This is one out of three Q&A's from the creative minds behind Sanctuary. 

Writer and composer Boff Whalley is the co-creator of Sanctuary along with award-winning playwright Sarah Woods. Here, he discusses the idea behind  the story, the power of musicals and why this is a story that needs to be told.

Where did the idea for Sanctuary come from? 

It came from the fact that Sarah and me were working with a refugee and asylum  centre in Cardiff on and off for about three-and-a-half years trying to find musicians,  writers, singers and poets, and by default getting to know the stories of ordinary  people trapped in extraordinary circumstances. As a young lad I remember there  was the case of Viraj Mendis who sought asylum in a church in Manchester to try  and avoid being arrested and sent back home to Sri Lanka. There was a campaign  and I remember going over there and people spent the night outside and inside the  church to try and help him. So that was in my mind. It’s also a bit of a hidden story – this idea of people looking for a way to escape and to be protected. We thought why  don’t we look at this idea of sanctuary and what it means to people who are religious  and fleeing persecution. 

Does the story naturally lend itself to being a stage production? 

We were both thinking wouldn’t it be good to have a stage production that doesn’t  look like you’ve just walked into a theatrical box, and instead you’re walking into a  church, which is already a kind of stage. It’s got its pulpit and its organ, so it’s set up  as a visual spectacle, so the minute you walk in you are part of a church  congregation rather than a theatre-going audience.  

Why did you want to do this as a musical rather than a play? 

We thought let’s make it a musical and try to avoid the idea of people going to watch  a piece of theatre that’s grim, depressing and hopeless. Let’s do it so there are  songs and melodies and some sense of hope running through it where you’re rooting  for people. It’s such a lovely way to connect with characters rather than having big  soliloquies. I love the idea of taking something that is potentially quite depressing  and using music to create something uplifting. 

Musicals have enjoyed a revival in recent years often tackling controversial  topics. What do you think is behind this resurgence? 

When I was growing up West Side Story was a real marker for me in terms of telling  a story about gangs, but at the time I didn’t know it had anything to do with Romeo  and Juliet. I just thought it was brilliant because it was telling this really hard-hitting,  powerful story and doing it with some of the best music that you could ever hear. And  lately we’ve had shows like Hamilton and The Book of Mormon, which both use  music brilliantly and do a similar kind of thing.

You’ve got a longstanding connection to Red Ladder. What is the appeal in  working with them? 

One of the big attractions is the collaborative nature of Red Ladder. I think a lot of  theatre and art wants to be collaborative but when it comes down to it isn’t really. But  in all the years I’ve worked with Red Ladder the rehearsal room has always been  really open in terms of everyone being able to make suggestions and change things.  Cheryl Martin is the artistic director but she’ll ask what other people think and is  willing to be swayed by other viewpoints, and I love that. A lot of people in the arts  have their own way of doing things and stick to them, but Red Ladder has never  been like that. 

Do you prefer collaborating to working on your own on a project and how do  they differ? 

I prefer collaborating, definitely. From the very beginning when I first started to write  words and music I would take a song to our fledgling punk band and someone would  say ‘how about changing this drum beat?’ I think you can always be helped by  someone else’s ideas. And working with actors is a real collaboration. So many times  I’ve been in rehearsals having written a line and I know how it’s meant to sound and  the actor does it in a way I never expected that makes it better. I enjoy working on  my own but then I love taking a song or a lyric to other people and asking, ‘how can  we make this better?’  

What do you hope to achieve through a piece of work, whether it’s a song, a  poem, or a musical? 

Everything I’ve done, whether it’s music or writing, has always had a political or  socially conscious reason behind it. My main motivation is will this make people think  and will it get them talking? Does it avoid just being nice and pleasant? I used to go  to plays with Rod Dixon, the former artistic director at Red Ladder, and I remember  him saying to me halfway through a big production one time, ‘well, it looks lovely and  it sounds great, and the actors are brilliant, but what’s it saying?’ And he was right. I  want people to think a piece of art is saying something, that it has an opinion. 

What inspires or motivates you to tell a particular story? 

First and foremost I’m moved by what’s going on in the world and then I have to put  pen to paper. I often go for a run in the morning in the woods and if the sun’s shining  you can think all’s good in the world and then I get back and turn the radio on and  straight away I’m back in this world where I’m like ‘everything’s not alright’ and there  are things we need to talk about. It’s a privilege to have the opportunity to put into  words something that hopefully people will listen to. 

Why is theatre important in telling stories like Sanctuary? 

In the last ten years theatre has become something entirely different to what it was. I  think it’s become an antidote to looking at things beautifully done on a screen that  are scripted and done again and again and then frozen. Theatre is about real people,  right in front of you, doing something that can be different every night, and that’s  such an art. If I go to the theatre with my son or my daughter I remind them that what  they’re seeing no one will ever see again the same way. It’s not like going to the  cinema or watching Netflix. It’s also very physical and we’ve lost a lot of that idea of  people doing things together, though I think it’s coming back and theatre’s a big part  of that. 

How important is theatre in terms of getting young people involved in the arts? 

We’ve done some work with CAPA College in Wakefield with 16 and 17 year-olds  who want to get into performance, or acting, or dance, and they’re incredibly  talented. With Sanctuary we’ve got a chorus of nine, like a Greek chorus, who are  commenting on the action and helping the audience understand what’s going on and  they sing these lovely acappellas. Most of them have never done this sort of thing  before and it’s such a brilliant opportunity for them to be on stage in front of an  audience doing the thing they want to do. 

What impact do you hope Sanctuary has? 

I hope that it contributes to the ongoing debate about how we treat people who are  seeking asylum. The more that’s said about this the better, because the noise that  comes from some politicians and sections of the media is so overwhelming and  negative that everything we do that counters this is important.

You can see Sanctuary on Wednesday 9 October.

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