It begins, like all the best stories, with chocolate.
On a frantic day in London back in 2023, actors Jack Blundell and Lucy Duffy were catching a cab, when the taxi door got stuck.
Puzzled, the pair asked the driver to help slam the door shut.
But it wasn’t until it opened again that Rochester-born Jack, 30, realised what had caused the jam.
“When we got out the car, I found a little plastic egg – you know those Kinder Surprises? That was what was jammed inside the door,” reveals Jack, who studied acting in Canterbury before moving to London to pursue performing and directing.
“And I was walking down the road and I opened it up, and it was actually Willy Wonka inside!”
Pocketing the tiny toy, Jack thought nothing further about it, until the next day, when he and Lucy, 24, were driving a van full of their belongings from London to Scotland to starts up Playhouse Theatre Company – a company of their own, away from the West End scene.
“We were driving a van from London to Scotland, moving all our stuff, and I went on Musical Theatre International, which is where you get all the rights to shows,” recalls Lucy, who hails from Kinross but moved to London as a student to study theatre at Italia Conti drama school.
“I was having a nosy and I saw the rights to the amateur production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory had just been released!”
“Spooky,” chimes in Jack, referring to the taxi omen of Willy Wonka.
“We just went for it and got the rights to the musical,” grins Lucy. “We decided need to make an impact with our first show, and this’ll be the Scottish premiere. But it is a biggie!”
First date predicted couple’s future
Indeed, ‘going for it’ is a bit of a life philosophy for the couple, who met just over a year and a half ago.
In a whirlwind romance worthy of the stage, they fell in love with each other, as well as the idea of opening their own company back in Lucy’s native Scotland.
“We met while we were both working in London,” explains Lucy.
“I’d graduated from Italia Conti that summer and then we met in August. It’s weird, because I remember on our first date, we were just chatting about theatre, what we’d both done before and what we’d like to do in future.
“And we sort of joked: ‘Maybe we’ll end up running a company together one day.’ And now we’re actually doing it.”
Scotland captured Jack’s heart
For Jack, the leap of faith has been easy, as he became enamoured with Kinross when visiting Lucy’s family at Christmas in 2022.
“We’ve only known each other a year and a half and we’ve just gone straight for it,” he laughs.
“I think it’s because when I came up here the first time, we went to all these different places, and I was like: ‘This is unbelievable’.
“I’ve always been used to looking around and seeing roads, cars, tall buildings, and houses.
“When I was young, I went to the countryside for holidays with my mum and dad, and that was the getaway. Now I’m up here, I feel it’s like a getaway, and when you go back to London, you’re in that rush.
“Plus the people up here are really lovely,” he adds, gesturing around the posh Perth cafe we’re meeting in.
“In London, everyone’s got their head down, going somewhere, commuting, pacing about, whereas here it’s calmer. People smile at you.”
Lucy’s had eyes on the prize since age 12
And it’s not just the romance of rolling hills and glens that has captured the imagination of the performing pair.
For them, the opportunity to put on big, ambitious productions was a tantalising prospect only Scotland could offer.
As a youngster, Lucy was well-known in the local theatre scene. She put on her first production at just 12 years old in Muckhart’s Coronation Hall – The Wizard of Oz.
“I don’t know what happened with me. When I was 12 and I just suddenly decided I wanted to do theatre,” explains Lucy.
“I didn’t really have any experience in it, but I was just like: ‘Yep, I can be a director, that’s fine!’ And my mum and dad just let me do it.
“It’s a lot of work to put on a show, but it’s really exciting if you’re involved in every aspect of it.”
Her directorial debut was followed up by two more shows across the next two years, but it wasn’t until Lucy put on a sold-out variety show at Kinross High School as part of the town’s music festival that she realised she could make a career out of directing, producing and choreographing theatre productions.
‘We don’t want a crowd of 50 people – we want 500’
Meanwhile Jack came to the West End scene after a successful stint putting on comedy shows in Canterbury.
“It was a duo, me and another guy, and we were putting on comedy sketch shows in big theatres,” explains the former London Dungeons and Shrek director.
“We did Rochester Castle, in front of 2000 people, so that was terrifying. Then I moved to London about 11 years ago.”
With their passion for creating large-scale productions meeting in a wave of ambition, Lucy and Jack both found themselves stifled by London’s saturated theatre scene, where “literally thousands” of small theatre companies clamour for extortionate slots in pub theatres no bigger than a school hall.
“I’ve done many shows in pub theatres with many companies and you end up just doing it for free,” laments Jack.
“By the time you pay for the venue, the tech and the lighting people, they never make anything, so you’re just doing it for the experience. That’s not what we want.
“We don’t want a crowd of 50 people – we want to do shows to a crowd of over 500 people.”
Untapped pool of talent is golden ticket for Scottish premiere of Roald Dahl classic
Yet while Soho swarms with would-be stars in back rooms, grand buildings like Dunfermline’s Carnegie Hall lie empty and available for swathes of the year.
“There’s all these theatres in this area with so many days where they can be used,” observes Jack. “Why not use them? There’s so much potential here.”
So inspired by the promise of stage space and seats, as well as a few encouraging words in Lucy’s ear from her acting teacher Billy Cullum (It’s A Sin), the pair packed up their London lives and headed north, and Playhouse Theatre Company was born.
Fast forward to this weekend, just a couple of months on from their fateful taxi journey, and Playhouse Theatre Company are now hosting auditions for their ambitious premiere production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in Fife.
And with more than 130 eager theatre enthusiasts aged seven to over 70 signed up, it seems they’ve won a golden ticket to a world of untapped talent.
“We weren’t expecting that this volume of people would want to audition,” admits Jack. “Maybe 15 is what we were hoping for, so to get 130 so far, it’s madness.
“There seems to be such a pool of talent here. There are people emailing us saying: ‘I haven’t been on the stage in 20 years but I want to get back to it’ and that’s absolutely what we’re looking for.
“We’ll give you all the experience, we’d just love to have you.”
Booming TV industry means London is no longer only option for budding thespians
Indeed, as well as the show itself, Playhouse Theatre Co is offering specialist classes at the Kingsgate Hall in Dunfermline, ranging from beginner dance workout sessions to one-to-one singing lessons, and even a professional performance skills workshop.
They hope to bridge a gap between amateur theatre and the professional circuit, by offering people of all ages guidance about how to navigate the world of auditions, agents and applications.
“I went to drama school in London but I didn’t have the support of someone saying: ‘This is what you need to do to audition, these are the kinds of songs you should be singing, or how you should present yourself’,” explains Lucy.
“That’s what we want to provide.”
As such, Playhouse Theatre Company has been set up as a charity, so that Lucy and Jack can keep their ticket and class costs low, while also applying for grants to help their participants with any professional ambitions they might have.
That’s especially relevant, says Jack, now that Scotland’s TV and film industry is beginning to boom.
“We’ll do film and TV workshops as well,” he smiles. “We’ve got a camera so we can do some TV work.
“TV in Scotland is really building up, so this is the perfect opportunity for people who now might not be that far away from a TV studio, and think ‘maybe I could do something’.
“We could give them the skills and the knowledge to potentially get there.”
Big swings in love (and budgets)
Staying with Lucy’s parents in Kinross until Playhouse gets off the ground, the couple have poured their hearts, souls, and all their savings into their venture.
And its their hope that they can bring theatre back into the communities and buildings of Courier Country, by providing a “fun, laid back” atmosphere for would-be performers and audiences alike.
“If we wanted to make money, we wouldn’t have started a theatre company!” laughs Lucy.
“But it’s our passion project so we’re just trying to put everything into it, and start with this big show, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, so that people recognise what we’re intending to do.”
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