DAVID LEMBERG talks about his MancBeth vision.

okay here we are today outside Media city of Manchester and going introduce you David Lamberg who is the inspiration between behind a new production of film and Stage were called man Beth now clearly that's a mash up between man in M but how did it all come about well I've had a huge interest in in Shakespeare I trained here um in Manchester with David Johnson and he was um a great fan of the classics and he loved Shakespeare and I did a 2-year course with him uh and then I went off to see Shakespeare shows at the Royal Shakespeare company the globe and I saw an interesting production at the Manchester in international f by Kenneth Brer and I thought wow this is good old Ken good old Ken I thought this is a really exciting show however I thought it was lacking an edge and I said to myself it it would have been good if he probably spent a night in a sof p and that stimulated the thinking and I thought H what what if what if there was a Scottish play setting Manchester and uh set in a nightclub and then it pinned M Beth and I thought you know I'll I'll sort of work on the work on the idea and it was several years later that I actually when was that when was that episode uh around about 2013 2014 but I I wrote it years later okay and that's that's what have you what have you got so far what was it is it is it a basic screenplay or have you got it in production or what uh I've got the screenplay all written um i' I've got the um is sort of the the budget for it um and I've I've spent time analing take to to to to put to right because I'm interested actually because I quite like to write screen play but I don't think I have the talent that you do but it would it's good to how long how long is it it took me two or three years to write it you know in in all honesty uh and it it it didn't happen just overnight I I I did you know I spent a lot of time researching it reading various books and uh I did a a screenwriting course as well so it all developed from that um the screenplay itself is about 90 minutes long cuz I I did a producers course I thought it's got a perfect length yeah absolutely and it's really gear to um television and and you know that have you run through it as an actor as well as a director have you run through the dialogue so that you know that it exes out yes I have I've timed everything basically I've I've read the whole script I also want to take it into a series of of workshops but I thought at the moment um I I wanted to build the brand behind the film and so I started to con you how do you well I just thought there's there's many a horror film or many a film that's been made and they don't gravitate much um as as in um it's it's great if some films get distribution but the majority of films don't end anywhere so I didn't I I didn't want that unless you got a big name attached or you've got a distribution deal already or absolutely based on an existing novel or possibly the DC Universe or the Marvel Universe but this is much more specific your absolutely and the majority films the most successful films are based on books and and and literature and like pre well you have with shakes of course but but they have a pre- audience on those don't they absolutely Shakespeare has been translated into over over a 100 languages all the main plays Matt Beth H Hamet uh Romeo and Juliet and so you know there is a huge worldwide target audience for it and you know with the love affair for Manchester as well absolutely but there's never been a Shakespeare film created in Manchester okay so that that again the opportunity yes there is a gap and I thought setting it in a Manchester nightclub with mancunian sort of Northern accents that's never been done before cu the majority of uh Shakespeare yes well it's all receed pronunciation which the the BBC the BBC created that that standardized um language in the sort of 20th century really but um now things have become more you know authentic more regionalized that's a good these days is it it is it is and people want to sort of relate to sort of real events so i' I've based it on uh uh me gangs and and stuff going on out on the streets the influence I think what I've read about it and from what I've seen from the post and talking to other people has been a mash up between m m be and Shakespeare play and also the club scene that existed in Manchester and all Manchester there the Hender now what sort of years years with that well the do you have experience of that I do the Hender was set up in round about 1982 and it was it was Tony Wilson from uh Granada reports um he had a huge interest in in the legendary Tony wil the legendary Tony Wilson he set up with Alan arasmus and Rob greton and they set up Factory records as well and they they wanted it was it was Happy Mondays but it was Joy Division first uh and Joy Division turned into New Order after in Curtis died and um the um the Hender itself became it was like a cultural hobby many resp it wasn't just about music quite a dangerous wasn't it well not not to begin with because they had some great events and I attended a few of them they had art um installations they had people uh like Anthony B just turn up and and and do seminars um Irving Walsh uh Red Train spotting there for the first time they had fashion shows and of course there was the music and then the the whole assd scene reading doing reading for during the day well and in the evening or prior yes sort of um sort of late afternoon into into the evening before they sort of Music took over so these these were exciting times really because there was nothing like that in Manchester and and of course the the influence then started to come over from America with the music and it was all kind of experimental kind of stuff but it it really really took we were s from my and I come from the south and I'm very happy to be up here in Manchester but we were very aware in London that something was happening in Manchester that the Manchester music scene was kicking off in some way with Inspire car with a happy Monday Ando as you said is there any reason why it Happ did it happen at that time or yeah there's an incredible history map and and it stems from the 18th century uh um when when the theater Royal when this was one of the first ptic theaters in in in the Northwest uh it was in the center of Manchester around about 1775 cuz there were huge restrictions back then to to theater after the the English Civil War and and so forth and you needed a license to P perform Shakespeare strangely enough and um the the theater world was kind of a catalyst I I think the first Shakespeare production symo and they run it with a pageant which was uh song and dance and it was it was like a street festival um and what emanated from the theater Royal was um strangely enough not strangely enough was classical music uh in into the into the 19th century had Char um uh Charles H who set up the the the orchestra here in in Manchester you then had What followed on from there was the roal northern College of Music uh then you had the Manchester opera house so it started to build and um when bigc radio uh took off in the 1920s from Alexandra Palace there was actually a broadcasting station here not too far away from from here was the um the BBC station at VI two elements and the and all that club scene that was going on at the time well we've got it had did that how did they Mel together well of course when I when I started to research uh nightclubs and the Hender and I i' frequented the Henda um and Joy Division and a new order or say New Order uh basically they they were the so-call house band that that kept the place running um soed to play gigs uh they used to play the gigs and all the profits would just keep the the Hender open basically so when you when I started to research and read this stuff and uh books by sort of Peter hook uh and uh Dave hlam who have written about the nightclub scene I thought who were they that's the basist is well they they were the DJ primarily they were the DJs at that particular time and and um Mike Pickering and a few others but I thought it it's very important that my nightclub has uh a reference to that so I I was thinking on the the lines of um the the kind of the elect night you being the night that in in the in the film The glams the glams nightclub is a reference to glams where M Beth originally live the the F he was the thing of blam so I I kind of created uh Glam out out of um out of the wordy and so I thought you you know I want to concentrate on on the music side of things at the moment and so um just just by sheer chance I I met a a guy in Oxford and he was originally from Manchester uh was interested in Mount Project and commissioned him to write an album uh which it took a few years to to do and and eventually we we launched it back in March and it's um it's it's a con conceptual LP that that it's it tells the story of my screenplay in in this and this is what you're launching on the 14th on the 14th of September notice from the poster you've got Reta involved she was what the Happy Mondays she was part of the Happy Mondays still is they still t s of the cam put the hands she still TS um and we've got the uh John uh John de Silva John D Silva who's um um will will play on the night as well Maria uzor and also we've got the M Beth story so how how are you going to get that across I know this is very early on in the project and as you say you're trying to get the brand across but how are you going to convey to people the nature of of what M Beth actually is on that night well it will be interesting we've got um U an actor called Brian Gorman who's impersonating Tony Wilson he's he's written at Joy Division play called new dor F and um he plays the part of Tony Wilson in that particular play and I look like Tony Wilson a little bit a little bit but it doesn't matter so much so he's going to MC the whole evening he will introd the ax but also he will help to tell the story about M Beth and the Glamis nightclub and from your script from some of it from the script but he will be um interviewing and asking questions to Martin who who will uh describe the story in between the tracks so he will so through the course of the evening we will be playing all all the songs from the album and then telling story in between will he playing it or we will be performing it performing it live we will be performing it live at band on the wall and we had a successful event at Modern Art Oxford uh back in April and uh the audience absolutely loved it good good I see through your poster that you've got um Stan P sparking on there tell me about your involvement with them yeah was interesting uh a few well a few weeks yeah it is a few weeks ago on the radio I I heard Dawn who run Dawn d who runs the organization and she was briefly um mentioned by a good friend of mine Peter and we we basically hooked up on the idea because I've had several friends who who have had that the drink Spite and it's a real problem uh especially there with nightclubs and it obviously can happen anywhere anytime it is a real problem and I was I was just horrified when I heard some some other accounts on the radio and I I basically wanted to be linked to this project and you know because there are people out there just want to sweep it under the carpet and I thought no this is a really really important campaign so um I asked Peter if if we could kind of endorse it and uh and include it in in uh the event on the 14th very good from my um very limited secondary school education I also remember that Matt Beth features some um was it poisoning or something like that fits in together it does fit fit in together and it's the consequences of people's actions a lot of poisoning those sh there was there was a poisoning in Ran junor all throughout history throughout it was very much a Byzantine kind of uh approach and of course elsewhere in other countries but um yes lady MC Beth basically poison poison feature within your within your so so how closely so if it's a if it's your take on the on the math script yes how how much does the original Shakespeare text feature or is it just a storyline the original text of Shakespeare is all in my screenplay okay uh some people advised to to adapt it into a contemporary language and I said no because the original language there's beautiful poetry the writing is brilliant it takes you to higher dimensions and when um I started to write the uh the the drinks being spiked in in my version of the play it it all takes place in the nightclub and the the way the weird sisters who are who are bids assist Lady M in in Sp the drinks being Lady M Beth in original Shakespeare in your Tex your what she wants to bar or something well lady m is the resident DJ okay uh M Matt Beth is the the proprietor of the glams and and His Lady M you know does all the music the weird sisters are actually uh secret police officers but um but we'll expand that interested because it because I'm familiar a little bit with this Stamp Out sparking and I know that abuse of power is one of the things that matters to them that is that even if you're in the position to spike somebody you can do it from prison of power behind the bar or or as a b manager or whatever it might be so you've got to ensure that people are responsible enough not to do that it's evil isn't it it's totally evil and it's it's dysfunctional and uh people have got real mental problems if if they if they that somehow you know they they are going going to somehow sort of prosper from from you know some some kind of thrill from it it's weird it's totally weird we as you say it's dysfunctional so listen this sounds fantastic as a project what tell me about the details where are you going to take it from here in terms of in terms of development in terms of timing in terms of where it's going is it going to be stage play is it going to be a podcast is it going to be it's going to be a number of things but but of course we've got this event on the 14th I wanted to uh sort of see how this kind of flows and and get receive an audience reaction from it and you've seen one already in Oxford so yes and it's been fantastic and and and of course I I then want to take it into um a stage performance uh that require you to adapt the screenplay a little bit a a little bit but it's kind of there really but run some workshops with it work work