Brian Beacom

Ekai

WHAT does a young actress desperate to work do when casting agents seem to have forgotten her number?

She writes a comedy play about an actress who struggles to find work find work – and takes it to the Edinburgh Fringe.

“Sometimes you have to make things happen for yourself,” says Hannah Morton, the smiling 24 year-old who simply became fed up waiting to be discovered.

“After leaving college I worked in Theatre In Education, working up and down the country, but after that I struggled.

“I really wanted to work in comedy, I think I can be funny.

“But where are the platforms these days for young people coming out of college?”

Hannah enjoyed a stint with female comedy collective Witsherface.

“It was great because it made me realise I could write a funny script,” says Hannah.

“But given there were so many of us, it was hard to be heard.”

The actress worked in a Glasgow restaurant to pay the bills, but before starting her shift she worked on writing her own play.

“The premise is that two young actors, Jane and John, decide to barricade themselves into a room until they come up with the perfect comedy play they can then perform.

“But they soon realise they don’t have any ideas. What follows is they talk about their lives, the confusion in the world and their search for answers.”

Hannah adds, grinning; “They don’t actually come up with the answers. But they have a lot of fun going on the journey.

“And it’s a very physical piece. They get up to all sorts.”

Nine months, and several rewrites and workshops later, after teaming up with director and co-actor Daniel Cullen, Work In Progress had progressed to the point it was ready to be staged.

Yet, while we learn Jane and John argue and bitch and call each other names – it’s quite obvious there is a love there – Hannah however made a conscious effort not to turn the play into a love story.

“They do bitch but they are not in love with each other,” she says, smiling.

“That would take the story in a whole new direction. This is about young people trying to work out where they are going in life.”

Hannah has an implicit understanding of comedy, which is perfectly natural given her mum is Scotland’s funniest lady, Elaine C. Smith.

However, Elaine’s daughter says she fought the idea of becoming an actor “for a very long time.”

“I had always wanted to go to art school,” she explains.

“Meanwhile I did shows at school. Then when I was in Sixth Year I had to choose between Art and Drama as a subject.”

Hannah adds, grinning; “I remember sitting my mum down at that time, and having a serious talk, as if I were going to come out of the closet, and confess to her that I wanted to go to drama school.

“She just smiled and said; ‘I’ve been waiting for you to say that.’

“I guess me not accepting the idea (of acting as a career) had been about being the rebellious teenager. No one wants to do what their mum and dad do. But I guess I was in denial.”

Hannah’s dad is theatre producer Bob Morton.

“My dad loves the world of entertainment. But my sister (Katie) works in a bank, she wanted nothing to do with showbiz.”

There is a problem however with perceived nepotism.

“I’m always hearing people say; ‘Can your mammy no’ get you a job?’

“But they don’t know that’s not how it works.”

Hannah could have called the show, ‘Produced by Elaine C. Smith’ as John Cleese’s daughter did rather cheekily at this year’s Fringe?

“That might have been going too far,” she says, laughing, “but my mum has mentioned the show on her Facebook page.”

Hannah certainly isn’t the sort of young actors who would deny their famous parent’s existence.

“My mum is one of my favourite people in the world. If she weren’t my mum I would still think her very, very funny.

“And as much as I want to make it on my own, there’s a part of me that knows I would be nothing without my mum and dad.”

She adds; “I guess just watching my mum and Andy Gray was an education. I learned how to tell a joke. I absorbed so much.”

The Fringe play, she admits, has been tough to write and stage.

“But it’s all worked out very well. And I’ve got to keep moving forward.

“And to be honest, after having worked in Theatre In Education, doing three shows a day in different schools up and down the country, outing up sets, it’s made me such a hard worker.

“I think I can do anything.”

Right now she is handing out flyers to promote her own show.

“I ask people if all is well in their life, and when they say no I hand them a flyer and tell them to come see the show.

“We don’t promise to sort people’s lives out, but we do guarantee to make them laugh for an hour.”

A Work In Progress, The Gilded Balloon’s Rose Street Theatre, Edinburgh, every day at 1.15pm, until August 26.

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