JADAR

After their sell-out success with pool (no water) at the 2024 Greater Manchester Fringe Festival, ETAL Theatre is back at 53two. Ten years on from its premier production, WINK by Phoebe Eclair-Powell remains a timely, unflinching examination of toxic masculinity in a digital age. Ahead of the premiere, we sat down with Arthur Loades, Artistic Director of ETAL Theatre and director of WINK.

Let’s start with ETAL Theatre. When did you start the company, and who with? Were there any particular inspirations behind it, either from the Manchester scene or further afield?

A: “I always feel I have to start any conversation with prefacing that I’m originally from Hull. The theatre scene in Hull is so brilliant, and the companies there (Silent Uproar, Middle Child, Roaring Girls, to name a few) massively influenced me and the way I approach theatre. I grew up watching shows that played with form in interesting ways and were loud, chatty and vibrant. After graduating from The University of Salford, I was really keen to direct a show that felt just as exciting.

“It took me a long time to find the right show to be my debut, but once I landed on Mark Ravenhill’s pool (no water), everything seemed to fall into place. I took the script to Jennifer Roberts (Producer, ETAL Theatre) and we immediately knew that we’d be working on this as a team so started the company together.”

Last year’s pool (no water) was a huge success, with sold-out runs and rave reviews at the Fringe. What was a standout moment from that experience for you? Any particular highlights or lessons you took into this year’s work?

A: “Thank you! Pool was the most amazing experience. Seeing a room full of people waving glowsticks to Darude’s ‘Sandstorm’ while our cast rave around them was one of the first images I envisioned when I read the play for the first time, so seeing that organically happen in real life was a true full circle moment. I always love it when audiences get the same buzz at the theatre as they’d get from a night out. That really is the aim of ETAL Theatre and something I hope to foster in all of our work.

“WINK is a very physical show as well, so developing choreography that speaks to the heavy themes of the story has been a really interesting task. It is also written almost entirely as direct address to the audience, just like Pool. There are times when this has been a challenge: so much of building a character is based around what they choose not to say, but direct address forces you to be honest. The audience becomes another character in the show, and it starts to feel more like a conversation than a performance. It’s such an engaging way of working and I learn more and more about how to understand a character each time I read scripts like this.”

Why Wink? What drew you to this play for the Greater Manchester Fringe 2025?

A: “Phoebe Eclair-Powell’s Shed: Exploded View at the Royal Exchange earlier this year had a huge impact on me. The way she involves and challenges an audience with deeply human stories is so exciting, so I went on to read her other works and they were all just as moving and electrifying. As a director, I find Phoebe Eclair-Powell incredibly generous. The only stage direction in the whole of WINK reads: WINK should be performed with movement and music. How could I not choose it? 

“I can’t wait to bring this play to Manchester audiences for the first time. It debuted at Theatre503 in London just over ten years ago, so we’ve had a lot of fun updating some of the local and pop culture references (it would have been impossible to stage a show about the Internet without talking about TikTok!) but it’s shocking how relevant the play’s themes of misogyny and identity still are.”

When reading about Wink, the popular Netflix drama Adolescence springs to mind; both explore themes of young masculinity and the influence of online manosphere culture. With Adolescence gaining such wide attention, the phenomenon seems to reinforce the relevance of reviving a show like Wink. Did the show – or that cultural moment more broadly – influence how you approached the work?

A: “Absolutely, to the point where after Jen read the script, she called me to say that Adolescence was compulsory viewing. The parallels between Jamie in Adolescence and Mark in Wink are undeniable, and in the first conversation I had with Beth Moore (Assistant Director for WINK), she stressed the importance of showing just how young this character is. The access young people have to the internet is really challenging. So much of it happens behind closed doors, and the only way to really bring about change is through honest, difficult conversations. The relationships that both Mark and John have with the audience, then, has been really interesting to develop. We’re faced with two young men desperate for connection in a world that, they believe, tells them to prioritise power over anything else. There are moments where we feel simultaneous pity and disgust towards them, and while there is plenty of dark humour, ultimately we’re forced to confront our complicity in their actions.”

What’s your ethos as a director? Are there certain ideas, methods, or creative values you always return to in your process?

A: “Theatre is a three-dimensional, live art form, so I always try to take full advantage of that and look for how to tell a story in the most exciting way (for me, anyway). In pretty much everything I do, be it in theatre or just my life in general, I lead with music. Once I’ve captured the sound of a play, I can start to build the rest of the world around it, so next would be the physical language of the play and then marrying all of this to the actual text.

“I could never claim to have all the answers, which is why I need the process to be collaborative. I’m really lucky to have Jen, Beth and Mia Butcher (Technical Manager, ETAL Theatre) on the team as we’re not afraid to challenge each other and find new ways of looking at things. Similarly, I love working with actors who take risks and bring their own ideas to the table. WINK is an absolute marathon, so I feel very lucky to be working with a cast (Jolyon Benson as Mark and Jack Moran as John) who bring so much energy and passion to the ideas I throw at them, and to have them throw brilliant ideas right back.”

And finally, what do you hope audiences come away feeling after seeing Wink?

A: “The story these two characters take us on is relentless and twisted, so with Phoebe Eclair-Powell’s writing and our staging, I’m hoping audiences leave the performance feeling energised and entertained. Above all else: I hope they leave feeling hopeful. Misogyny and the manosphere is increasingly affecting every aspect of our lives, for all genders, but by refusing to look away from the problem (and WINK certainly doesn’t hold any punches!) I think we can begin to make a change.”

WINK runs at 52Two from July 13 to 17.