giggle along the way. And there are questions there, discussions to be had about masculinity, the relationship between these two and modern society, sport and modern society and why it’s dragging its heels in many ways.”
In addition to watching sports, Ward’s interests run the gamut from politics to hiking, trivia, and quizzes. He also has a passion for craft beer and cream ale.
Evening and matinee performances run Nov. 27-30 at the Five Points Theatre, downtown Barrie. For tickets, visit www.tift.ca
