Luke Welch explains the love affair that led to the writing of his play Waiting for Robert

I found William Blake when I was 14. I had been writing poetry religiously for two years after I had fallen through the cracks of the education system. I was a recluse and first heard a song by The Doors while watching the film about American poet Jim Carroll.

The next day I left the house for the first time in months to buy a Doors CD.

Within the CD case there was a booklet with a host of names of great underground poets, and a quote from William Blake: “If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite”.

With sheer excitement over the next few weeks I was out buying a book from each named poet, and of course anything of Blake’s I could find.

All of a sudden, the space I once felt trapped in became a studio gallery of creativity. It is within the studio/gallery space where Waiting for Robert is set, as I know that a creative is never more at home, never more his or herself than when they are within that space.

William did not have a separate working space; his printing press was in the middle of his and Catherine’s living quarters, and life revolved around every great turn of the wheel, every print they could afford to make.

This for me meant this was the place they physically and spiritually lived, where they ate, drank, slaved, sweated and danced.

The research for the play was by no means a laborious task; it was done with the same excitement I had when I was 14 and buying every book I could find. The writing of this play was by no means a gruelling affair — in fact I saw it so visually I basically took notes from what I was seeing. It felt like I lived with the Blakes for the best part of a year.

My girlfriend can back up that statement — without her encouragement and love I would not be writing this now.

I never knew what would happen to the script once I had finished; all I know was when the last word was spoken, I felt a great sense of loss, almost a bereavement.

So I was lucky that Seamus Finnegan gave me the chance to have the play acted out in one of his lectures.

For the first few times the play was read out, I could not watch, as it felt more personal than if somebody was reading my own poetry somehow. Seamus remarked that my face got redder and redder as the play went on; for the first few times I was actually shaking by the time it had finished.

This was not because I was worried about the performance, as I had seen a host of talent performing every week in class, and with help picked those I thought were right for the parts.

Josh Harcourt-Kelly, who plays William’s patron, John Hayley, has been with the play from the first reading; one of the highlights for me was seeing them all gradually own their characters.

Tom Janice, who plays William, has also been with us from the first reading. Both showed such dedication to understanding their characters, and such a love for the project. And when Lizzy Jensen stood in to play Catherine, I and the rest of the cast knew William finally had a wife.

Matthew Holliday and James Barton came into the fold a little later, and worked and worked until they took their scenes from me and made them their own. I feel honoured to be working with each one of them; this is very much our play, not just mine.

* Waiting for Robert will be performed at Blackwell’s Bookshop on Saturday, at 7pm. Tickets are £5 and are available from Blackwell’s, call 01865 333623 or email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk
* For information about all the Inspired by Blake events at Blackwell’s and at the Ashmolean, see inspiredbyblake.co.uk