The director of Jodie Comer’s tour de force is now staging Inter Alia, another legal drama by Suzie Miller. He talks about steering Stranger Things: The First Shadow, resisting the classics and his double act with Stephen Daldry
E
arlier this year, opposing theatres in Charing Cross Road displayed “sold out” signs for their shows. Both of them – Stranger Things: The First Shadow and Kyoto – were co-directed by Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin. “It was surreal,” says Martin. “Someone sent me a photo and I thought: I’m keeping that. As a little Australian, I’m still surprised to make a living out of this crazy career.”
Kyoto had a limited run but Stranger Things has been going for 18 months and has “the noisiest audience I’ve ever heard”, Martin reports. “I think the stat is that 60% of [them] have never been to a play before. So they eat popcorn throughout and just respond in a really natural way. If it’s boring, they leave. If they’re frightened, they really scream and gasp. It’s very live but, if you’re used to traditional theatre, it’s weird.”
Martin has had a centre seat for the modern evolution of theatregoing. As a solo director, he staged Suzie Miller’s Prima Facie, a horrifying monologue by a barrister who is a survivor of rape, with Jodie Comer winning Olivier and Tony awards in London and New York. Uniquely for a stage play, it also twice topped the UK cinema box office when screened by NT Live. For Martin, that felt as unlikely an achievement as having double hits in London.
