Earlier this month there was some royally intriguing backstage drama. Tom Quinn, who wrote a biography in 2015 about William Tallon, the Queen Mother's indispensable right-hand man, made himself known with Backstairs Billy, Marcelo Dos Santos' new West End comedy about the couple's long working relationship. "I'm going to put a curse on the piece, and it will be closed in two weeks," he told a newspaper, admitting that his book of the same name (derived from Tallon's nickname) was unattributed source material.
If that curse has taken effect, it is proving ineffective so far. Dos Santos's play, starring Penelope Wilton as the Queen Mother and Luke Evans as Billy, was greeted by a chorus of approval, not least from this newspaper (in awarding it five stars, I announced it as the best new play about the royal family since Peter Morgan's The Public). More raves followed due to Dos Santos' witty monologue, Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going To Happen, one of the highlights of last year's Edinburgh Fringe, which she now brings to the Bush in west London.
Some reviewers noted affinities with Fleabag in its frank, funny discussions of sex (here, the gay sex life of a stand-up comedian, played by Samuel Barnett). The title is derived from a question on an NHS mental health questionnaire, which - according to the author - indirectly "captures something of where we are as a generation".
It sounds like it's digging up the deepest corners of the disturbed modern psyche, but what surprises and fascinates about Feeling Afraid is the cheerful tone and the tightness of the turn of phrase. Amid a theater culture that often seems to have lost its sense of humor and underlined its political points, Dos Santos has arrived like a knight in shining armor.
He was born in Sydney in 1981 to a Brazilian father and an Australian mother who worked as a teacher. She came to Britain with him (without his father) when he was ten and they lived in London, although he spent some time in Rio. This migration background offers all kinds of possibilities in terms of his personality and attitude.
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In person, Dos Santos appears to be articulate, thoughtful and chatty, with a disheveled, bespectacled, student-like demeanor and a rather British streak of self-deprecation - "I arrived with an Australian accent, which I then lost, and there were all kinds of ways in which I had to be included. I became an Anglophile, that classic immigrant thing of trying to outdo the English."
When he trembles at Quinn's ominous statements, he offers lighthearted caution. "I've read bits of it," he admits of the biography, "but there's a lot of material. Tallon was the subject of much newspaper reporting and TV documentaries. [The book] is not the only source of information and we wanted it to be imaginative. I became intrigued by this friendship with the gay butler. There wasn't much of a method other than following an instinct." Michael Grandage, the show's director, says Dos Santos "wants to make people laugh and make strong political arguments - that's a rare combination."
Dos Santos rolls his eyes at the idea that every incident must be based on facts. Just like with The Crown, you can take liberties, interweaving facts with fiction. "It is impossible to find out the 'truth'," he says. "We may underestimate the intelligence of an audience in this area. People understand that they have been given a lens to look at a story." That goes to the heart of Dos Santos's appeal. It may sound simple to rely on the sophistication of your audience, but he bucks theatrical trends by prioritizing nuance and complexity.
This also applies to Feeling Afraid, which builds on his experience with gay life and the associated hook-up apps. "I'm a fan of the app, but not so much anymore - I'm in a relationship. It's part of gay life. There are very few people who don't use apps.
"I've definitely been in certain situations and thought, 'At least I'll get a copy of this.' I'm sex positive, but I'm not afraid to say that gay dating is complex: it can be fun, but it can also be miserable. It's okay to represent both."
Dos Santos is instinctively transgenerational, in a way that is both common sense and usefully commercial. "There is a danger that we put older and younger people in a box. Just because an audience member is older doesn't mean he or she is out of touch or can't handle certain things. There is distrust on both sides."
He echoes comments made by David Byrne, the Royal Court's new artistic director, who was quite negative about the new writing scene during his tenure as director of London fringe space New Diorama. ("You often look at work and know exactly what it is going to say.") "I'm not interested in being told what to think or feel," Dos Santos agrees. "I react against theater as a podcast. I think sometimes people use theater as a very direct way to tell you what they think about something, like podcasts or TED Talks, but personally I just really like theater that leaves room for debate. We have argued for theater as a force for social good, but does that imply that the work must be 'useful'? Can't it be art?"
Looking to the future, he believes the theater needs to be more aware of its past, citing Noël Coward and Joe Orton as influences on Backstairs Billy and expressing his admiration for Tennessee Williams. "I am a big believer in theater not throwing away its past. Some writers are overlooked because they write plays. I have friends who have written strong family dramas or relationship dramas with big themes at heart, and I know they sometimes feel like it doesn't excite theater or directors as much as it used to. I think people may have moved away from "well-made" or domestic plays.
It must be said that at the age of 42, Dos Santos is not an overnight sensation. After studying English and drama at the University of Bristol, he ventured into writing for plays in fits and starts. He formed a (now defunct) theater company - High Hearted - in 2008, presented early plays on the fringes, and worked in the literary department of the Royal Court, where he joined several writing groups.
The slow burn, he admits, may have to do with a more cramped, fractured and cautious new writing scene. Some of it may have to do with the theater's identitarian craze. "I don't fit into a certain box. People are increasingly identifying where they come from, or explicitly saying they are a working-class playwright.
"Even being a 'gay playwright' feels newer - when I first worked at the Royal Court it was 'That's interesting, but it doesn't apply to all of you', whereas now you feel like you have to put [your identity] forward. I didn't fit neatly into categories. For me it has been more difficult."
The pandemic, which sidelined a planned debut at the Royal Court, Sharks - looking at how we deal with mortality - was at once a bottleneck and a godsend. Dos Santos had 'made a living' by teaching, reading scripts and working for a publisher of theater books.
"I was about to give up because I couldn't get any commissions," he says. With his greatest opportunity seemingly in jeopardy, he turned to writing a monologue. "Feeling Afraid is the first time I wrote something that felt like my voice and that showed the kind of theater I want to make - funny, human but also formally surprising."
It will be fascinating to see Dos Santos' next step: he is working on TV projects, fiercely hidden. But in the meantime, we can just rejoice that, in a year of meager profits, theatrically, and grim reports worldwide, he has emerged to put a healthy smile on our faces and a feather in the footsteps of British to bring to theatre.
Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going to Happen is at the Bush Theatre, London W12 until December 23; bushtheatre.co.uk. Backstairs Billy is at the Duke of York's Theatre, London WC2 until January 27; backstairsbilly.com
