Join the celebration of Terry Pratchett’s work at Waterside Theatre

If you are a fan of Terry Pratchett’s work, then there is nothing better than meeting other people who share your love of his unique way of telling stories.

Author and comedian Marc Burrows takes you on a journey through Sir Terry Pratchett’s extraordinary life, his influences, impact, and his wit and wisdom.

From his time as a school librarian, trainee journalist and his untimely death from Alzheimers in 2015.

We spoke to Marc about how this joyful show came to be and what fans and newcomers can expect when it arrives at the Waterside Theatre in Sale this Friday.

When did you discover Terry Prachett’s work and what impact did it have on you?

At 12 years old, in 1993 (please don’t do the maths).

My parents were given copies of The Colour of Magic and Guards! Guards!, two early Discworld books, by a bloke down the pub — which is the natural state for being given Terry Pratchett books.

I adored them. They were the first grown up books I’d ever read, they were literally my graduation from Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl.

I devoured them.

I’d never read anything so funny and so clever. And it made me feel clever, because I got the jokes and understood the rude bits.

I went to the library and worked my way along the shelf. Back then Terry only had a comparatively modest 10 books out, so I was able to catch up pretty quickly.

After that I was buying the new ones as soon as they were out, once, twice, three times a year. For the rest of Terry’s life and beyond.

As I got older, the books grew with me — they do that. Terry is the ultimate “you take away what you bring” author.

The more you know, the more well-read you are, the older you get, the more hidden jokes reveal themselves. And the more you sync in with Terry’s morality.

He has an astonishing way of looking askance at humanity and seeing things we hadn’t noticed about ourselves. He understands humans. He’s also deeply moral.

And he does all of that while being utterly, utterly silly. It made me realise what storytelling could achieve. To be silly and profound all at once, because that’s what life is.

You wrote a biography first. But where did you get the idea to bring it to the stage?

I’d always had it in mind, if I’m honest.

I’m a comedian — I’ve been a stand up for 15 years, and I’ve done numerous one man shows over that time. It seemed an obvious next step.

Terry’s story has all the ingredients of a great one-man comedy show — brilliant jokes, an incredible story, and real meaning.

I realised I could do something really interesting with that.

Do you find a time goes by; you find out more about the great man you did not know before?

Yes! Astonishingly, despite literally writing the story of his life I’m still learning. In a way we all are — a few years ago a whole tranche of short stories he’d written under a pseudonym were discovered.

An entire book’s worth of Terry Pratchett writing that we didn’t know about!

And at every show people always want to talk about their memories of Terry, the time they met him, the time he signed something for them.

All of these stories add to the whole. More than that though, there’s something unique about being immersed in a subject for so long.

I wrote the book in 2019, and into 2020 and the show has been a huge part of my life since the spring of 2023.

I’ve spent all of that time thinking really deeply about Terry’s worldview and his work, and I think that creates a really interesting mental relationship.

I’m discovering things in those facts and stories as I go deeper into them in my own head. I think I understand what the show is about, and how Terry thought and wrote far more than I did even a year ago.

Why do you think Terry and his work are so highly thought of?

The humanity. The sheer, wonderful understanding of these silly apes that cling to our planet (that’s us, by the way).

The mistake people who haven’t read Pratchett make about him is that his books are about the “weird and wonderful”.

That’s only true in that they’re always, first and foremost, about people, and people are deeply weird and, alright, occasionally wonderful as well.

Even when Terry is writing about talking rats or a 7ft skeleton he’s still writing about people. Whatever shape they are.

That’s why his stuff resonates. That and the imagination to set those people amid compelling stories that reveal more about ourselves on every page while making the stupidest of jokes.

What’s the best thing about being in a space filled with his fans?

It is literally the only time in my life where I’m not the nerdiest person in the room.

If someone is new to his work or a super fan, what will the show give newbies and pros?

That’s a great question, and something I worked really, really hard on. The show had to work for both groups, as well the far, far larger third group: The casual reader.

Super fans will hopefully still find nuggets and incites they didn’t know, and also enjoy revelling and swimming in an evening of sheer Pratchettery.

They’ll get the in-jokes and references, but I also hope there’ll be new ways of looking at Terry’s books that they hadn’t considered.

The show is more about Terry himself than the details of his books, and even big fans don’t tend to know all the biography.

For newbies, I always say they don’t need to know about Terry before seeing the show: I’m going to tell them the story.

For people dragged along by their wife or son or friends, I’m hoping they’ll realise that Terry’s work isn’t necessarily what they thought it was, that there’s something there they can enjoy and will hopefully go away and explore themselves.

For both groups the show is really about the enduring power of storytelling in shaping our universe.

I wanted to do what Terry did — his books always had a deeper, secondary meaning that went beyond the blurb on the back cover. I think, I hope that this does too.

Tickets for the Magic of Terry Pratchett at The Waterside, Sale

The Magic of Terry Pratchett will be performed at The Waterside, Sale on Friday 4^th October 2024 and you can book tickets here