The late playwright was also a great actor and pianist who combined all three talents in Chasing the Moment, which flowed like real life
Jack Shepherd’s plays have such an easy way of doing things, a kind of structure I really hadn’t experienced before. I had seen and admired him directing his own play, In Lambeth, in 1989 at the Donmar Warehouse. So, in a spirit of entrepreneurship after we set up Southwark Playhouse in London in 1993, I asked him to come on board. He gave us – and acted in – Chasing the Moment.
What you see in the play is a group of jazz players arriving one at a time into the basement of a pub. The pianist is there already, this old geezer from Leeds called Les. Jack, who sadly died in November, was a pianist himself – he always played Les. Then we’re waiting for the old, slightly drugged up double bass player. His instrument is bigger than he is, coming down the stairs is slow. Then the drummer and his kit arrive, one piece at a time.
