John Dobson talks to writer/director Jim O'Connor

JD : Jim, I know you've written several other plays but is A Touch of Rose Madder the first that's based on your own experience?

JOC: It's certainly the most autobiographical piece I've written, in so far as it uses circumstances relating to my own family and in particular to my mother, who did have a lengthy spell in hospital recovering from a stroke and eventually returned to her own home very reliant on Social Services.

JD: How closely does Rose, your feisty central character, resemble your mother?

JOC: They share the frustration that dependency creates and the same resentment at having their homes and privacy invaded by strangers, albeit well meaning ones.

JD: What about personality?

JOC: I've given Rose something of my mother's sense of humour and devotion to her family but the resemblance ends there. Mum loved knitting but wouldn't have known one watercolour from another.

JD: I take it the son Danny is really you.

JOC: to a large extent. Although I was a teacher, not a car salesman and only lived forty minutes away, the dilemma confronting Danny is more or less what I experienced.

JD: And Leslie, the Home help?

JOC: Completely invented. Mum did have a succession of female Home Helps and I was half-way through the first draft when I realised it would be more fun and allow more dramatic scope to have Leslie a man.

JD: I see you refer to the play as "comedy drama".

JOC: I'm hopeful that it will move people in various ways and I'll be disapponted if we don't get a few chuckles.

JD: Finally, have you enjoyed directing Rose Madder.

JOC: It's great to have some control over your own work and exciting to have a company breathing life into it. I'm very fortunate to have such a quality cast. There's always the danger they'll become parrots on the writer/director's shoulder, but each of them has brought a real individual quality and insight to their role.