On Debut LP's Stage Adaptation: 'I Thought It Was A Dreadful Idea'

You Am I frontman Tim Rogers’ 1999 debut solo effort What Rhymes With Cars And Girls is something of an unheralded classic, a gorgeous collection of aching narratives tied together by Rogers’ weary world view and adroit way with words. Such is its depth of character and emotion that playwright Aidan Fennessy has adapted it to the stage, tying the individual songs together into a rich tableau looking at love through a societal lens. “I actually didn’t know the album very well at all, so for me it’s quite fresh,” explains actress Sophie Ross, who plays female lead Tash. “I’ve tried to bring a sense of myself and how I interpret the music to it, which I think Tim is really encouraging because it’s two new voices and two new perspectives on the songs. And Tim is the Musical Director, so it’s wonderful having the writer there to ask questions of and to play with. He’s letting the songs be held and communicated by other people, which is really beautiful. He’s such a great songwriter, and such a gentle, kind person that it doesn’t feel intimidating in any way having him there – he’s just a very generous soul.

“I actually didn’t know the album very well at all, so for me it’s quite fresh”

“It’s quite a classic love story really in that it kind of references a lot of really well known love stories, particularly Romeo & Juliet, that classic story of two people who want to be together but for some reason it’s difficult for them socially to be together, that’s the challenge of their love and their journey.”

Having been initially reluctant, Rogers is also enjoying the album’s adaptation for the boards. “It wasn’t my concept at all,” he explains. “Aidan the playwright contacted me and posited it and I thought it was a dreadful idea, but I met with him and really liked him and read the script and enjoyed that. I realised at that point that he wasn’t writing a script about what he imagines to be a youthful Tim Rogers, so I gave it the ok. I wouldn’t have written this story but the songs somehow work into the narrative, so I agreed to [be Musical Director] – it’s been really enjoyable, I’m learning a lot.” Were the album’s songs originally meant to be thematically linked? “No, they weren’t,” Rogers tells. “I can see how it might sound like a group of songs together – they were written around the same time, and there’s some themes that keep coming up, but they’re very small themes. The play is about a situation and is very interior, which is kind of the way I write as well. Initially I thought the script was trying to go for big themes and talk more about sociological things that I really have no interest in – and that was my only reticence to be involved – but as we’re whittling away at it and they way it’s performed, it becomes a small story about the biggest theme of all; about love, really. I’m finding it more endearing, and finding more in it as we progress.”