what’s on in Southwark director of b erlusconi tells all

backstage to find my gran miraculously resurrected in her dressing room. From that moment I knew theatre was magic.’ An incident that could put most children off theatre forever.

After his formative years spent in a dream world of being either a footballer or fronting an indie band James came to the realisation that he ‘probably wasn’t the new Eric Cantona or Liam Gallagher’. Instead, with his mates, he started a theatre company.

Howard Davies which was incredible onthe-job training’. James now understood directing plays was an actual job you could do to make a living.

James Grieve now lives in Bermondsey and has his production of Fisherman’s Friends: The Musical currently on a UK Tour. ‘It lands at New Wimbledon Theatre in May’, he wants me to add.

side of the story and break the veneer of that million lira smile. As Silvio tries to enshrine his legacy by writing the opera of his life, his detractors are closing in…’ Which all sounds like a lot of fun.

thEatrE dirECtor James Grieve started life living on the edge and seems to have tried to live his life that way ever since. And by ‘on the edge’, I mean being born in Folkestone on the Kent coast rather than anything riskier, but James, in his university years and without any prior training, decided, with friends, to set up a company to produce and direct plays. Now, that is a recklessness found mainly in the young but actually set Mr Grieve on a course to be where he is today, writes Michael Holland...

I asked James when he first realised he wanted to become involved with the theatre, and he told this tale of horror: ‘My grandmother was an actress and one of my earliest memories is seeing her play the wicked witch in the local pantomime. When the wicked witch died I was inconsolable so my Mum had to take me

This is how he tells it: ‘I figured going on tour with a theatre company was probably the next best thing to my fantasy careers. Like most directors, I started out as an actor but I soon found myself losing concentration on stage because I was looking around thinking about all the things I would do differently if I was in charge. Most directors are control freaks…’ He adds with no nuance.

For five years the company were ‘producing and directing plays on a shoestring in fringe theatres and at The Edinburgh Festival. We had no idea what we were doing so we made it up as we went along and learned by making mistakes.’

Learning on the job gave James enough experience and knowledge to be noticed because it led to him becoming ‘assistant director to Josie Rourke and the late, great