It’s not exactly clear if Kurt Cobain did meet Thora Hird when he appeared at BBC studios back in November 1991 just as Nirvana had become a cultural phenomenon performing Smells Like Teen Spirit On Top of the Pops.
This is a fascinating piece of new writing that suggests Hird met Cobain when she was playing Captain Emily Ridley from Hallelujah around the same time. The play finds Cobain in the middle of Nirvana’s zeitgeist moment, Nevermind was released just two months earlier and the band has left many years of struggle and toil behind.
Already Cobain is reminiscing about those times as he waits for the rest of the band (Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl) to arrive from France. Over tea and custard creams the pair enter a fascinating discussion about Christianity and there are some touching, natural moments. The audience seems to include mostly those with a fondness for Hird so when the dialogue takes a darker tone there were some uncomfortable shuffles, they were soon placated by Hird’s plucky Lancastrian humour.
The performance works best when the pair are in dialogue together and also when they offer us a few bars from a song such as The Beatles A Day In The Life. It’s a poignant moment when Hird prays for Cobain at the end of their meeting.
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/when-kurt-met-thora
