A show set to run and run brings Sillitoe to the stage

Yes, it’s an Olympic year. Yes, the fever pitch seemed to keep rising with every new sporting achievement of Team GB, and yes, as we saw at the opening ceremony, the cultural achievements of our island are something of which we can be as proud as those of our sporting heroes.

But does that really mean it’s possible to take a story that is resolutely about sport and make it work for the stage?

Marcus Romer believes the answer is a categorical “yes”.

He’s the director who is bringing The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner from the page to the stage. It’s an unlikely subject matter for a piece of theatre. While the Olympics showed us that sporting drama can easily become a piece of theatre, it is not necessarily a two-way relationship. Romer’s confidence in the project comes from the fact that he is working with a man who has impressive form coming into the piece.

Romer is artistic director of York-based theatre company Pilot and has worked previously with Roy Williams, the man tasked with turning the Alan Sillitoe novel into a drama for the stage.

“It’s fantastic to be working again with Roy Williams after our success with his tour of Sing Yer Heart Out for the Lads. Roy and I have known each other for 20 years and have always been looking for the right projects to do together,” he says.

“Since we last worked together in 2005 we have been in regular contact about what we felt could follow this. After Sucker Punch (Williams’ play featuring boxers in a ring, fighting) at the Royal Court we talked about how we could build on this experience about actors and physical storytelling. Loneliness was the key choice.”

The play features lead actor Elliot Barnes-Worrell running in real time on the stage – while performing. Romer says he is “our play’s Mo Farah”.

“It is inherently dramatic,” insists Romer.

“Even you’ve read the book or seen the film and know how the story ends, the play that Roy has written takes you inside his head and his thoughts as he is running. That is what makes the story so dramatic.”

While Williams has adapted the play for a new audience, Romer says the writer has stayed faithful to Sillitoe’s original source material.

“I would say about 80 per cent of the words on stage actually belong to Alan Sillitoe,” says Romer.

“There is a line, and remember that Sillitoe was writing this in 1950s Britain, where he talks about how the country is being dragged into oblivion by a bunch of Old Etonians.

“Putting this play on in an Olympic year, when you understand what was behind Sillitoe writing it – I can’t think of anything more relevant.”

A young man’s hard road

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, a short story by Alan Sillitoe, was first published in 1959.

Adapted for film in 1962, it tells the story of Colin, in a young offenders’ institute, who escaped his life through running – and is made to run in competition for the institute. York Theatre Royal, to Sept 29. 01904 623568.