2 weeks Ago By BBC
A writer and storyteller says bringing his show about his hometown to one of his favourite theatres is a "career highlight". John Osborne, 41, first came to Norwich in 2000 and felt an "initial pull" to the city. His show Norwich: A Love Story is a love letter to a city he has fond memories of and is being performed at Norwich Playhouse on Monday.
"If you could find a more Norwich-y show, I would love to hear about it," he said. Osborne's first experience of was for a university open day for his twin sister. While he had no interest and instead wanted to become a chef, as soon as he arrived at the University of East Anglia's concrete campus, he was sold.
"I've moved away a couple of times...
I've always been pulled back to it," he said. "As soon as I stepped foot on the campus I thought 'I have to come here'..
. it made me very happy immediately and I didn't want to go anywhere else." While taking the show to other venues in the United Kingdom, it was "very rare" for him not to meet someone with a connection to Norwich, he said.
He said he was "really excited" to be back at Norwich Playhouse. "It's one of my favourite theatres in the whole country..
. it's definitely a huge thing for me to have a show there," he said. "I've been performing stories, poems and theatre shows in Norwich for 15 years, so this is definitely a career highlight.
" The show itself is a love story between two characters, in which a woman living in Scotland drops everything to move to Norwich after falling in love. But a second love story runs beneath the surface, characterised by memories and emotions evoked by places around the city. Jarrolds department store, Norwich Market, the Waterfront and Waterloo Park - all places people from the city will recognise - feature in the show.
Osborne said: "Because I'm not from here and there is so much about Norwich I don't know, I didn't want to stand on stage at the Playhouse with a lot of people who will know a lot more about Norwich than I do...
it's about the emotions and love of those places, rather than the factual history of them.".
