'Billy Elliot' Writer Lee Hall Reclaims The Story Of The Working Classes

When playwright Lee Hall penned his international megahit Billy Elliot, he gave birth to a new dramatic archetype: the creative and cultural rags to riches story, where bright but unrecognised talent strives to overcome social prejudices and economic limitations. It's a narrative trope that he has repeatedly returned to, including in his stage play Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour, which follows six working class school girls from Scotland who are also sublimely talented singers. For Hall, his fascination with these characters is all about writing from the heart.

"I had always dreamt of being a writer and working in the theatre and in film, but it seemed to be a great surprise to everyone else when they discovered this, even though to me it was the most natural desire in the world."

"It's very autobiographical," he shares. "I came from a working class community, in a very industrialised and poor area of the North East of England and certainly when I was growing up the thought that anyone from there could be an artist was frankly preposterous. I had always dreamt of being a writer and working in the theatre and in film, but it seemed to be a great surprise to everyone else when they discovered this, even though to me it was the most natural desire in the world."

A survey by Empire Cinemas published earlier this week ranked Billy Elliot, played by Jamie Bell when he was just 12 years old, as the third most inspiring film character of all time, coming in just behind Eddie Redmayne's performance as astrophysicist Stephen Hawking and Julia Roberts' portrayal of American legal clerk and environmental activist Erin Brockovich. Hall's tale of a boy from a poor mining community in the North East of England, who defies his family and community in a quest to become a ballet dancer, has melted hearts and jerked tears from people all over the globe, despite its very specific cultural context.

"I think the reason people identify so strongly with Billy is because the feeling of being an outsider in your own life or in your own community is strangely universal. You might not be working class or Northern and your ambitions might not be artistic, but I think everybody has felt like they don't belong at some point," Hall explains. "I've been drawn to these characters because of a very personal and specific emotional experience that's unique to me, but when you take that experience and make it into art, whether that's on a stage or a screen, it suddenly becomes very accessible and universal in its message. It speaks to our desire to be individuals and the struggles we face when we try to be ourselves."

Adapted from Alan Warner's book The Sopranos, Hall was attracted to the characters in Our Ladies Of Perpetual Succour, for much the same reasons. "The kinds of women we meet in this play are often really vilified. They're painted as feckless; they get pregnant; they're the bane of society, leeching off the state with handouts and benefits. We treat them like animals, but I grew up with people like this and the stereotype is hugely misrepresentative. These people are very individual and full of fun, intelligence and humanity," Hall says. "I wanted to celebrate their culture and creativity. We don't dilute things - there's a lot of talk about sex and it's very uncouth and rude - they knock the wind out of you with what they say, it's that explicit. But we really didn't want this to be represented as something prurient. We're showing these circumstances from their side, through the eyes of these girls. We're reclaiming their story."

The National Theatre of Scotland presents Our Ladies Of Perpetual Succour, part of the Melbourne Festival, at Arts Centre Melbourne 6 — 22 Oct