WHEN Jessica Regan left Ireland for England twenty years ago, she had visions of building a career, a life and a stable base in the capital.
Two decades later she remains in London, where she has carved out a successful career as a writer and an actor, but is still unable to get a foothold on the property ladder.
Instead, the 43-year-old, who was born in Kilkenny but raised in Tipperary, is a long-term renter, who at this stage has lived in no less than sixteen different areas of the city.
That fact is the inspiration behind her new show 16 Postcodes, in which she shares the highs and lows of her experience as a renter - a position she admits she never thought she would still be in twenty years after her arrival in the city.
“I had no idea what I was letting myself in for when I moved here,” Regan told the Irish Post this week as she prepares to open her solo show at the King’s Head theatre in Islington this month.
“I didn’t think I would be here twenty years later, without a stable base,” she adds, “but I am wildly in love with London, like it’s a problem.
“I can’t quit it, it’s like that boyfriend, it’s the best of times and the worst of times, what can you do keep but coming back."
Jesscia Regan brings her solo show 16 Postcodes to the King's Head Theatre this month (Pic: Steve Ullathorne)Regan moved to the capital in 2004, in her 20s, to train at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).
“It was only my second time in London so it was quite a baptism of fire,” she says, “but I stayed and some twenty years later I realise I have lived in 16 postcodes here, which is a lot, too many some might say.”
That realisation spawned the idea for her show, in which she performs a series of monologues based on her experiences in each postcode she has lived in.
“I had this realisation around 2020 and 2021, when we were all out on those pandemic walks, you know.
“I was getting to know Walthamstow at the time, I had moved there in 2018, and I was finding these beautiful parts to it, like nature reserves, and I just couldn’t believe how radically different London boroughs can be to each other,” Regan explains.
“Before moving to London, I thought it was just one big glittering metropolis, but actually it’s a bunch of boroughs and they all have their own personality and vibe and energy,” she adds.
“I got thinking about that, I got thinking about defining moments that happened to me in each postcode, that would also tell a bigger story, maybe of early parts of the 21st century, social change, gentrification, the move to smartphones even, whatever it was that I could connect a personal story with.
The actor and writer was born in Kilkenny and raised in Tipperary“I just really enjoyed writing these monologues, then I realised that if I had all the monologues the audience could just pick which one they wanted to hear, so the show would be a different route along London each time.”
The idea stuck and Regan debuted 16 Postcodes at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2023, where audiences lapped up the opportunity to guide the direction of the gig.
“I always pick the first monologue and the last one of the show, but the audience will always pick the journey in between,” Regan explained.
“So it is a different journey every time, in that way the show is kind of co-curated by the audience.
“I mean it’s a great idea on paper, but its complete lunacy to attempt,” she laughs.
“But that is what the Fringe is for and actually it worked really well. The audience loved it.”
Regan has carefully crafted each monologue as “its own little playlet” she says, and leans on her previous experience on the cast of Doctors to help with her live show.
“Luckily, I do have a little line-learning on my side, I was in a soap opera for two years, and you have got to learn your lines for this one,” she admits.
“You have like all these scripts on the go, and I thought I could be a bit of a human jukebox, like ‘what song do you want to hear now’.
“I think of the show as a bit of an album on shuffle.”
That show will get its first London run later this month, where Regan says the audience can expect an evening of “theatrical storytelling with audience interaction, and a bit of standup”.
“If you have ever moved somewhere and started your life again or if you have ever come to a big city, if you have ever felt like you can’t find your place in life, there is going to be a story in there for you," she promises.
Regan reveals the highs and lows of property renting in London in her new showOh, and there’s the personal insight into Regan’s own journey through the boroughs of London and the highs and lows of renting in the capital too.
“The show evolves with my life,” she explains.
“When I was doing it in Edinburgh I was actually being kicked out of Walthamstow because the landlord was selling.
“This was a total turn up for the books, I hadn’t seen it coming.
“I had been there for six years, it was kind of meant to be the happy ending of 16 Postcodes you know, all roads lead to Walthamstow, but actually as I was writing the show he told me he was selling and as I was performing the show he moved forward and I had to move out.
“So, I was like ‘I stand here before you without a postcode’.
“Now that has changed,” she adds.
“I am back in rented accommodation and I have somewhere to stay, but there was a period when I was in a B&B, in my 40s, which doesn’t feel great, but that is kind of what happens when you are not in a position to buy and you want to stay in London because that is where your work, your career and your network is.”
So what caused Regan to make so many moves in the capital?
“It’s a different reason for moving every time,” she says.
“It could be someone selling the house, it could be a landlord returning from travels abroad and resuming possession of the house, it could be a relationship breakdown, you know, as often happens, and has happened to a lot of people, they lose their partner and they lose their home.
“Or it could just be that the person you are sharing with wants to move on and you can’t find someone else to take their place.
“It's very rarely been my decision.”
She adds: “Other times I moved for a job, so sometimes it was success, sometimes it was just unfortunate, it’s all different kinds of factors and I think that is why the show is just so relatable.
“For the audience there will be some situation that you have found yourself in at some point."
Regan also admits that despite her success as an actor and a writer, she can't quite make the shift from property renter to property owner in London.
"I think people often think if you are successful in your career, you will be able to afford a mortgage, but that is just not true," she explains.
"When I came over I thought maybe if my career didn’t go well, I would have to return to Ireland and retrain and that would be ok. Or if I was successful, I would be able to buy property and hit those milestones that you expect to.
"I didn’t expect to be successful and not be able to purchase a home."
She adds: "And there is also like a single tax as well.
"I haven’t met someone that I feel I want to spend my life with or have children with, and I think I have been very sensible about that, I have dodged some serious bullets, but you are not rewarded for being sensible.
"There are no real provisions for single women of my age, who are burdened with the single tax.
"I have seen beautiful one-bedroom apartments, that I could afford to pay half of but that is not possible for a single person.
"I am not moaning, it’s not a moaner or a whinge of a show, but I am saying maybe see us.
"See that you can work extremely hard in a city for twenty years, you can give your all and you can still feel like it is trying to squeeze you out."
Nowadays, Regan is happily living in south London, where she is renting a property from a close friend and hoping she won’t have move out any time soon.
“I’m a south London girl again now,” she says.
“I am very happy to be back south and I am renting from a very close friend who I have known for twenty years," she adds.
"So it's stable at the moment, but it could all change if that person wanted to resume residency or sell their house.
“But for now it’s a stable, lovely place that I am living in and I’m very happy.
“I still love London. I walk around the city for hours most weeks and I feel such peace at different parts of it.
“I have some amazing memories and made such good connections while living here that I am just not done. I am not done yet.”
Catch 16 Postcodes at the King’s Head Theatre in Islington from February 25 to March 8.
For tickets click here.
See More: 16 Postcodes, Jessica Regan, London
