What began as a British stage play about love, romance, and heartbreak, mixed with a large amount of sex and alcohol, is now a new comedy web series.
3SOME is written and directed by Lisa Gifford, produced by UK film and TV veterans Elisar Cabrera and Carl Simons. Its first episode airs on March 19th (today!), to coincide with the start of the stage play’s 3-week run of shows in Camden, UK, and with an additional five episodes set to air in April.
The show focuses on a couple, Rob (played by Euan King), and Jenny (played by Gifford), whose relationship is suddenly on the rocks. In addition, Rob’s ex-best friend, and Jenny’s ex-fiancé Paul (Peter Halpin) returns home after a year’s travels, causing chaos in Rob and Jenny’s already fragile relationship.
The show’s supporting cast includes two veterans of the popular sci-fi series DOCTOR WHO: Annette Badland (best known as the Slitheen) and Simon Fisher-Becker (who starred alongside the current Doctor, Matt Smith, as the blue alien Dorium), play Paul’s parents, Margaret and Roger, respectively.
The show, which takes place a year after the events of the stage play, was developed by Gifford as she pursued a theatre degree. It premiered in August 2012 at the Camden Fringe Festival in front of a sell-out crowd, and after the show’s performance, Gifford says, there was just one question on everyone’s mind: “The play ends on a big cliffhanger, and after the show, people would come up to me in the bar under the theatre and ask ‘what happens next?’ At the same time, Elisar (Cabrera) was trying to persuade me to write a film version of the play. I didn’t feel that worked, but I loved writing the characters and I knew they had a life beyond the stage, so the idea of the webseries was born.”
While producing stage plays and a web series each have its own set of challenges and advantages, producing the web series version of 3SOME proved to be a lot smoother process, despite the lack of rehearsal time afforded to theatrical performances, says Gifford. “There are also a lot more characters (than in the stage play), so I felt my responsibility to communicate the ‘vision’ of the show succinctly was much more pronounced. We cast and crewed extremely carefully, and, as a result, we had (I hope and I have been told) a very harmonious, fun and productive set. We shot six episodes in six days, including exploding lights, broken sets and switching locations, and it all went smoothly. We all want to get together again for series two, so something worked.”Gifford, who cites Ricky Gervais (THE OFFICE) as her primary inspiration as an actress, writer, producer and director, based her show on actual, real life experiences revolving around love, sex and relationships, stories that, she says, many viewers can relate to.
“I deliberately try not to present the audience with a ‘hero’ or ‘villain’ in the main characters, because these states exist in all of us. I’d rather the audience make up their own minds over who’s right and wrong, and maybe even change their minds over the course of each episode.”
Gifford’s overall hope for 3SOME is this: “I just want people to watch it and enjoy it. If they recognize something in the story, and if they can identify with Paul, or Rob, or Jen, so much the better. But if they just get a laugh out of it – that suits me too.”
ON THE WEB: www.watch3some.co.uk
YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/watch3some
FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/watch3some
TWITTER: www.twitter.com/watch3some