JOHN&THOMAS
A new play by Latest’s Andrew Kay will launch a prize in honour of drag star Jason Sutton AKA Miss Jason as part of PierFest this autumn.
Latest’s own AK has been a theatre fan since his early teens and for the last 30 or so years has reviewed theatre for The Latest. But ten years ago he crossed over the footlights and entered a script in the Word On Worthing drama competition. That play, I Will Survive, won and was performed at the Connaught Theatre to great reviews.
A few years later he saw Jason Sutton in a play called Twinkle and was impressed by Jason’s performance. Returning home he was inspired to write Morning Glory and speculatively sent it to Jason. Jason replied within hours saying he loved it and suggested sending it to his theatre friend Allan Cardew.
Jason Sutton
Pretty soon all three met up and hatched a plan. Allan directed the play and things escalated when it was decided to take the play to the Edinburgh Fringe for a week. It went well and people really engaged with the topic of ageism on the gay scene.
Allan Cardew
In 2022 the play was revived at Theatre Royal Brighton for two sold out performances but due to ill health, at the last minute Allan Cardew stepped in and took on the role of David to fantastic reviews. It was also at those shows that AK was approached by Coronation Street star Brian Capron. Just over a year later Brian opened in AK’s Punchline at The Lantern Theatre for four sell out shows and again great reviews.
But Punchline was not AK’s next play after Morning Glory.
“I had been working on visual material for Miss Jason for some time and on a Sunday at The Bali Brasserie in Hove Jason’s guest with the brilliant drag artiste Dave Lynn. I’d known Dave since the early 1980s and he came over to my table and asked why I hadn’t written a play for him.
Dave Lynn
“I’d seen Dave act and knew he had the talent so that week, after some thinking, I set about writing a new play for him and Jason together. That was just before lockdowns started and everything went on hold. It was only this year that I went back to that script, prompted by the sad and untimely death of Jason. I took the script out and read it and felt so sad that Jason had never done it. Then it occurred to me that I could do something with it that would honour my dear and talented friend.”
AK went away and called Dave Lynn and Allan Cardew proposing that they might get involved, then he asked director Carole Todd if she would join the team. A plan was formed to do a rehearsed reading of the play to raise money to be used to honour Jason Sutton.
“I gave it a lot of thought, Jason was a lover of theatre and would no doubt have gone on to tackle more theatre roles. It suddenly struck me that the money raised could be used to create an annual LGBTQ+ drama prize in his name. I talked to everyone involved and then contacted Chris Gull, the chair of The Rainbow Fund about the idea. He was very keen to be involved and offered that the charity would administer the monies raised and help with the annual competition.”
Now things are in full swing, the play will launch the Jason Sutton Prize on October 8th as part of PierFest on Brighton Palace Pier.
John & Thomas is a romance, the love story of two older men approaching retirement, one ready to face a quieter future, the other unready to give up a life on stage… and in heels!
The cast will be Dave Lynn, Allan Cardew and Nathan Croft, directed by Carole Todd and narrated by BBC Radio Sussex star Allison Ferns and the evening will include screenings of video footage of Jason from the Latest TV archive.
Allison Ferns
Carole Todd
Nathan Croft
“I really hope that the people of Brighton and Hove and beyond will get behind the project, buy tickets and help us create something lasting in Jason Sutton’s name.”
John & Thomas, 8th October 2024, Horatio’s, Brighton Palace Pier
