A few years ago my brother was working on a film that turned into an animation that ended up as a radio play. At one stage I was helping with the script, although in reality I was probably contributing to some of the setbacks by giving endless notes every time he wrote a new draft. In the end he did it his own way and it's all the better for it.
Pete has detailed the troubled production history of the project on his blog and it's worth a read because in some ways it ties into what the play is about. The fact that it started life as a film, turned into an animation and ended up as a radio play simply drives the point of the story home. It's a story about creativity and boredom and how sometimes things don't work out the way we plan them to, and how sometimes that's okay. It's a story about ambition and how sometimes it's hard to see what's really important because of it.
Pete wrote it when he was unemployed and making the most of the time between finishing his A-levels at Stoke-on-Trent Sixth Form College and leaving for university in Newport. It reminds me of the summer I spent making a short film when I was unemployed between finishing my A-levels at Stoke-on-Trent Sixth Form College and going to university in Norwich (although films from that era of my existence will never ever be shown, mostly because I act in them. It's not pretty). Like Pete I abandoned that project when ambition gave way to reality, but unlike Pete I didn't go back and finish it.
That's partly what makes this awesome. The story of Everyday Joe is a story that started a decade ago, but it's also a story us creative types will be re-living over and over again. If you've ever worked on any kind of project that took over your life for a while, you will relate to Everyday Joe. Please listen, leave comments and share with the internet -
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