Interview: Paul Bradshaw on tell me straight and aggy

Playwright and actor Paul Bradshaw on growing tell me straight from a pub theatre profit share into a King’s Head main stage run, and what aggy asks about who gets to make art

Paul Bradshaw is a Londoner, playwright and actor whose writing sits within queer London life. His double bill tell me straight and aggy, produced by SH Productions and telling tales, moves to the King’s Head Theatre from 15 October after a run at Park Theatre in March. Red Bus Londinium caught up with him to find out how tell me straight has grown from a “threadbare profit share” in 2021, where the line falls between him and his character Him, and what aggy asks about who gets to make art.

Red Bus: tell me straight started as a “threadbare profit share” upstairs at the King’s Head back in 2021, and now it’s returning to the Main Stage. For you, what is the biggest change in those five years? Is there anything from that original version that you had to let go of but will miss?
Paul Bradshaw: tell me straight really was a threadbare piece from inception. We knew we were going to be on top of another production’s set, so that meant we had to be super minimal in our design and in many reviews we were famously referred to as ‘two chairs and a coat rack’. With those restraints we had to be inventive with other design elements, utilising sound, lighting,
costumes and props to signify environments and changes of character. All of that became embedded into the script and I’m proud to say that it has remained in every version. But, of course, it’s now elevated! For our Park Theatre revival we were joined by a stacked, multi-award-winning design team who have be crucial in the expansion of the world. So if you caught it the first time around at the King’s Head in the pub theatre space, you’re in for a treat now that we’ve got a few more bells and whistles!

Red Bus: Did you always intend for tell me straight and aggy to be a pair? What does staging them
enable that either would lose if staged alone?
Paul Bradshaw: Before last summer the thought hadn’t crossed my mind! We knew we had programming for aggy at The Park but it wasn’t until another double bill was announced when the idea of tell me straight joining the party became a consideration. Each play has it’s own distinguishable narrative, there’s no crossover in characters, cast or plot points, so they very much could be staged as standalone plays in the future. But the success of our run in March has lead to this transfer and we’re excited to get to mount them again as a pair. Staging them together means that audiences get two plays for the price of one, and they’ll hopefully feel entertained, inspired and challenged by the varied narratives and styles of design. I hope it means other companies begin to follow suit, because it has been such a rewarding experience as a team and audiences have been very responsive.

Red Bus: tell me straight is described as semi-autobiographical. How do you draw the line between
the real Paul Bradshaw and the character of Him on stage?

Paul Bradshaw: Whilst it’s a play inspired by my life experience, tell me straight has become it’s own story. In early R&D we decided to call the protagonist ‘Him’, and that instantly provided some distance between my own history and the characters imagined reality. The process has been a rewarding discovery and cathartic excavation of my life, and of course, that brings up a whole host of challenges. But with my fantastic director Imogen Frances, we have built up mechanisms to ensure it’s done in a safe manner. My job as an actor is all about approaching Him like any other role, asking the smaller questions like how does he walk, talk, what makes Him tick and the bigger ones like what does he want and what will it cost for Him to get it? And then, it becomes all about the chemistry that is built between myself and the actor multi-roling as Matt, Lee, Ryan and others, and in each iteration that has shifted based on what that actor brings to the material. So Him, is undoubtedly, me, and at the same time is very much no longer me! It has been a gift to develop this story, and to let both myself and the character of Him to evolve and grow. Having the continued opportunity to tell it is something I don’t take for granted, not one bit.

Red Bus: aggy asks “urgent questions about art and who gets to make it”. Without revealing the plot, was there a real conversation, controversy or moment in the industry that sparked that idea for you?

Paul Bradshaw: aggy began it’s life after overhearing a conversation at Be at One in late 2021, and with three years of development it has grown from a germ of an idea into the play it has become. One that sensitively discusses race, gender, class and creativity, and how in today’s creative climate, those things are inextricably linked. Too often marginalised creatives are encouraged to draw from traumatic lived experiences to make work that is raw and sometimes too close to the bone. And there is rarely the infrastructure in place to help them heal and navigate the tricky emotions that arise while creating. This play poses questions about authenticity, identity and what happens when that feels performative, and even if it shifts into something meaningful, will it always be considered inauthentic?

Red Bus: As a writer whose work sits quite specifically within queer London life, who do you most want to be sitting in your audience and what do you hope they will take away?

I am proud of being a benefit-class, gay Londoner and I love how that has informed the worlds of tell me straight and aggy, so of course I would love to see the audience packed with people from my community who wish to be entertained and challenged by plays that resonate with them. But on the flip side of this, I’d love it even more for folks who aren’t from those communities to see them, as I think they also spark conversations around identity, creativity, community, intimacy, friendship, loyalty, passion, and so much more. The characters are deeply human, are figuring themselves out, and making tonnes of mistakes along the way, something that anyone can relate to. And it’s a hard thing to quantify what I want audiences to take away, but I guess any writer’s hope is that their stories leave an imprint on their listener, something that they will continue to consider about themselves or the world because of what they’ve witnessed.

Production details:

Venue: King’s Head Theatre, 116p Upper Street, London N1 1QP
Dates: 15 October to 14 November 2026
Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes including an interval
Age guidance: 16+
Content warnings: strong language, depictions of violence, scenes of a sexual nature, discussions of racism, gender and discrimination, flashing lights and haze
Book: https://kingsheadtheatre.com/whats-on/double-bill-tell-me-straight-and-aggy-t8hc