Joanna Carrick, artistic director and founder of Red Rose Chain Theatre Company talks about growing up in Suffolk and how it’s inspired her work.
Suffolk has been something of a muse for Jo. While she loves the county that’s been her home since the age of six, when I call she’s looking forward to heading to Italy on the trail of the statue Our Lady of Ipswich.
“I’m so lucky. It’s the first time I’ve had a really exciting research trip. I’m working on this new piece about the statue of the Madonna.
It was at the shrine in Lady Lane and was taken during the Reformation. Some sailors rescued it and it ended up in Nettuno.”
The play will be the third part of her Tudor trilogy; following Fallen in Love about Anne Boleyn and Progress which detail Elizabeth I’s visit to Ipswich.
Local history plays have been a speciality for the writer, director and actor; starting with the UFO incident at Rendlesham. It was followed by another about abolitionist Thomas Clarkson who lived at Playford. Her first connection with writing about Boleyn were her connections with Erwarton which inspired Jo to go on the journey of writing Fallen in Love.
“I was fascinated by the Ipswich Martyrs who appear in Progress. The spirit of these people who are so committed to their faith, like a young mother going to the flames rather than renounce what she’s talking about. They were just people, like a girl who was ploughing a field in Grundisburgh with such incredibly limited life experience but so passionate.
“I suppose all places have their special things... I don’t lie awake at night thinking I must tell local stories, but I just seem to get drawn to them.”
Jo’s father was director of the Queens Theatre in Hornchurch and she spent her early years in Essex before moving to Pin Mill on the bank of the River Orwell. Her brother was off to college and she had cousins in Suffolk. Jo’s parents thought it was a lovely area and had some schools they thought would be good for her.
“We lived right down by the water. I used to wait for my lift to school by The Butt and Oyster in the mornings when I was little. There would be a big boxer dog come out of the pub to see me. We used to go to Clamp House and have loads of picnics. We swam in that river all the time...
“Southwold always been a massive thing because my parents went on honeymoon there... I always think Southwold’s my place. We spent loads of time there as well.”
Jo, enjoying a break now The Importance of Being Earnest has ended its run at The Avenue in Ipswich, is enamoured with the Suffolk landscape.
“It’s so beautiful. People are always going ‘ooh it’s flat’ but I love flat landscape because I love the sky so I get very excited about flat places. It’s not as flat as people say.”
Tuddenham and the Fynn Valley in particular hold special memories.
“I lived in Tuddenham through my 20s in a tiny little cottage opposite the church. I miss living there, it was so gorgeous.”
Red Rose Chain began there.
“My parents thought it was a great idea to buy a house when I was really young and they did that thing of putting a guarantee on the mortgage, so I got a mortgage on this little cottage. I was only 19. Immediately after, the crash happened so it was negative equity for years. I was living in this cottage desperately trying to pay the mortgage and I used to teach drama locally to help pay the bills.
“I wasn’t content with that so we immediately started putting on plays with the young people. In the early days Red Rose Chain was about the youth theatre we worked with and there were some absolutely extraordinary people who were tremendously influential in forming the company and its aspirations artistically.”
She, partner David and son Ted now have a little cottage in Blythburgh which, she laughs, they got instead of a pension.
“It’s quite remote so we spend lots of time on the beach whatever the weather. We love swimming in the sea, walking around and having picnics and barbecues on the beach. I really like Southwold and Walberswick - I probably like the shops there a bit too much as well.”
Jo admits envying people who didn’t grow up in the place they now call home.
“What I find difficult is what I call the ghosts. There’s a memory around every corner. The way my mind works... I remember when I was walking along there or me and mum were walking up this hill. Sometimes I like the idea of being in a place where I’ve got less history, less roots.”
That’s not to say she hasn’t travelled, going away to university and drama school; spending lots of time in Italy...
“It has its positive side, you have this connection but the ghosts of your childhood can be a little oppressive sometimes. Even if they’re happy memories it feels as if your past is so present all the time.”
Looking to the future, there are lots of other events coming up at The Avenue, including the 18-piece brass band Horn Factory on June 17 which is a fundraiser for the company’s community work. Something else to look forward to is Theatre in the Forest, which this year will be As You Like It.
• Click here for more about Red Rose Chain.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here