From Page to Stage: Exploring This Town with Rory Aaron
By Amie Johnson
The playwright and poet Rory Aaron discusses masculinity, mental health, and turning personal stories into theatre and creative workshops ahead of his Rugby Literary Festival performance.
Have you ever worked in Rugby or Warwickshire before?
Hello there! And thank you, it's a pleasure to be here. I'm afraid I haven't had the chance to work in Rugby or Warwickshire before, but I've heard wonderful things about the creative community here and am really looking forward to getting to know the town.
Why not tell us a little bit about yourself? How did you end up with This Town being presented at one of the most prestigious venues, Pleasance, at Edinburgh’s Fringe Festival?
I’m still getting over how that happened! I wrote the beginning to This Town maybe ten years ago, I was 24, and hadn’t been on a stage since my Drama A-level. It sat in that notepad for years, and I didn’t really think about it. When I was 28/29, I started to perform poetry at some open mic nights, and published a short collection with the brilliant Bearded Badger publishers. One of the poems got commissioned by the BBC to be turned into a short film, it’s called Doglike and is almost like a first person version of This Town.
I began to tour that collection, and would end each set with the start of This Town, Derby Theatre got in contact and asked if I would be interested in turning it into a play, and then so did Contact. The poem came out as a book with Verve Press, and everything just snowballed from there. It opened at Contact for six nights, and then Derby, and then I saw an opportunity with The Curve Theatre, to take it to The Fringe at The Pleasance. I jumped at the opportunity.
What have you been doing since debuting your show at the Fringe? Will This Town be coming out of hibernation for this performance?
Since debuting the show, I’ve been incredibly busy writing. I’ve got a new book coming out with Verve Press in April 2026, it’s called Things That Make Us Human, and is 52 poems which explore how complex and messy us humans have a tendency to be. I still think there is a lot of guilt and shame around mental health, we talk about it, but generally in a way of something that ‘needs to be fixed’ rather than just something that is a part of our human make up. This new collection challenges that, and normalises some of the issues we tend to try and avoid.
This Town is said to be a show which tackles issues surrounding masculinity, lack of opportunities, and the exploitation of and lack of support for young men enlisted into the armed forces. Where did the inspiration to fuse these themes together come from?
When you grow up in a city like Derby, or the surrounding towns, mental health and masculinity is such a huge part of growing up. When I was younger, I lost a real role model to his own struggles with mental health, and since then I’ve actually lost a few friends to similar issues. I think the reasons for this are systemic, deeply rooted and complex.
This Town is my attempt to try and understand how the history, expectations, and experiences of these places affect boys growing up. Don’t get me wrong, I really love where I’m from, and I loved growing up there, but I’m very aware it is an extremely complex community. In regards to The Army, I have a memory of them coming into my school to recruit when I was 14 or 15. Apparently, they often target schools from low income areas, and I think there is something incredibly political about that.
What else can you tell our audiences about your performance? Without spoilers of course. Who is it for?
Without giving too much away, I can tell you that the performance is raw and honest. It's a journey through friendship, loyalty, and the complex choices we make. You meet this guy at the back of the pub, the kind of person who chews your ear off. All I’m going to say is he takes you on a journey, and eventually you start to realise why he is telling you that story
For those audience members who are going to stick around after the show for your creative writing workshop, what can they expect to explore with you?
The creative writing workshop will be a space for us to explore how to turn personal experience into powerful stories. I will give you a series of different creative writing exercises, in a safe and supportive space. We will then have a chat about the different ways we can put all our thoughts and feelings into a poem or a story. I’ll share some of the techniques I use when writing, and we'll discuss how even the smallest, most personal details can become the most impactful parts of a narrative. It is a brilliant way to end the evening.
What are your career ambitions for the future?
Oh who knows!
