Fiery Liverpool author and spoken word performer ‘Roy’ (real name PJ Smith) has built a strong cult following since the publication of his book of stories, ‘Algorithm Party,’ in 2020. These are raw, scabrously funny and sometimes very violent tales dealing with drugs, alcohol and domestic abuse – and partly drawn from his own experiences growing up in the city’s suburb of Toxteth.
“All my writing comes from my experiences of dealing with insecure men. I am an insecure man as well. We’re fucking everywhere. Unfortunately, a lack of awareness around being one, usually means that aggression, brutality and control are about to play out,” Smith told authors Gabrielle de la Puente and Zarina Muhammad of what drives his writing.
Now, Roy Boulter, who runs Hurricane Films with Sol Papadopoulos, has adapted Smith’s book into a movie. The new documentary version features performances of his stories for the camera.
Algorithm Party has been feted at international festivals (including Girona) and warmly received wherever it has been shown – but UK broadcasters and distributors still seem strangely wary about acquiring it.
“It’s hard working-class stories. While all of the broadcasters pay lip service to working-class drama, when it comes to it being commissioned, there is not a lot of it,” Boulter reflects on reasons why the documentary hasn’t yet been seen in cinemas or on UK TV.
Boulter’s own background is in TV writing (his credits include everything from Brookside to The Bill). He and Papadopoulos set up Hurricane Films in 2000. Since then, their productions have included Of Time & The City, Sunset Song and A Quiet Passion, all directed by Terence Davies, Gillies McKinnon’s The Last Bus and Jean Stephane Sauvaire’s A Prayer For The Dying.
“I had always intended to direct and I did a couple of shorts about 15 years ago. It was something I enjoyed,” Boulter states. He wasn’t sure, though, that he was ready to direct features. He therefore “bided his time” until now.
Boulter already knew PJ Smith. Although Smith is younger than him, they were part of the same Friday afternoon football game. Smith is a talented player who was once on Everton’s books.
“It [the game] was started by my band, The Farm. We started a Friday afternoon kick about that has gone on for 30 years. He (Smith) turned up one week and he was brilliant.”
Alongside his writing and performing, Smith helps run Damien John Kelly House, a live-in centre in Liverpool for men recovering from drug and alcohol addiction.
Boulter had first read ‘Algorithm Party’ around three years ago and had seen Smith perform his material. He immediately felt that it could work as a film.
“It put me in mind of Swimming to Cambodia,” he says of the classic Jonathan Demme film based around a monologue performed on camera by livewire American author and performance artist, Spalding Gray. “I always thought that PJ’s delivery could sustain a 90 minute or 100 minute piece.”
Boulter shot Smith/Roy performing in the Concert Room at St George’s Hall, a legendary venue which Charles Dickens (who performed there) called “the most perfect hall in the world.” This was also where Terence Davies shot Of Time And The City.
“I like the idea of all the great and good of Victorian literature performing on that stage and now we have some ‘scally’ from Kirkdale doing the same thing. I toyed with doing it in front of a live audience because he’s great with a live audience but, actually, I wanted him to perform to an empty room.”
The footage from the Hall is intercut with material filmed separately in black and white in which the performer’s face is shown in even tighter close up. “That’s when he holds your attention, when you are in close.” There are also some shots of the parts of Liverpool were Smith/Roy grew up.
Smith’s delivery is deceptive. He tells his stories on stage in conversational style, as if they are improvised and anecdotal. In fact, he is “word prefect,” always sticking to the text that he has so carefully written. (In the Concert Hall, he has the book with him although he knows his own stories off by heart).
“The character of Roy is fictional. PJ Smith is the artist and PJ always denies that he is Roy [but] he grew up and lives in Roy’s world. All the characters are based on real people including Brian Scanlon, the minor drug dealer and local celebrity who weaves in and out of the stories.”
There are also references to figures from long running UK TV soap Brookside most notably Max Farnham, often characterised as “a yuppie womaniser.”
The director acknowledges that Algorithm Party may seem “a hard sell when you say it is one person talking for an hour and 20 minutes” but audience feedback has been universally strong.
“I love his writing. It is authentic working class writing.”
Boulter believes the success of Netflix mini-series Adolescence (about a teenage school boy arrested after the killing of a girl at his school) may already have shifted commissioners’ attitudes toward working class drama. “I think if we went back to the channels now, it may be a little bit different…suddenly that working-class story is in vogue.”
Smith’s next book is out later in the summer and he is now working on a scripted drama set in the world of ‘Algorithm Party.’ Boulter, meanwhile, is also continuing to direct as well as produce – and has a new feature project in the pipeline. The subject? “It’s a musical about dog walkers,” Boulter explains.
