Marriage
The Cheshire Magazine talks to writer and director Stefan Golaszewski and lead actor Sean Bean about their brand new drama
Marriage follows married couple Ian (Sean Bean) and Emma (Nicola Walker) as they negotiate the ups and downs of their 30-year marriage.
We see them dealing with the insecurities, the ambiguities, the hopes and the fears that are part of all marriages, as the drama explores the risks and the gifts of a long-term intimate relationship. Sometimes funny, sometimes moving, always revealing.
Stefan Golaszewski
What’s the premise of Marriage?
Marriage is a show about a couple and how they get through things together. I guess I’m trying to write about what it is actually like to be a person instead of what it is like on television or in fiction. People find things difficult and they don’t really know what they feel. They think they feel one thing but often feel something else. They often don’t know what to say to each other, which seems to be like a more truthful depiction of what it is like to be a person.
In the show, that’s what I’m trying to do - connect with the audience about what it’s like to be them and live their lives in a minute-by-minute way as opposed to a broad plot thrusting way. Digging into the minute and tiny moments to find the dramas and tensions in the way that we as people live our lives - moment by moment. We don’t experience life as big thunderstorms, it’s more like constant drizzle, and that’s what the show explores.
What or who were your influences when creating this show?
I would say more novelists and musicians than film makers or playwrights. People like Zola, George Eliot, Bach, and Stravinsky. Their work has blown me in a different direction.
Who are the main protagonists in Marriage?
Sean Bean plays Ian. He’s recently been made redundant, his mum has died and he’s in a turning point of his life, where things are changing for him in the notion of who he is. Nicola Walker plays Emma, who has plans of what she wants to do with her career and looks after her dad.
Chantelle Alle plays Jessica, who has found herself in a relationship with Adam which isn’t very healthy and is trying to find her way out of that, but in doing so is discovering things about herself. James Bolam plays Gerry - he’s stuck at home and is trying to control whatever and how little he can. Henry Lloyd-Hughes plays Jamie. He can do a good pirouette but the ice he is skating on is very thin…
Tell us about casting Nicola and Sean.
Casting Nicola and Sean was great as I was able to rewrite the scripts with them in mind and strip away as much dialogue as I could, knowing I had two amazing actors who could do all that for me, which I prefer. I like having as few words as possible for a scene.
Tell us about the humour in Marriage...
The reason why the stuff I write tends to be funny or an irony really is a reflection of the fact that the world is fundamentally ridiculous and everything in it is pointless - but the only thing that isn’t is love, and the connection between people. If I think about it that’s probably the thing that connects everything I’ve written; there’s a central focus on seeking togetherness.
How important is detail to you in this show?
I think it is very important for this kind of writing that what we shoot is absolutely what I wrote down to ‘erm’ or ‘err’, ‘yes’ or ‘yeah’. Without that specificity, when I get in the edit, I’m not able to tell the same story. When your plot lines are as minimal as these are and based on such tiny shifts of emotion or mood, you have to have the absolute pinpoint tools to tell that story. If a line has got the words muddled in the wrong way or if it’s slightly altered, that can really change the story.
So much of what I do is done on implication and inference, and it’s a very specific game. You need all that to be as written, so I am very specific on the script. Actors tend to be very generous as they have read them and understood the nature of what it is, and come on board with that. I’m sure they get annoyed at me for telling them what they have said and when they should have said something else, but they are always very gracious and patient with me.
What inspired you to write Marriage?
What inspired the show was seeing the world full of beautiful things, where people fall in love and then do their best to be together. I think there’s something really gorgeous about humans and worth celebrating.
What do you hope audiences take from Marriage?
I hope that the audience will connect with it and feel that it reflects what it’s like to be them, and that it reflects the warmth, humour and the shared world view that you have in a relationship. The shared moments and joys, but potential for frustration and the impossibilities of it. When people get married they make a completely impossible pledge to be together happily for the rest of their lives, and no one can do that, yet everyone tries. That’s what makes it a beautiful thing. In a marriage you are spending all day every day trying to make this thing work that really shouldn’t. It’s impossible to live with one person all day every day for the rest of your life, but you try it because you love each other and it’s worth it and worth trying for.
Sean Bean
Tell us about Marriage.
Marriage only takes place over 12 days or so. It’s an extract of that time in their lives and you drop in to watch their lives. However, what is in those days is rich, revealing and you see what a relationship is... what a marriage is. Their doubts, fears, joy, happiness and heartbreak that go into everyday living.
What struck you about the script?
Stefan’s dialogue is very natural and free flowing. It doesn’t seem like that sometimes when you are doing it. I guess we all jump to conclusions about how we perceive delivery of the lines, and sometimes you go for the easiest option, but Stefan breaks it up and doesn’t allow it to just become one-dimensional thought. There’s a lot happening in between various sentences and statements we make which is hard to get your head around, but makes it very varied and rich.
He also throws in a lot of business: props, opening and shutting bins, getting tissue paper out at the same time as you are talking, which is something you have to get used to. However it’s very well observed and quite hard work to get your head around, even though it’s very naturalistic and free flowing. There’s so many different layers he has created within his script.
Tell us about the situation with Jamie, Emma’s colleague?
Ian is a man who isn’t very sure of himself and not very confident. He used to be when he had a job and was in a relatively high up position. He was a moderator at his firm, but that’s gone and he’s recently lost his mother. Emma is working and going places. Then there’s a younger man on the scene [Jamie] so when you add them all together, he’s quite suspicious. Ian is a very vulnerable and unsettled man and lots of little things begin to stir up into a big pot of worry!
Tell us about working with Stefan.
Stefan is very communicative. He has lived with this project for so long that he knows what he wants from us, it’s a matter of getting on his wavelength. I’ve never really thought this much about what I say or do, but in this I feel very grateful to be able to have that opportunity. It’s not method acting, but you really do think about how you are doing a scene. You have to be so truthful in the portrayal to bring out all the feelings and emotions that Stefan has put in.
What’s it been like working with Nicola?
It’s been a real pleasure for me working with Nicola, and I know everyone says that, but it really has.
Why should people watch Marriage?
People will be able to see many things that they can relate to in their own lives and their own relationships. There aren’t any big stunts or reveals, it’s just a very simple story, simply told, about people and the complications of daily life.
Marriage is available now on the BBC iPlayer
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