article: Several years on from their initial meeting, though, the venue has seen the opening of The Nap, a comedy thriller that stars '71 and Unbroken actor Jack O'Connell as Dylan Spokes, a local lad on the verge of winning the World Championships and losing everything he's worked for. What changed in-between to alter Bean's perspective was the same thing that changed the way many saw the game - match-fixing. In 2013, the former world number five Stephen Lee was found guilty of seven charges in what officials called "the worst case of snooker corruption we've seen". That, and other cases involving the likes of John Higgins and Joe Jogia, gave Bean the impetus to create the story and the characters he had been looking for. "I couldn't think how we could have a play about snooker for a couple of years, but then there were a few match-fixing scandals and I came up with the idea that if the plot was driven by a scandal, that would give us the opportunity to have a professional snooker player in the cast. "So Dylan would have to play a match against a snooker player who has got no lines and if the audience knows that Jack is meant to be 'tanking' the frame, then that would fit the plot and we'd still have a game of snooker in the play. "Richard was happy with that and so I went away and wrote it." He says Wilson's idea was to "marry two audiences" that use the Crucible - snooker fans and theatregoers - and "get a few more blokes into the theatre". Even after he had agreed to write it though, Bean said he still was not convinced. "I said it was a brilliant marketing idea, but a rubbish idea for a play because actors can't play snooker. "It's one of the most technical sports there is. "We all play it badly and we all think it looks quite easy and then you find yourself with a cue in your hand on a full-size table and it's utterly daunting." He says the writing process involved him joining a snooker club and playing on a regular basis, to get an insight into how hard the game is. "In the afternoons, I would go down to the club and hire a table and play a few frames against myself, to study the art of angles. "In the play, there's an invention called a sighting ball - a white ball covered in colour polka dots. "I came up with that while playing. It helps you learn where to hit the target ball to pot it. "It allowed me to get into the game in a technical way." The play did not just require him to get to grips with the sport though, but also with the city that has been the home of the World Championships for four decades - Sheffield. "I was fortunate that an actor I have worked with several times - Robert Hudson - is Sheffield born and bred. "He was born down the Eccy
summary: When Sheffield Crucible associate director Richard Wilson approached playwright Richard Bean with the idea of putting on a play there about snooker, the sport that has made the venue internationally famous, he was against the idea, as "actors can't play snooker".