BLOG; Tim Elgood "Know Your Subject Matter"

Mad Dogs and an Englishman

Fri 25 Apr 2014

Our homegrown production of Mad Dogs and an Englishman was written by Derby based Tim Elgood, here he gives an insight into knowing your subject matter..

"They say one must be driven by a subject matter to write about it. Fortunately these two plays represent a couple of my favourite subjects.
The first is ‘Man’s Best Friend’.
The second is ‘Me’.
The latter is possibly my all-time favourite subject matter. ( see my family for details.)
There can be few subject matters as emotive as ‘Dog Rescue’. (visit The Ark Animal Welfare Centre at Ashbourne for details.) The Ark was one of the major motivating forces behind the writing of ‘The Dog House’. The other was the fact that my wife and I have ‘owned’ three ‘rescue dogs’ during the course of our married life. Our present Border Terrier cross – Harry – is sixteen and a half years old. We chose Harry as a pup and then elected to spend a lot of time in his company. Harry has had very little say in the matter. To be precise he has had none. This may explain why some days he looks tired – nay exasperated. My wife and I always say of the Rescue dogs we have owned that (quote) “ we have given them a good life”. This play queries that assumption.
And now let’s move on to that all-time favourite subject matter…….’Me’. ( see ‘Bare Words’ for details.)
Best wishes and thanks to one and all in respect of this production. Nothing would have been possible without Derby LIVE nor without you the audience. I thank you both.

Tim Elgood."