#lucy prebble

[watchfuldeer]

last night i went to a really fun and informal fundraiser evening with jesse and lucy at westminster school, where they were interviewing each other. i got to ask a question which i’ve mused upon for some time about tom, shiv and greg. enjoy! full transcript under cut

Transcript

me: so i’m gonna have to look at what i wrote down.

jesse: that’s alright, you’re highly in credit since you know more about the show than us. more about john berryman.

(laughter)

lucy: tell us what we’ve done wrong so far!

me: god, no. i wouldn’t! so my question, this is a character based question, and one thing that probably got a bit subsumed in the fourth season just because everything was happening. but i’d like to know more about tom and shiv, and also greg. because my read on the situation between the three of them is that greg is a source of marital strife (laughter) that shiv never noticed, and what would it have taken for shiv to notice the depth of greg’s presence in their marriage.

jesse: uh huh.

me: and tom’s attachment to him.

jesse: uh huh. sometimes you get little bits in life or you see something and you’re like, i wish we were making the show, because i suddenly do want to hear shiv say ‘greg you’re a source of marital strife’.

(laughter)

jesse: that’s like, when you’re like, that’s gonna be in, we’re not gonna cut that.

lucy: absolutely.

jesse: (doing greg voice) wh-wh-what?!

(laughter)

lucy: yeah. well we enjoyed that, didn’t we. we had a scene in america decides, which was the only scene between shiv and greg.

jesse: oh yeah.

lucy: the election episode in the final season where she takes him into a little room and threatens him.

me: ah, but it’s jealousy over lukas, over the greg and lukas thing, and it’s like, have you forgotten your husband, who is also very attached to this limpet?

lucy: yeah. i would also say that there are marriages in which a third party is not an unuseful thing, as well. not in a forgiving way about infidelity, but i would say that there are things that tom can express with and at and on greg (laughter) as it were, to greg, that are useful because he’s both a - you know the great, the interesting thing about tom is that he’s both a courtier and a bully. he’s that rare combination of someone who you totally believe as being almost like (mimes bowing and doffing cap) ‘oh yes sorry thank you yes ma’am’ and also like, ‘i’m gonna kill you’ and that juxtaposition is what makes him so interesting.

but in his marriage to shiv he has no real way, until quite late i guess in the final season, where we explore it, to hold power over her and to use that part of himself. so he’s accepted the acquiescing, he’s accepted the role of courtier in that marriage, and greg is quite a useful place where he gets to express all of that, the bully in him so that maybe it doesn’t have to come out in the marriage. which might be bad, because perhaps it should do and then the marriage would’ve ended much earlier, yknow, when shiv would just be like ‘i’m not dealing with you challenging me in any way’. so it’s not until that balcony scene i think where he really challengers her much at all. possibly the beach scene, where he sort of says that he’s considered leaving her, and how that would feel. but with aggressive challenge? it’s all directed at greg, and greg is allowed to be the place where all those feelings go.

me: but the affection - there’s also affection between them.

jesse: YEAH. and i think that’s the other thing maybe you’re alluding to is like, she… i think, some things you know you’re putting in the show because you talk about them and other things just naturally occur, and audiences and people tell you what the show is and what you put in there and you didn’t even realise, but i think we were aware of this - she’s oblivious. her obliviousness is a big part of her wealth and her upbringing and… so there’s something homoerotic going on between greg and tom.

me: i mean it’s not for me to say.

(laughter)

jesse: and does she… i think there’s two ways of reading that, either she’s oblivious, and that’s intriguing and possible. the other is that she sort of - there’s a scene in, you know that one, in the sun valley media conference in argestes, where we wrote a bit where shiv shows up unexpected and tom’s sort of flirting with someone, and it never really landed that much. i think we were like, oh this really gonna, shiv’s gonna spark up when she sees him flirting with someone. and it’s one of those things where you were like, you know what? i don’t think she gives a hoot, really, does she.

(laughter)

jesse: it’s like, she hasn’t got that, that’s not in her belly, that fear of loss.

lucy: no.

jesse: so i think that goes, that probably goes for a same-sex relationship or flirtation as much as it does for with a woman.

lucy: i think that’s true.

jesse: like she really… even if he was like - and this is not the way that tom would be like - ‘i think i’d like to sleep with greg’, i think she’d be like (mimes looking at watch) ‘when?’.

(laughter)

jesse: (as shiv) ‘not when i’m in the city, that’s weird, tom’.

(laughter)

jesse: i don’t think she’d have any fundamental objection to that.

lucy: that’s true. i think jealousy is quite a low status emotion.

jesse: yes.

lucy: and i think that she would struggle to feel it.

(jesse laughs)

lucy: even if it was present in some way, she would never be able to access it because it would put her too much at a disadvantage. so i think yeah exactly that, it would be like, ‘oh i guess you’re going to fuck that boring woman now are you, tom’ or do that, like… she has to be here (mimes one hand above another hand) so jealousy can’t really be accessed by her. so she might be irritated by greg, but in the way you would be by a mosquito.

me: to her detriment.

lucy: to her detriment, sure, ultimately yeah.

[bronzeagepizzeria]

Secret Diary of a Call Girl | 1.01

[toiletpotato]

Would you like another way to help raise money for Medical Aid for Palestinians? Please consider participating in the above silent auction! It goes to a very, very good cause and there are some pretty cool items/experiences up for auction!

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... and more!!

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[unreesonable]

Critics Choice Theatre Awards, 11 Feb 2020, where A Very Expensive Poison won Best Play and Best Designer.

[estefanyailen]

[akajustmerry]

in 'i hate suzie too' there was an incredible sequence i think about all the time where suzie (billie piper) does an at-home abortion and it's presented very matter-of-factly. like, she realises she's pregnant, is annoyed, goes to the chemist/drug store, gets the stuff from the pharmacist, returns to the hotel and administers it. you see her going through it, how it's uncomfortable, a little messy, but totally safe and she's fine. its not made a big deal of. suzie as a character isn't conflicted about it, she just does it and gets on with things. it's excellently written by lucy prebble and perfectly realised by billie piper on screen. and its such a precious scene to me because i feel like so many shows that deal with abortion in any way are so fucking loud and dramatic about it, and so obsessed with the trauma of it. while that's valid and reflects a lot of folks' experiences - it's also just so awesome to have a scene where abortion is presented as a neutral thing that some people do without regret, malice or any kind of heaviness. where it's just a fact of life for them. this is a post to thank lucy prebble for writing that sequence and also, politely ask her, why couldn't you let shiv roy do that in your other critically acclaimed television series, queen? (i know why but 😭)

[sundaysilenceradio]

The Effect, 1 August — 7 October 2023 at the Lyttelton Theatre (National Theatre / London).

[waystarresourceco]

The writers of Succession discuss the Kendall and Logan dynamic/hug in the last scene of “No One is Ever Missing.” After showing the scene at the panel, the writers walk through (a) the line between comedy and drama/tragedy and (b) Logan’s thoughts and motivations underpinning that scene. (x)

While the whole clip is worth a watch or listen, the last minute, where Jesse Armstrong and Lucy Prebble describe Logan’s thoughts/emotions while talking to Kendall, is transcribed below:

Jesse Armstrong: I think there’s loads of tenderness. I think it’s really mixed up with a fucked-up version of just enjoying that power. Like the whole – he’s been very destabilized in that episode where there’s a bear hug letter and the business feels under threat. And to feel another clunk of relief of like “oh this is how it’s meant to feel” with his supplicant son. Lucy Prebble: And being somewhat of a good father in that moment, and yet it’s ironic because what he’s enjoying about it, exactly as Jesse’s saying, is the patriarchal sense of being in control again and him being a little boy that he needs to save. So it’s toxic and unpleasant at the same time as he is protecting his son from bad consequences cause of something he’s done so it’s actually quite ideal for Logan.  

Additional writing on this to follow, but I also wanted to mention that the above may be interesting to consider in connection with “Window Rumination,” a backstory piece written by Jesse that lays out a memory of six-year-old Kendall visiting Waystar, getting lost, and being saved by his father’s embrace. The same kind of embrace that almost thirty years later is both a comfort and a confirmation of the terrible force of Logan’s love. (x)

[taylorrussellsgf]

The end of the effect era ;)

[pro-royalty]

Taylor Russell for British Vogue

[maliferous-me]

“[T]here’s a lot of horror in life, as a woman. Historically, the horror genre is dominated by men making them, and a lot of women I know don’t want to watch horrors, because I think their lives feel very horrific already."

- Lucy Prebble ("Succession")

[twopoppies]

Despite Harry wearing JW Anderson and some Loewe stuff from time to time for a while now the following stuff is just really weird and suspicious. Not denying that he probably watches succession but the way he’s walking around in that merch when that series is connected to loewe is just plain weird considering everything else I’m gonna list now. Just think about it for a moment. Emrata “kiss“ 25.3., she’s connected to loewe. Harry doing that staged pap walk on April 12th with the Loewe pink elephant attached to his bag -> April 22nd Emrata loewe campaign and interview asked about Harry.Clearly they tried to set up a stunt but it didn’t work out and it was just so embarrassing! Also the connection to Olivia and how both of them were at tue Paris show together randomly. And Emrata “hanging out“ with Olivia shortly before THAT incident… doesn’t seem so random to me. Now further, TR is THE female face of Loewe now, that play she’s doing in London rn and the author of it is Lucy prebble who’s also executive producer for succession. Harry being papped carrying TR‘s luggage with a Loewe pendant (another animal but same thing like his pink elephant). So there’s an oddly connection between Loewe and succession and the Emrata stunt failed so now they do it with TR and harries and the gp is eating it up. So don’t tell me all of this is just a coincidence

Oh, interesting. I didn’t know about the Succession connection. He’s been wearing that merch for a while, though. Even when he was “with” Olivia, so… I’m not sure how that ties back, but it���s curious, nevertheless. And I don’t think the EmRata thing was meant to be a full blown relationship. But whatever it was, it was a mess and IMO he dodged a bullet if there was ever any intention for it to be more than a one-time thing.

[tv-moments]

Succession

Season 4, “Honeymoon States”

Director: Lorene Scafaria

DoP: Katelin Arizmendi

[taylor-russell-fun]

"Hearts and minds racing ⚡️

The Effect is available to watch on National Theatre at Home.

Watch the unmissable Paapa Essiedu and Taylor Russell in this funny and intimate examination of love and ethics. Directed by Jamie Lloyd and written by Lucy Prebble."

source: National Theatre (instagram)

[shakespearenews]

...Prebble told me, “Macbeth,” with its gradual accumulation of immoral acts, was a more important referent for ���enron” than Marlowe’s play. Prebble said of her Shakespearean borrowings, “If you take something that has lasted an incredibly long time, and that everyone says is good, and then use that as a sparse backbone, you might be protecting yourself to some extent—or helping the narrative be stronger.” 

[dynamobooks]

Jesse Armstrong et al: Succession: Season 3: The Complete Scripts (2021/2023)