WE SPOKE TO THE SUPERBLY TALENTED CAST AND CREW OF OPERATION JULIE

Can you tell us about your experience working on Operation Julie and how it feels to bring such an incredible true story to life?

Geinor Styles: From the moment I heard the story, it was thrilling. It was like being an investigative journalist. Travelling around the country, meeting people, those who were involved in the actual case, and what it was like living that life as a drug distributor in rural West Wales. The police, investigating the network, policing procedure at that time and the people who moved to Wales looking for the good life, alternative living, and finding out from them what was the attraction of “going back to the garden”. Researching the story at the National Library of Wales is such an incredible resource for the nation.

Then, writing the script is probably less fun as you are on your own – so lots of procrastinating!

I finished a draft during Covid, and we were supposed to produce the show in the summer of 2020. Still, due to the pandemic, we did a workshop on the script online over Zoom, which now, looking back, was so beneficial because it gave me the luxury of working on the script with a cast of actors.

So, by the time we came to produce and present the show in 2022, a lot of that initial work you would thrash out in the first week of rehearsal had been done. The play centres around the chemist Richard Kemp, who created the LSD, and how his belief that we needed to stop consuming the planet with its finite resources will cause untold consequences for us all seemed very prophetic of the place we find ourselves in today, especially as we prepared to open the show in Aberystwyth in 2022 and the temperature was hitting 40⁰C.

The joy and relief of seeing an audience get wholly involved in the story and the songs during those first performances was incredible. I was inundated with so many people who were either closely involved or who knew someone who knew someone who was involved, and they kept messaging me. The story has tentacles across the world! I am very fortunate to work with an incredible team of people, so the collaboration is joyous. I’ve loved it!

What drew you to this particular musical and what aspects of it do you find most captivating?

Geinor Styles: I love true stories, especially if they have relevance to an audience today. I also love this era, I was 10 years old at the time of the event, and it’s like halcyon times - hot, long summers, out playing all the time. The music and TV were great in the 70s, too. For a while, the story was so anarchic, bordering on the ridiculous, I wasn’t sure how to tell it, but inspired by the sitcoms of that time and the absurdist humour of Morecambe and Wise, and writers such as Croft and Perry allowed me to bring the comic side of the Operation into the play. I love the music in our show; I wasn’t familiar with prog rock, as I listened to bands like Boney M, Abba and David Soul then! Still, the music that the key characters would have listened to would have been Caravan, Incredible String Band, King Crimson, and Hawkwind, so it was essential to be authentic to those characters and the time. The songs are fantastic, especially from Welsh bands such as Budgie and Man. What I find captivating is the interweaving of the story and characters, and the coincidences in the story are off the scale!

The music in Operation Julie is inspired by 70's prog rock. How did you approach incorporating the music into the storytelling and what challenges did you face? 

Geinor Styles: I work with a genius of a musical director called Greg Palmer, who has a vast amount of experience in working on musicals, and in particular actor-musician shows, so as I wrote the script, he was inputting his ideas of what songs went where and what those songs were. His knowledge of this genre is second to none, and the arrangements for the songs are beautiful. Sitting in rehearsals and watching the band of actor-musicians play these songs is a real privilege. They may not be well known to everyone – but they should be!

Operation Julie is based on a jaw-dropping true story. How did you prepare for your roles and what research did you do to understand the characters and the time period?

Caitlin Lavagna: We talked in groups about books that we’d read or series that we’d watched and sent each other links to videos of music performances at the time. In terms of characters, I needed to know a lot about Julie – although she’s actually not in it that much – and lots of my personal research was the Welsh language being slightly different as it’s West Walian. I’m not a Welsh speaker but one of my characters, the bar lady, only spoke Welsh pretty much, and lots of the lines I was learning in her accent, so I had a lot of help from Llinos. We talked about the slight difference in the language. This helped with the character as she’s so different to the other roles that I’ve played.

Dan Bottomley: I’m very lucky that my character Smiles has had a whole book written about him, which gives a great background on the characters and the period. And I don’t need much of an excuse to listen to 70s psychedelic rock!

Daniel Carter-Hope: The good thing about this being a true story is that there is loads of footage and books available to research.

Georgina White: All of our characters are based on real people and their true story. I have been able to read a memoir from Christine Bott written by one of her best friends, so I got a whole book of research which has been wonderful. And of course chatting to the people who were in volved in the story, so Smiles for instance, and they have been able to tell us what these people were really like.

Joseph Tweedale: We spoke to a lot of people who were involved in the original drugs bust and to Kate Hayes who knew Christine and Richard (the protagonists), and we had an amazing conversation about their lives and about what happened. She wrote a book that documented their lives before the events in the show, which really helped prepare me for playing Richard. He’s otherwise a mysterious character, so there’s not much out there about him. We tried to glean what we could from some little snippets that were available.

Phylip Harries: I watched lots of videos of Operation Julie, and some radio programmes and a couple of books which were of great benefits. When the information is there and you’ve got the opportunity to research, it’s very important to do so.

Sion Russell Jones: I watched a couple of really insightful documentaries and delved into it, got really involved in the content and prepared myself as much as possible that way.

Steve Simmonds: I watched a few documentaries and did a bit of reading, but I preferred to listen to a lot of the music as that makes up the world. My brother is also an inspector so that part was easy!

Kieran Bailey: We did the show two years ago and I did some research with Emma Stephens-Johnson including accent work. I also watched documentaries where I could see my character speaking about his role in the drugs bust and learned his mannerisms. Then I spoke with his daughter who was very forthcoming about how he was as a person which really helped me get into character.

What can audience members expect from this Q&A sessions and what insights do you hope to gain from it?

Geinor Styles: The Q&A sessions are the icing on the cake. It is so enlightening listening to people with lived experience talking of that time with such honesty and candour, and with irreverence. It’s also refreshing to hear the debunking of all the myths wrapped around that culture and the politics of counter-culture. What can you expect? Everything you wanted to know but were always afraid to ask…

Operation Julie deals with the theme of undercover operations and the discovery of a massive drugs ring. How do you think the musical explores these topics and what messages or emotions do you hope to convey to the audience?

CL: There’s humour in it and it tells a real story. There’s a huge emphasis on the environment and how we treat our planet, and it connects and grounds how we feel towards our surroundings. That’s a really important message in the show for me. I always get a little bit choked up at a part of the show where a piece of text that is acted out that was written by a real person who was involved in this story… and the message is still relevant today. That’s very sad and highlights how important it is for us to look after each other and our environment. That’s the biggest emotional takeaway from the show for anyone who sees it. 

DB: These days, we have a really negative view of “drug dealers,” Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but this was when drugs were a different thing. It’s not a show that glorifies nor demonises substance abuse, but the person I play seems to be universally loved (which put a bit of pressure on me!). It presents itself in a way which deals with it in the situation of the investigation into it rather than being a drugs show. There are lots of interesting messages about how we live our lives now, which is hard-hitting, without being preachy.

DCH: It explores a very complicated – and almost unbelievable – story in as much detail as we can. There are different angles, and it’s a very human story told in a very human way. The police raid gave me a genuine nightmare as I realised that the police have the power to do this to this day. The show is very gripping and very detailed and explores these things in a fantastic, entertaining way.

GW: Operation Julie is very openminded and it gives a good all-round perspective of the operation. It’s not particularly pro-drugs or anti-drugs, we are just telling a story and asking the audience to make up their own minds.

JT: The 70s were a pretty magical experimental time, and that comes across in the show. There’s lots of amazing colours and music that are interwoven into a magical journey. People say when they take LSD, they feel like they’re on a tour around the universe, and that’s what the show is about. You’re taken on a musical journey through the police investigation.

PH: The musical explores very deeply the sense of undercover cops in Operation Julis and the trauma they went through. It certainly isn’t easy to be undercover because you have to inhabit the part, and we realised during the research that it often messed up people’s lives. One of the messages in the musical is that you can look at that lightly and enjoy it, but it also has a far deeper meaning. To be a part of that undercover set-up must have been incredibly tough.

SRJ: It’s a lot of fun and a very exciting show with tonnes of humour and also some tender moments. It’s full of really interesting musical developments and twists and turns. It takes you on a journey, which is the beauty of this show. It’s exciting to be part of something so fun. 

SS: It makes you think about the laws of certain drugs and what they do, how they affect the community. I didn’t know too much about LSD but it does make you think about it in a different way…

KB: What’s interesting about Operation Julie is that this particular drugs ring was supplying the whole world with top-class LSD, and it’s amazing that the police had no idea that it was coming from this little village in West Wales. Last time we toured the show - and hopefully again this time – it was lovely to see all the people involved in the story, the police and the “criminal” side, coming together to see their story, and it almost became water under the bridge. It was a nice way to acknowledge the past and open people’s minds to the problems we’re still facing now.

As actor-musicians, how does performing the music live on stage enhance the overall experience for both you and the audience?

CL: Actor-musicianship is the best thing in the world! Being able to not only connect with fellow actors in the show but being able to play music with them is a really special connection and a bond is formed. Not only are we castmates, we are also a band. Some people are a bit confused with the concept, but if you relax and accept it, it’s a brilliant way of underpinning the story. Like in musical theatre, if you can’t say it, you sing it. It’s another element of the character and in Operation Julie, it takes it to the next level. As an actor, being able to connect to each character through song is powerful.

DB: Actor-musician shows are so good, they’re so different. It’s what I’ve done most of my career and I miss it when I don’t do them. It gives an extra level to the audience, and all the songs are interconnected. The show doesn’t follow how a regular musical would as the songs don’t drive the narrative, they drive the mood and give a real sense of place and time. It takes you on a psychedelic trip without you having to take any drugs. The show uses the music and the interplay of the music, the drama and the styles of theatre, and the effect the audience gets is like a trip.

DCH: It’s fabulous – you can’t beat it. I really love playing these songs, even the ones that I wouldn’t necessarily enjoy listen to, have been turned into absolutely beautiful creations. The cast are so talented in terms of their singing and instrumental work, it’s an absolute pleasure to be around. It feels like we’re in a band, as well as doing the scenes.

GW: Being surrounded by music, playing the music, and singing the music really immerses me in the whole experience and makes you really feel part of it. I hope it’s the same for the audience, like they are there with us and a part of it!

JT: Whenever you see anyone play in a band, it’s always amazing to see them having so much fun on stage, and we have so much fun! Last time we did this show, it was amazing to play with all these incredible musicians. Everyone’s so talented, it’s wonderful to come back and play with them all again.

PH: I play mainly the flute and a tiny bit of keyboard and some cowbell, which is great. It’s a joyful experience to be part of a band of great musicians and being there in this wall of sound. It’s great to look around the audience and see them enjoying the music so much. A lot of the audience come from the era of Operation Julie and they are reminded of their musical experiences at the time. Talking to people after the last show, they would be beaming and smiling and thanking us for taking them back to the 70s with the music.

DRJ: It heightens the story in a lot of ways as we tell the story through the music. It gives it an additional dimension to develop the plot lines and helps to build tension and excitement.

SS: For me, it’s another way of getting into the world of the show and enhancing it. It’s like another level for the show and for the audience, it’s like watching a gig which creates different emotions.

KB: Performing the music live on stage is the be all and end all. It’s so much more freeing and everything you see and hear is happening live on stage by the people on stage. It’s a real jigsaw puzzle and creative ways were found to give a full sound in the show. The limitations of it also means it covers new areas of sound that aren’t explored in other shows, and something magical happens when it comes together. Everyone is always busy, which keeps your mind focussed and is so enjoyable to us as performers.

What challenges did you face in portraying real-life characters and how did you balance staying true to their stories while adding your own artistic interpretation?

CL: Usually, I’d say meeting the people and seeing photos and videos of them, but I didn’t do that initially with Operation Julie. For me, it was about separating the Welsh female characters because they have such similarities, but costume helped and meeting the real people was bizarre but helped. I feel more confident delving into the characters this year, with the licence to be creative!

DB: It’s exciting to be given a real character, and I’ve had to find charisma in my own way. I can’t wait to meet Smiles and take notes, but also feel it’s important not to let it hinder my theatrical interpretation or journey. I’m not terrified at all!

GW: Christine has passed away, so I haven’t been able to see her or any video footage of her - my character is based on photographs and written pieces about her. I can only be as truthful to her as my research allows, but I believe I was cast for a reason, which is that the director thinks I have aspects or characteristics of Christine Bott that will lend themselves naturally to the character,

JT: As I mentioned, Richard Kemp is quite mysterious so a lot of what I’ve brought to it are elements of myself. Because he’s so mysterious, there’s a lot of dramatic licence for me to interpret in that, whilst staying true to the story. But by all accounts, he was a really cool guy, and I also try to add physicality to the role as I know he had a limp.

PH: When you’re playing a true character, you want to give a representation of that character. Some of the characters I play -  although not 100% true – are certainly taken from people in the story of Operation Julie and I want to give a true definition to those characters. You asses whether anyone remembers the characters, how they talked, where they were from, and try to represent them truthfully as best you can. That said, the characters in the musical are larger than life because we are on stage and you put your own stamp on it, and this works for the purpose of our musical.

DRJ: One of my characters is a Roman centurion so I didn’t have to worry too much about being true to the original for that! The other character is heavily hinted at as being Bob Dylan. There’s a lot of speculation that Bob was in the area during the time, so it was fun to explore that plotline and add to the element of mythology in the story.

SS: With Dick Lee, I did the research then had to work out where he is in the world of the show. I try to find a balance because he almost provides a comedic relief. We have to find a combination of staying true to his beliefs and still making it a show.

KB: I play the role of Richie Parry who has sadly passed away, but his family are still alive so it’s weird for me as they came to see the show last time. I’ve been in contact with his daughter to get nuggets of information about his personality. It’s strange for me as I play a real person who’s in very recent living memory, but I also want to put my own stamp on it as an actor while still being true to him. I think he was similar to me, so I have to strike a balance between being myself and playing the role.

Describe Operation Julie in three words.

CL: Psychedelic, loud, inspiring.

DB: Loud, mind-bending, thought-provoking.

DCH: Without swearing? Rocking good time.

GW: Psychedelic, vibrant, fabulous.

JT: A psychedelic, musical, journey.

PH: Really good fun.

DRJ: Gwefreiddiol, gwreiddiol, exciting

SS: Breaking Bad rocks.

KB: Prog-rock and roll.

OPERATION JULIE FUN FACTS

A mesmerising combination of ten acoustic and electric instruments are played by live throughout the show.

There are a whole host of instruments used in Operation Julie, with many actors playing multiple instruments. The set-up is a conventional rock band with everything you’d expect - guitars, drums, keys - with many unique extras including the flute, bassoon, French horn, a variety of percussion instruments and even a mandolin! 

There are 15 songs performed by our incredibly talented actor-musicians during the show. You can listen to them all on our Spotify playlist!