"Writer Dennis Kelly has a few mantras he's always lived by. They're all there, clearly defined in his very earliest interviews, right from the start of his career. Write like you mean it (perhaps that's why his plays have so much heart and drive). Never write for money and never compromise (maybe that's why two of the best TV shows he had a hand in, the controversial conspiracy drama Utopia and the Sharon Horgan comedy Pulling, were cancelled after two series)."
"As we chat over video about his upcoming BBC prison drama, Waiting for the Out (WFTO), I repeat Kelly's mantras back to him. So, what's the secret contained inside his latest TV series? Kelly laughs and, after a thoughtful silence, offers up his answer. The secret to WFTO, which is all about men living in the shadow of a life in prison, is fear."
A set of mantras guides a dramatist: work with conviction, refuse commercial compromises, and embed a hidden secret within each project. Those principles underpinned award-winning stage and television work, including a stage adaptation of Matilda that concealed a private longing for fatherhood, later fulfilled with the birth of a daughter. The BBC prison drama Waiting for the Out places fear at its center—fear of speaking out, vulnerability, and being oneself—and portrays men living under the long-term shadow of imprisonment. Personal history included decades of concealed terror, confronting alcoholism in the thirties, and rebuilding life alongside renewed creative output.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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