Laura Grillo on Grief, Britpop, and Jarvis Cocker’s Trousers

‘Absurd, nostalgic, quest.’ That’s playwright Laura Grillo’s three-word summary of her newest stage creation. It is, one suspects, a fittingly off-kilter assessment for a production built around the disputed ownership of a pop star’s trousers.

It’s this collision of Britpop fandom and bereavement that forms the spine of Grillo’s What Would Jarvis Do? Directed by Maiya Pascouche and supported by Arts Council England, the black comedy opens at London’s Omnibus Theatre on 6 October following two sold-out development runs. The production aims to explore what happens when the anchors of everyday life vanish—disguising an investigation into sudden loss beneath a veneer of farce.

Pulp, Nostalgia, and the Quest for Jarvis Cocker’s Trousers

‘What Would Jarvis Do? follows long-time friends and Pulp fans Didi and GG—played by Annabel Smith and Isabel Butt—who buy a pair of trousers supposedly belonging to Jarvis Cocker,’ said Grillo. ‘They realise the trousers are fake, so they decide to track down the seller and demand the real ones!’

The purchase itself is orchestrated through their unconventional therapist, a dubious transaction that drains their pockets and sets off a chaotic wild-goose chase. ‘What starts as a ridiculous mission gets stranger and stranger as they meet some unusual people and find themselves returning to the same place again and again,’ said Grillo. ‘It’s a surreal journey involving friendship, obsession, nostalgia and a very important pair of yellow trousers.’

Processing Grief and Lockdown Through 90s Britpop

The play’s comic framing carries heavy personal weight. For Grillo, the impulse to write the piece emerged from the isolation of lockdown and the sudden shock of family tragedy.

‘The idea came during lockdown after my mother died,’ said Grillo. ‘I found myself listening to a lot of music from the 90s because it took me back to a time when my family were around me and I felt safe. Pulp was a big part of that.’

‘Absurd, nostalgic, quest.’ That’s playwright Laura Grillo’s three-word summary of her newest stage creation.

Rather than writing a conventional domestic drama about loss, she found herself translating the disorientation of mourning into something creative. Bereavement, she found, rarely follows a neat, cathartic line.

‘At the same time, grief felt very strange, repetitive and sometimes completely absurd,’ said Grillo. ‘Somehow those two things came together and turned into two friends going on an increasingly ridiculous quest to find Jarvis Cocker’s trousers!’

Staging the Tape Loop: Repetition and Trauma on Stage

To capture that emotional suspension, the production turns to repetition. The action routinely resets, forcing the characters back to their starting point, mirroring the psychology of trauma.

‘The loops allow Didi and GG to keep trying to fix the same thing without ever really moving forward,’ said Grillo. ‘Each time they return, things have changed slightly, but they’re still searching for the same thing.’

It is a theatrical device that owes much to Grillo’s training in Performance Writing and Contemporary Film Practice at Dartington College of Arts. Having worked as a video artist—including developing experimental film projects at Tropical Lab in Singapore—she approaches the stage more like a spool of celluloid ready for manipulation. This world skips, stutters, and catches.

‘I think that’s much closer to how grief felt to me,’ she said. ‘You can feel as though you’re moving forward and then suddenly find yourself right back where you started. Although there is still hope left at the end.’

Grounding the Absurd: Character Dynamics at Omnibus Theatre

To prevent this looping world from becoming an empty intellectual exercise, the production relies heavily on the recognisable humanity of its ensemble. Surrounding Didi and GG is an eccentric gallery of figures, brought to life by Erika Poole, Henry Miller, and Gigi Zahir.

‘Let’s just say all of the characters are based on real people in one way or another,’ said Grillo. ‘But I’m not telling you who!’

The narrative asks the audience to look past the surrealism of the staging and recognise the mundane realities of everyday loyalty and survival.

‘I think people may identify with Didi and GG’s friendship and their determination to keep going, even when things become strange,’ said Grillo. ‘And perhaps with the innocence and almost childlike qualities of some of the other characters. I think there’s something quite recognisable in all of them, even though they exist in this very strange world.’

**Inside the *What Would Jarvis Do?* rehearsal room.**

Under Pascouche’s direction, the rehearsal room has concentrated on bringing those emotional textures to the surface.

‘I don’t think the characters themselves have really changed, but it’s been really interesting seeing the relationships between them develop in rehearsals,’ said Grillo. ‘I’ve particularly enjoyed watching Didi and GG’s friendship come through and seeing how differently they each respond to the characters Mister and Christopher. The actors have also found little moments of humour, tenderness and awkwardness between the characters that I hadn’t necessarily noticed on the page.’

Sound Design: Moving Beyond the Britpop Jukebox

Given the play’s premise, the easy choice would have been to stitch together a jukebox of familiar Britpop hits. Instead, sound designer Frew has built an atmospheric audio landscape designed to mirror the instability of the characters’ world.

‘The sound has a slightly strange, playful quality to it,’ said Grillo. ‘There are influences from Pulp and the music of the 90s, but Frew, our sound designer, has been creating something that belongs to the world of the play rather than simply filling it with Pulp songs.’

The music is intended to be a participant in the staging, signalling shifts in reality rather than merely providing transitional background noise.

‘At times it feels almost cartoon-like, and at others it becomes darker and more unsettling as the world of the play starts to shift,’ said Grillo.

Asked whether the score assigns specific leitmotifs to each role, Grillo noted: ‘Not necessarily to individual characters, but music is very much part of the journey of the play. The musical interludes come at particular points and help move us into the next part of their world. As the play becomes stranger, the sound and music can shift with it.’

Beyond the Stage: ‘The Memory Lounge’ and 90s Relics

This exploration of material memory extends into the theatre’s wider programming. Preceding the production, the creative team staged ‘The Memory Lounge’ at Bobby Fitzpatrick—an installation inviting audiences to engage with tactile relics, from disposable cameras to period magazines, examining the objects to which we tether the past.

‘At times it feels almost cartoon-like, and at others it becomes darker and more unsettling as the world of the play starts to shift,’ said Grillo.

It reinforces the central thesis of Grillo’s text: that obsessions are rarely about the items themselves. Ultimately, this wild pursuit of a pop star’s clothing is a vehicle for understanding how we rely on one another when everything else falls away.

‘I hope they come away thinking about friendship, memory and the things we hold onto,’ said Grillo. ‘Maybe it will make them think about their own friendships and the people, music or objects that connect them to different times in their lives. But I also hope they laugh and enjoy going on this very strange journey with Didi and GG!’

Featured Image: Laura Grillo – Writer – What Would Jarvis Do – supplied by PR