We spoke with Sab Muthusamy, co-founder of 4am Productions, a dynamic theatre production company making waves in Liverpool’s arts scene.
Sab shares the inspiring journey of 4am productions, born from a desire to provide a platform for diverse voices in the arts. Despite facing challenges and setbacks, Sab’s passion for equal representation fuels the company’s growth and success.
Liverpool Noise: For our readers can you tell us about 4am productions and how you got started.
Sab: 4AM productions was founded in 2020 by Rachel Szaruta and Sab Muthusamy, two best friends from university. Both creatives, wanted to create something new but also ensuring that whatever they created, it was a way to give people a platform to showcase their talent regardless of background or experience. Both us have experienced discrimination, ill-treatment, segregation and being undervalued in the industry as well as life in general.
We wanted to ensure that we celebrated people in terms of diversity and equal representation and give people the chance to show their talents. I in particular had a difficult time in London in the industry and was scarred badly by a series of experiences. It is from this that the fire was fuelled so to be speak. We had big plans, big ambitions and big ideas….Then the world shut down!
Creatively, we were starved. In 2021 I moved to Liverpool and after getting settled, I began to build up 4AM productions and now, we have done 3 productions, all of which have sold out and we’ve been featured on BBC Radio Merseyside, La Vida Liverpool and the Liverpool Echo. The Liverpool Echo in particular, did a feature on us talking about our work promoting diversity and giving opportunities to LGBTQ actors. We’re so proud of our growth so far and can’t wait for the future.
LN: Your focus is on promoting diversity and equal representation, how do you go about this?
Sab: It’s a good question. We always try to ensure our productions have a good mix of people from all walks of life. We of course don’t want to just hand people roles for the sake of it as a box ticking exercise because we understand a lot of people just aren’t able to get the chances for a variety of different reasons.
We encourage al ethnicities and all backgrounds to apply to our roles but crucially make sure we tell stories that would require people of different backgrounds to work with us and apply. For example, in October 2023 we did our first ever halloween themed production, “The Book of Horror”. It featured 6 different horror shorts in 1 single night.
One of them was an original piece I wrote set in India at the time of British rule called ‘Kali’s Gold’. It required me to search for actors of South Asian heritage and to have that in the show was amazing. I imagine it was one of the first times Liverpool has had major South Asian representation in a theatre production here.
We’re also big supporters of female empowerment, we have taken scripts and changed characters from male to female purely on the strength of people auditioning and wanting to give them the opportunities they deserve. We make this ethos and mantra is front and centre of our social media and promotional work so people know what we stand for!
LN: Where do you get your inspiration from both for writers and performers who inspire you?
Sab: On a personal level, the bad experiences I have had in life and the industry have inspired me to strive to want thing to change. There are a lot of things that can be changed in the industry and we try to do things in a different way and that has been challenged by a few people but that if anything proves our point! I have been inspired a lot by many people for were/are real icons in their fields. People like Michael Jackson, Indian actor Kamal Hasan, Edgar Wright have inspired me as writers/performances and genuine geniuses in their field. I always like to be innovative and different in the productions we do, I am a fan of the spectacular and wonderment. I always want to go big, thankfully I have a team who can help me keep me grounded and sensible. I am always inspired by those who take unique approaches and do something different to stand out.
LN: Tell us about your latest production, They Don’t Really Care About Us? And how you went about casting for the show?
Sab: So our latest production is called “They Don’t Really Care About Us”. It’s written by myself and Rachel Louise Clark and we are also directing it. It’s inspired by the Michael Jackson song and like the song, has racial injustice, police, the justice system at the heart of it whilst also looking at sexism and treatment of women in the workplace. In short, the story centres on a young woman from Liverpool, Vanessa Campbell who is an aspiring poet.
She has just released her first book of poetry and is the source of great pride and joy to her family, parents Carol and Graham and younger sister Caitlyn. One evening she hosts a book signing event where her close friends Dinesh Sharma, George Taylor and Sarah Watson attend. They all celebrate afterwards but the unthinkable happens and she is murdered. All signs point to Dinesh. Have the police arrested him because of the colour of his skin or is he a cold blooded killer?
Casting the show was a long process. We wanted to ensure we got each character right. Vanessa and her family needed to be local and embody the city and something local audiences could resonate with. Vanessa is played by an amazing actress called Nina Price who is herself, an aspiring poet! We had 3 rounds of auditions and lots of self tapes to get through but eventually found our cast. There was some tricky decisions but ultimately, they right ones were made.
One character, Geeta Sharma, who is Dinesh’s mother was the hardest to find. The character is an Indian woman in her 50s – 60s which was hard to find. I really stretched the net far and wide to find someone. So much so, Sudha Rajavelu who is playing the role, is not even an actor and is doing this for the first time. She is a qualified dentist who has bravely taken on the challenge.
LN: Are you working on any other productions for later in the year and can you share any details on those.
Sab: We have three other productions in theatre coming this year. One is an all female devised piece that is also in May. Another show coming in august that is 4 nights at Hope Street Theatre which is all about the dangers of AI which we are super excited about and will also set as an interactive video game for audiences to enjoy. And in October we return with the second instalment of our horror series – The Book of Horror Volume II.
Get tickets for They Don’t Really Care About Us here.
Follow 4am Productions on Instagram at @4amproductionsuk for updates.
