Martha Godber: 'Why I lied about having a famous dad'

After all, the man is one of the top three most performed playwrights in the UK (the other two are Sir Alan Ayckbourn and a gentleman called Shakespeare) and he has a prolific output which – to date – exceeds well over 50 plays.

Chances are one of John’s plays is being performed on a stage somewhere in the world right this minute.

He was born in Upton in the West Riding, is currently the Creative Director of the Theatre Royal, Wakefield, but was long associated by the ground-breaking and innovative Hull Truck Theatre, where one of their auditoriums is named after him.

It was he who kept that company afloat and financially viable for decades.

Mr. Godber is married to actress Jane Thornton, and they have two daughters, Elizabeth and Martha, who have both followed their parents into the performing arts.

You often learn that the children of famous theatricals changed their names, so that they wouldn’t be compared to their famous mothers and fathers.

Rarely do you learn that the child has denied their parentage. Martha Godber is one of the rare exceptions.

Martha laughs and confesses that when she auditioned for drama school in Liverpool, she was asked the dread question – was she in any way related to…..you know…..him?

Today, Martha, 28, laughs out loud and reveals “I said no. No relation at all. Or – maybe – he was a distant uncle? I lied through my teeth, and when I did, I felt rather strange about it.”

It’s hardly surprising that she says: “From quite an early age, I wanted to do acting, or dancing, or something.

"I certainly know that I was a hyper-active kid, to the point when I must have driven my parents crazy.

"I was one of those children who was bouncing off the walls. How either of them ever got anything written is still a mystery to me. Our house was never a haven of rest and quiet.

"Actually, come to think about it, it still isn’t. But we are all remarkably close, and incredibly supportive.”

You suggest that, in a century past, the family would probably have made a living, travelling the country in a cart, with the name “Godber, Thornton and daughters” painted on the side.

“I don’t think that you are very far off,” says Martha.

That support has certainly manifested itself in recent months, as Martha wrote and prepared her own new play, Jesse North is Broken, which will premiere at York’s Theatre Royal next week.

It is produced by The John Godber Company.

“Both my mother and father read the script in its early stages,” she says, “and they’ve always been there with ideas and suggestions.

"Not interfering, nothing like that, but making observations that have been invaluable – and valid.”

It turns out that the play manifested itself on a Hull Trains service from King’s Cross back to Paragon station.

“I just sat down at the table, started writing on my laptop, and I didn’t finish until we got to Hull,” smiles Martha, “that was pretty much it – the bare bones were definitely there.”

Which makes it seem as if the play miraculously emerged from thin air.

Far from it, for Martha has been meticulous in her research over many, many months.

Jesse North is Broken, is the story (told over a single night) of 25-year-old Jesse North, a carer in the health system, on a minimum wage and is frazzled to her wit’s end.

She goes from her care shifts to clubbing in Hull, and then to an early-morning call-out to start her day all over again.

She’s dog-tired weary, underpaid and undervalued, all while her ADHD-fuelled thoughts and anxious mind crave order in the chaos. Jesse is near breaking point, but somehow, she carries on.

It was inspired, says Martha, buy her observations of the young carers who helped with her own grandparents, making life that little bit more comfortable for them, and the family.

But, and here’s where Martha’s innovative inquisitiveness came in, she also went onto TikTok, and to social media, to find genuine care workers who posted their own candid reactions of this terribly challenging workplace.

“They were all so kind in giving me their honest thoughts on the crumbling system and the stresses they faced, day to day.

"It was heartbreaking at times, but I’ve been very honest, and I am so grateful to them for their invaluable input.

"There were loads of videos for me to watch, and the people were from all over the place, not just Yorkshire.”

Could she ever think of being a carer herself? She says, without a pause, that she couldn’t even think about it for a split second.

“How these people give the dedication that they do, and cope with all the stress, is beyond me,” she admits. She is grateful, she says, “to my director, Millie Gaston. She’s been wonderful in helping to structure the play, and to structure me, as well, if it comes to that.

"There are so many directors who frankly don’t seem to know what they are doing. Millie is not one of them – and, let’s face it, she’s had the task of having two people to encourage and to control.

"The writer and the sole actor in one person. Me. I trust her, and that’s the mainstay of the play.”

She has been constantly asking herself if what she is producing is ready for an audience, and she’s clearly been told – by close friends, her director and the family – that the answer is ‘Yes.’

“Of course”, she laughs, “You are always questioning yourself ‘Is it rubbish?’, and you’d be a pretty poor writer if you didn’t.

"I write alone, but I constantly carry notepads and scraps of paper with me, just to jot down anything that may occur.

"And I am an inveterate eavesdropping, picking up all kinds of lines from what people are saying around me. I make no apology for that at all.

"Have there been rejections along the way? Oh yes. But you go home, have a good cry in your own room, then you pull yourself together and realise that there was a reason why you didn’t get this, or that, part.

"You must learn from the experience – otherwise, why bother? If you want to be an actor, and you are born with a paper-thin skin, then I’d say, ‘Don’t even bother’.”

Her philosophy is manifest in her mentoring young people from East Yorkshire who are members of the John Godber Foundation, which encourages them into the performing arts.

“I’m super-passionate about inspiring them,” she says quietly, “and in Hull, its particularly difficult. But I shall always be there, I promise.”

When the evening comes when the family come to see the show in performance, how will she feel?

“Shaking at the knees,” she laughs – but she means it.

Next up, there may be a play focusing on the Hull nightclub, Spiders, There are a couple of screenplays in development (one is already in America), “and a desk drawer full of ideas and thoughts and part-finished stuff.”

You have to ask if she ever relaxes? She sighs.

“Well, I go to the gym, and I go jogging. And I go to the coffee shop.” Then adds: “But, even when I’m in the coffee shop, I’m looking at, and listening to, the people around me.

"So, if you are asking ‘Do you ever switch off?’ then the answer is no. But that’s just the way I’m made, and the way I function…..”

Jesse North Is Broken, York Theatre Royal, May 11 – 14