Adapt or Die

Blood For Blood Dramaturgy: Jonathan Holloway @ Edfringe 2016

jA Tale of Two Cities: Blood for Blood

Pleasance Courtyard (Beyond), 60 Pleasance, Edinburgh, EH8 9TJ Wednesday 3rd – Sunday 28th August 2016 (not 10th, 17th, 24th), 14:40

Dickens’ classic of heroism, espionage and revenge is thrillingly reimagined by multi- award-winning writer-director Jonathan Holloway. The show makes its European premiere direct from an acclaimed Hong Kong season.

This powerful ensemble production relocates the story in the present day, shunning cosy Dickensian theatricality in favour of a world of shadows and fakery. Six actors in a sea of empty chairs and discarded shoes recall ‘the disappeared’. Here, there are no wigs, no period frippery and very few of Dickens' original words. 

Dickens' well-thumbed classic is hurled into the arena of duplicitous hotel room fixers and secret assignations that reverberate through a lifetime.

Original music underscores an exquisitely designed production building on the success of 2015’s UK/Hong Kong Chung Ying collaboration with Jekyll & Hyde. A group of accomplished UK artists including Graeme Rose, Nicki Hobday and Eric MacLennan has once again been recruited to create work of international standing with one of Hong Kong's most impressively ambitious and accomplished theatre companies. The show is created and presented with the UK's legendary Red Shift Theatre Productions, and Olivier Award winning producers Seabright Productions.

Pleasance Courtyard (Beyond), 60 Pleasance, Edinburgh, EH8 9TJ

Note:Parental guidance

Preamble: Red Shift was for 27 years a national and international touring company based in London.  In 2008, we surrendered our Arts Council RFO status and became a test bed for new work including the immersive show The Fall of Man (Edinburgh 2009 and UK touring, since revived by other companies here and in the US)  and the crowd embedded Invisible Show I & II (Latitude, Edinburgh 2011 and UK touring).  Some of my work as a writer has over the last 15 years received new productions by Chung Ying which have been in Cantonese.  

It was an easy decision that Chung Ying and Red Shift should collaborate on projects written, directed and lit by me. The request for a version of A Tale of Two Cities initially came from Chung Ying.  

They are concerned to re-establish a thread of English language performance which has been neglected in recent years.  They also want to move forward in terms of style of production and need both to service an established HK audience and attract a more diverse audience, particularly younger people who are interested in music, film and exhibitions alongside theatre.  This project is also part of a plan to ‘internationalise’ Chung Ying and seek credibility at international festivals throughout the world. 

What was the inspiration for this performance?
I was initially unsure about the title because it feels so traditional and in a way artistically claustrophobic.  After careful thought, I decided it was actually a very good idea, provided I made the show less about epic narrative, and more about love and loss – essentially the bereavement of the Defarges and Carton’s obsessive desire for Lucie Manette, which leads him to sacrificing his life.  

These fundamental and quite scary elements are, of course, shared across cultures, and should work equally well for a UK and HK audience.  At our first speculative design meeting, Neil Irish (Designer) and I hit a simple but demanding concept which would provide an unexpected visual motif and bring with it a set of rules to which we had to adhere when making the show.  

This is the 100 empty chairs (80 in Edinburgh) arranged in a rigid grid pattern and with the same number of empty pairs of shoes underneath each chair.  We felt this resonated beautifully.  Every empty chair implies a missing person, consumed by revolution, suicide, disease, accident.  The rigid layout means the actors have to negotiate the rows of chairs, which are to some degree a constant impediment.  

The layout gives an architectural impression, as if looking down on the map of a city.  When emotional and physical violence takes place, it leaves disruption of the chairs, which stays, reminding us of past events.  It was very important that a chair should not be manipulated as if it is imagined as something else.  Instead, a chair is always a chair – an obvious point, maybe, but it seemed very important to us.

How did you go about gathering the team for it?
I have become less and less interested in recent years in the usual

process of choosing a play and then casting actors to the roles.  It seems to me much more valuable to assemble a team of artists who will be committed to creating the artefact represented by the show, and who will bring the show to them rather than moulding themselves to it.  Hence for Tale of Two Cities: Blood For Blood we have a team of six performers (seven if you include me) from diverse backgrounds.  

Youth can also be an issue in this kind of work, and I have been concerned to assemble a company that brings a lot of texture to the show.  Roughly speaking the performers range from early twenties to late fifties.  Several performers have experience of creating their own work either as individuals or as part of companies.  

Eric McLennan has just won Arts Council funding for his own new show A Voyage Around My Bedroom, and his credits include DV8, David Glass, Citizens Theatre Glasgow, Red Shift, Volcano and Shunt.  Graeme Rose co-founded several companies inc Stan’s Café and The Resurrectionists, and is closely associated with Bodies in Flight, Talking Birds and the Modified Toy Orchestra. 

Nicki Hobday makes her own shows and has recently worked with Forced Entertainment, Michael Pinchbeck, Annie Siddons and Richard de Dominici. We also have performers who come with a conservatoire background -  Mike Rogers, James Camp and Abby Wain – who bring a wealth of technical and emotional expertise.  I have worked with Linbury Prize winner and Venice Biennale exhibitor Neil Irish regularly since 1995, and with composer Sarah Llewelyn since we worked together in 2007 at Red Shift and Giffords Circus.

How did you become interested in making performance?
I am a lapsed Catholic brought up in a South London (part-Irish) working class household steeped in the imagery of Calvary and the Resurrection.  I discovered I wanted to work in theatre through the influence of a charismatic teacher and through Greater London Education Authority sponsored free visits to London shows,  and a mesmerising 1972 visit to the Edinburgh Fringe where Steven Berkoff, Lindsey Kemp and Max Stafford-Clark changed my life.  

I am a theatre-maker who has also to make a living, and the theatre I make is for my own entertainment, accompanied by the hope others will also be entertained.  I am rubbish at networking and have little interest in the theatre establishment, which is a career inhibiting failure on my part.

Was your process typical of the way that you make a performance? 
The process on this show has been deliberately a-typical.  It has been about layers, the imposition of seemingly arbitrary rules, constantly interrogating easy choices.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?
I hope they will be involved and moved (I don’t understand it when theatre makers talk disparagingly about emotional manipulation), and surprised that an apparently capricious set of choices add up to a marvellous evening.  I’m and entertainer.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?
Deliver big words, big emotions, big imaginary images, hold them in the grip of a worthwhile yarn, celebrate the emotional plain of everyday existence as if it has the status of Greek tragedy.

Do you see your work within any particular tradition?
I hope I’m a watertight storyteller who packages the work in unexpected ways.

Jonathan Holloway Playwright, Director, Lighting Designer, Performer Neil Irish Set, Costume & Props Designer Sarah Llewellyn Composer & Sound Designer

James Camp Cruncher/Charles Darnay Mike Rogers Monsieur Defarge/Stryver Abby Wain Lucie Manette/Barsad Graeme Rose Sydney Carton/Evremonde Nicki Hobday Mme Defarge Eric MacLennan Jarvis Lorry/Magistrate Jonathan Holloway Dr Manette

Jonathan Holloway

Jonathan is best known as founder and Artistic Director of Red Shift Theatre Company which toured throughout the UK and beyond from 1982 - 2011, and was subsidised by Arts Council England from 1986. His work as a director, writer and teacher has been seen and heard all over the world. He has directed events ranging from crowd-embedded performance to pocket musicals to landmark reinventions of the classics; run companies and venues; written over 70 professionally produced plays; collaborated with some of the most important writers, designers and composers in British theatre. Jonathan has contributed a huge body of work to BBC Radio 3 & 4, the world's most prolific broadcasting outlet for quality drama. 

His work as a writer and director has won numerous awards including a First Prize at the 2013 Prix Italia, three consecutive Scotsman Fringe First Awards, the Shakespeare Prize and Best Actor Award at Chile's World Festival of Theatre, The Stage's Edinburgh Festival Best Actor Award and a Best Actor nomination for Jo Millson at the BBC Audio Drama Awards 2014, nomination in the final six for Best Adaptation at the BBC Audio Drama Awards 2015. 

In 2015 Jonathan directed his radical adaptation of Jekyll & Hyde for Chung Ying in Hong Kong and London. In 2016, work for the BBC includes a new commission for a substantial drama examining the phenomena of radicalisation across the centuries, and a new adaptation of The Scarlet Pimpernel starring James Purefoy for Johnny Vegas' Woolyback Productions. Jonathan's original play Big Time, written for the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, will be broadcast by the BBC in April, while his new version of Brave New World will be aired later in the year.

Chung Ying

Chung Ying is one of Hong Kong's largest and most influential companies presenting ambitious work in English and Cantonese and delivering theatre of the highest calibre to the people of Hong Kong. Under the leadership of its Artistic Director Ko Tin-lung it promotes cultural exchange and enriches local life. It has staged more than 250 productions since its inception in 1979, and attracted over 100 nominations and 75 awards at the past 20 annual Hong Kong Drama Awards ceremonies. The company has its own extensive premises and maintains a close relationship with the Theatre Department of the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Acts.

Playwright and director Jonathan Holloway comments, This Tale of Two Cities is just what Dickens would have wanted in 2016. He was a social campaigner, a romantic, an unconventional artist and a polymath who adapted and performed his own work for live audiences. He was committed to watertight narrative and a populist who knew audiences think they know what they want, when what they really want is to be taken by surprise.

Theatre review: The Bodyguard

Based on the blockbuster film starring Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston, Thea Sharrock's direction of Alexander Dinelaris' script is heavily on the spectacular: familiar tunes from the film – including I Will Always Love You  - are given full-blown diva attention by Alexandra Burke as the heroine Rachel Marron and what is lost in character development is hidden by the all-singing, all-dancing chorus-line and the fast-placed melodramatic plot.

Although there is a slight suggestion that Marron undergoes a personal journey towards humility (after winning an Oscar, fortunately), the story is driven by her relationship with the stoic, yet sensitive Bodyguard Frank Farmer – played by Stuart Reid with an appropriate restraint. As Rachel, and her sister, prepare for the climax of her career, a stalker gives chase, allowing Frank to defend her with his mix of straight-talking and paternal sensitivity.

The plot, however, simply provides a framework for the musical numbers, and even the  climatic confrontation becomes fodder for the resolution of Frank and Rachel's relationship. Fortunately, the fast pace and the lavish routines and set provide excitement and virtuosity enough to compensate for the lack of character development. Frank is a cypher of romantic masculinity, but Rachel's unpleasantness in the first act – she even steals Frank from her sister – is not redeemed.

However, the show is not about the script: it is about the emotional songs and the romantic tension between the showgirl and the bodyguard. Teasing the audience in the first act, the performance builds to the finale, that famous love song of regret and acceptance, and the flashing lights, dynamic dancers, bold choreography and relentless energy ensure that The Bodyguard delivers the expected excitement.

The Folklore of Dramaturgy: The Mabinogion @ Edfringe 2015

The Mabinogion is a collection of Welsh legends and folklore; compiled from texts found in two late-medieval manuscripts – the Red Book of Hergest and the White Book of Rhydderch – they were initially translated by famed antiquarians William Pughe and Lady Charlotte Guest in the early nineteenth century.

Suitable for families, BEDS’s The Mabinogion follows the story of a powerful, cunning magician, a beautiful princess sold into marriage and the quest of a daring Prince to follow his heart.

Following the success and sold out run of their previous adaptation, Don Quixote, BEDS returns to the Fringe for the fifth time this summer, with a new bilingual adaptation of the classic Welsh legends.

The Mabinogion 17 – 22 Aug 18:35 (50min)

Tickets: Adult £5, Concessions £3, Family £2.50 each
theSpace @ Surgeons Hall (V53)

I'm Osian Garmon, 


The Fringe

What inspired this production: did you begin with an idea or a script or an object?
 Osian Garmon, director:I'd wanted to adapt the Mabinogion for the stage since seeing a fantastic production by the National Youth Theatre of Wales back in 2008. They're fantastic pieces of literature, so the idea was to try and get them to translate effectively onto the stage with a small ensemble cast.

Why bring your work to Edinburgh?The Fringe is always a great opportunity to showcase young writing, directing and acting talents, as well as being a fantastic experience. I wanted to bring BEDS to Edinburgh with a piece of Welsh culture too, since that seems to be a rare thing at the Fringe.

What can the audience expect to see and feel - or even think - of your production?

Hopefully, they'll go away having enjoyed themselves, as well as having had a glimpse into Welsh history and culture from a Welsh perspective, something which is sometimes hard to get in theatre. I hope people will enjoy our adaptation of these tales while also taking us for what we are - a student drama society putting on 'our version of events' as it were, our version of these classic, fantastical tales.

The Dramaturgy Questions
How would you explain the relevance - or otherwise - of dramaturgy within your work?
Well, we use a variety of techniques - it's a bit of a mix, really! We make use of an open, storytelling technique which is Brechtian, but without the political undertones. We use elements of physical theatre which help our actors engage with their characters and their quirks, and even encourage a little method acting!

What particular traditions and influences would you acknowledge on your work - have any particular artists, or genres inspired you and do you see yourself within their tradition?
My script is a stage adaptation of stories that already existed, but Saunders Lewis has been a great influence on me. I love his formal, intricate use of language and the way he brings classic Welsh stories to life, such as his dramatisation of the tales of Blodeuwedd, Pwyll and his famous play on the life of Joan (or Siwan), the wife of Llywelyn the Great, Prince of Wales. I'd hesitate to compare myself to the man who is known as the Welsh Shakespeare, but I've certainly been inspired by his work.

Do you have a particular process of making that you could describe - where it begins, how you develop it, and whether there is any collaboration in the process?
The script has been tailored to the cast's needs, it's a very organic, collaborative process that we've been through. I started with a fairly straight adaptation - it was clunky and rough, but it got the job done. By now we have a more organic, refined version thanks to the cast's contributions. Rosie, my co-director has also been very helpful! All in all, I feel that the more opinions I get on my work, the more it develops. I tend to take those contributions on board, before scuttling off to my room for a few days to write some more scenes!

4. What do you feel the role of the audience is, in terms of making the meaning of your work?

Our production strives to engage with the audience as much as possible, so that anyone watching the show will have an immersive experience grounded in good old-fashioned storytelling. We introduce ourselves at the beginning of the play as being bards of the medieval Welsh court - their purpose was to make their audiences believe in their stories, to get them to lose themselves in the adventures of Pwyll or Branwen. Hopefully we can achieve the same!

Half-Formed Dramaturgy- Annie Ryan @ Edfringe 2015

The Fringe
GKV: What inspired this production: did you begin with an idea or a script or an object?
Annie Ryan: This project began with reading the extraordinary novel, A Girl is A Half-formed Thing by Eimear McBride. I was sitting bolt upright at four in the morning, breathless. In shock basically. I thought: My God , it's performable.

Why bring your work to Edinburgh?
My company, The Corn Exchange, has performed at the Fringe on and off for the last fifteen years of so. We played Michael West's A Play on Two Chairs in 1998 in the Assembly Rooms. And since then, have played in Traverse with Michael West's Foley, Dublin By Lamplight, Freefall and Man of Valour. Delighted to be back.

We have always had a brilliant run in Edinburgh, and it's been an excellent platform to send the work further afield.

What can the audience expect to see and feel - or even think - of your production?
This piece is based on an incredibly moving, even harrowing, novel. It is not an easy experience for the audience. There is a good deal of trauma in the story, but it utterly electrifying, both in the deeply original language of the prose and dialogue and in the incredible performance by Aoife Duffin. The production holds her and the story with great care.

The Dramaturgy Questions

How would you explain the relevance - or otherwise - of dramaturgy within your work?
I'm a director, and in this case the adapter too, so the dramaturgical role is rolled up between the two other roles. I guess I would see a dramaturgy as having something to do with the context within which a play might happen. 

This is a novel about a particularly Irish place and time and, at the same time, tells a universal story about growing up, surviving abuse, trying to make sense of a deprived and messed up world. I feel as Artistic Director of The Corn Exchange, my job to programme the work involves many dramaturgical questions about why this piece, what relevance it may have, etc. 

My own artistic intention as a director has a rather strong dramaturgical element in that I want the work to have a deep connection to people's lives. At the moment, my main audience is in Ireland, so I am looking to make work – through both found material and original work – that will resonate with them first, and hopefully, to a wider international audience.


Adapting this novel was a fascinating challenge partly because in the experience of reading the novel, the reader is the girl. You are inside of her head, so you experience her world very viscerally. We witness the play though an actor – very good actor – and also, crucially, as a group. I would see the dramaturgy in this case very close to both the adaptor and the directorial roles, where, ideally, the content and style of the writing is somehow matched with the feeling and style of the production.


What particular traditions and influences would you acknowledge on your work - have any particular artists, or genres inspired you and do you see yourself within their tradition?
Many different artists and writers have influenced this piece – Beckett in particular. I knew at the outset that the setting should be a sparse, empty and rather abstract world. The piece is reminiscent of Beckett's Not I and also Marina Carr's Portia Coughlan. Eimear McBride herself was hugely influenced by Joyce's Ulysses. Other artists that influenced the production in different ways include PJ Harvey and Marina Abramovic.


The company's work is largely influenced by a cocktail of physical theatre techniques and styles including the work of Ariane Mnouchkine, Anne Bogart, Ivo Van Hove, Peter Brook, Christian Schiaretti, Simon McBurney, Michael Keegan-Dolan, Joyce Piven, among others. The heart of the work is about full embodiment of the moment. And for that reason, various practices from the yoga traditions have embedded themselves in the company's process.


Do you have a particular process of making that you could describe - where it begins, how you develop it, and whether there is any collaboration in the process?
Each project has begun in different ways. This one landed on the kitchen table. Other projects were instigated by actors in the company. 

I hope the common denominator is something to do with either responding to something happening in the world or an endeavour to instigate something in the world. Each project has stretched the boundaries of the form in different ways too – either by discovering new ways to transform space or blending particular techniques.



These days I always start the work with a gentle yoga practice, followed by voice work and then I teach ensemble improvisation games and techniques that become the physical vocabulary for the staging. 

This is a one person show, so we adapted a few techniques that

became useful as a foundation for the framing and embodiment. I work very collaboratively with the cast and the team of designers. Usually the text is the last element to get nailed down, but this time we needed to solidify it as early as possible, as it was such a difficult thing to learn and remember. The process for A Girl was as much about taking great care of Aoife as it was about taking care of the piece, i.e. finding the right cuts and designing the production.


What do you feel the role of the audience is, in terms of making the meaning of your work?
The whole point is that the work is for the audience. All the work is carefully designed to create an experience for them, a moment-to-moment unfolding of action. Of course, each person may hold the work or react to it differently, but the intention is for the whole production to be like an empty channel for energy to move from the heart of the material into them.

Pride and Dramaturgy: Penny Ashton @ Edfringe 2015

The Fringe
GKV: What inspired this production: did you begin with an idea or a script or an object?
Penny Ashton: I am in an improv troupe, back in 2008 we were invited to an Improv festival and I had always been drawn to Jane Austen. Especially in parody. 

So we devised an Improvised Musical in the style of Austen (Austen Found) and it went incredibly well. We toured it to the Adelaide Fringe in 2010 and it sold out. BUT touring 5 people is $$ so I decided to take all the ideas we had improvised over 50 or so shows and write a solo play. 

 I wanted to include numerous Austen quotes throughout for authenticity and I knew I wanted to bring in aspects of Austen’s life herself and make it feminist. I didn’t want to just adapt one of her stories as I had seen the new stories we made every night in the improv show were satisfying to her fans who also want to be surprised and see new ideas in an Austen sense. Also it didn't require you to know her stories for the numerous (often male) partners who came to see the show and were still entertained. 

I knew I wanted it to be a musical with well known classical pieces with words added and then I knew the title before anything else. I then had a workshop to nut out the characters and the story. Then I wrote it.




Why bring your work to Edinburgh?This show has gone incredibly well in Canada, NZ and Australia. I applied to numerous London theatres last year when I did the Jane Austen Festival in Bath and found people really focus on Edinburgh critical response to decide if something is good to programme. A bit frustrating to be honest. 
This show has gone really well in Canada, NZ and Australia. I applied to numerous London theatres last year when I did the Jane Austen Festival in Bath to try and get some spots but found people really focus on Edinburgh critical response to decide if something is good to programme.
I got offered a 9.30 slot at the Leicester Square Theatre which was marvellous, but I thought it maybe a bit late so decided to hit Edinburgh, hopefully get a good response there (HOPEFULLY!) then maybe try to tour it further.
People seem to love this show (happily, YAY thank god) so I want to take it to as many of them as possible. North America also loves Austen so I hope to get some North American producers who are in town to come and see it.
Also despite it being the hardest work I ever did ten and eleven years ago, and it being a money pit, and it being a shit fight, and it making me cry quite a lot, there really is nothing like it anywhere in the world. Adelaide Fringe is close, but there’s really nothing like Edinburgh in August. And I will be in a house with numerous very good friends and my best friend/fiance who is performing at his first Edinburgh. As life experiences go, it’s not too shabby. 

What can the audience expect to see and feel - or even think - of your production?They will see an extremely silly musical that has a strong feminist thread throughout. They will see nine characters portrayed by a forty one year old Kiwi chick. They generally love to hate two characters in particular, identify with one significantly and care about three quite deeply. 

They can expect to leave feeling happy, my best review ever I think is from an audience member last year; “Show’s like yours add spice to life.” Mic drop, my work here is done. They will think on how far woman have come, and how far they haven’t come and the ridiculous bullshit women had to put up with. They will hear a LOT of balls jokes. There’s also a lot of pop culture references for those people who don’t know anything about Austen to enjoy. And if a fan they can delight in spotting all the references from her life and books, of which there are loads.


The Dramaturgy Questions

How would you explain the relevance - or otherwise - of dramaturgy within your work?

For this show I would say I owe the structure, style and narrative etc. To Jane Austen. I see dramaturgy as the shaping of the story and for this I had a strong template in Austen. 

Character establishment, hopes dreams established, usually including seemingly perfect men, problems arise and in dealing with them true characters shine through and happy ending. The narrative is linear, things are explained through letters that happen elsewhere and the world is actually very small. 

The music is both embellishment and also story advancement. Songs come at those heightened moments, love, loss, happiness to emphasise the key moments further.


What particular traditions and influences would you acknowledge on your work - have any particular artists, or genres inspired you and do you see yourself within their tradition?
Uhhhhh Ms Jane Austen ;) And parody. Historical fiction/period comedy.


Do you have a particular process of making that you could describe - where it begins, how you develop it, and whether there is any collaboration in the process?
I don’t think I could ever just sit down and write a play. I am an improviser AND an actor and Comedienne, and playing with the characters first to make the story is the only way I can work. I contemplated the story then just thought, I have no fucking idea and booked my always director Ben Crowder. 

 He’s a fabulous deviser, John Bolton (Lecoq) type. We brainstormed each of the characters and the story line. I got another of my Austen improv cast in to discuss story and Austen’s type of developments. We did HUGE amounts of research with the improv show. 

 You have to be fully immersed in the world to be able to pluck any aspect of it from the air in improv, so I knew about the coaches, the food, the dress etc. already which was a huge advantage. After the week of workshops I went away for a number of months and wrote the show. Then came back to rehearse it and presented it.

So the dramaturgy for me was the story arc plotting and making it satisfying. Ensuring the stakes were raised at this point to make this action justifiable at this point. It’s a musical so verisimilitude aren’t paramount, but just as with Jurassic park you don't want people going “WAIT a minute that would never happen.” Despite the fact it’s dinosaurs so it will never bloody happen, you suspend disbelief due to being convinced through the character and the premises. Obviously theatre is entirely possible without that, but I wanted believable characters like Ms Austen.

Also something I can keep working on is the concept of not telegraphing everything from the beginning, having some surprises and reveals. I have improvised hundreds of shows and in those you have to telegraph everything from the outset so everyone else on stage knows what the hell you’re on about. 

 This was my first play so realising I can drip feed some stuff was cool. Also realsing that in knowing the basic tenets of improv, I know how to write a story. We do an exercise when you tell a full story in 4 lines of dialogue. Stuff like that was very useful though I didn’t know it at the time I suspect.



What do you feel the role of the audience is, in terms of making the meaning of your work?
As a comedienne the audience is everything to me. I make works that entertain people, hopefully making them think as well, but also entertaining them and hopefully emotionally affecting them. People have cried in this show which is AWESOME. 

 I also break the fourth wall quite a bit and get an audience member onstage so they are very important as a love interest for one of the characters :) Again that “add spice to life” comment is what I aim for. People talk to me on the way out and the smiles and laughter I see in them is very cool. 

Are there any questions that you feel I have missed out that would help me to understand how dramaturgy works for you?In a nutshell, I come up with a concept, I workshop the characters and the story arc and then I write. A narrative that jumps about in time would be a challenge for my next piece.

Boxing up Dramaturgy: Noel Byrne @ Edfringe 2015

GKV: What inspired this production: did you begin with an idea or a script or an object? 

Noel Byrne: As with all of our productions we began with a story that interested and excited us. We read a wide variety of authors and when we came across Manalive! there was something about it that immediately grabbed our attention. We were looking for something that would have a different feel to our previous shows. So we began with the text of the novel and started writing our adaptation from there.

Why bring your work to Edinburgh?
I first came to the Edinburgh Fringe when I was sixteen, and I've visited and performed every year since then. From an artistic standpoint it's an incredible melting pot, a fantastic opportunity to see all kinds of work from all over the world, broadening your horizons and providing a huge amount of energy and inspiration. 

For our company it provides a platform to get our work seen by people who might not otherwise have the chance, both professional and public. Reviewers, promoters, bookers, new audience, like-minded companies and artists – for a small company like us, despite the vast scale and competition of the Fringe these days, it's still a great chance to connect with these people and have them notice our work.

What can the audience expect to see and feel - or even think - of your production?
When we started work on Manalive! we had a very clear objective in terms of audience response – we wanted to leave them with a big smile on their faces, a life-affirming, uplifting, feel good movie glow. 

We wanted them to experience the same slow realisation throughout the story as we had when reading the novel, and to walk out with a positive spring in their step. Judging by audience responses so far, I'd like to think we've been reasonably successful on that front. 

On a more cerebral level Manalive! is a very interesting story, very open to allegorical interpretation and absolutely as relevant today as it would originally have been, so hopefully it provides a little food for thought. 

Technically, there are only two performers in the show and everything is hand-made, so I hope audiences will enjoy the beautiful props and puppets, and be impressed by the puppetry and ingenuity of the work.

The Dramaturgy Questions

How would you explain the relevance - or otherwise - of dramaturgy within your work?

That's a tricky question, partly because the definition of dramaturgy

seems to depend on who you ask and where you are. Also, as I'm sure is the case with many small companies like us, our roles are necessarily very broad and take in a lot of different aspects of production. 

We write the adaptations, we build the puppets, we design the show and create the performance, and I guess there are elements of dramaturgy in every one of those jobs, even if we don't consciously separate them. 

If you're an artist working for yourself in a small company then you just make sure that what needs to be done gets done. We worked with a director and a composer on both of the shows we have at the Fringe this year, but otherwise we fill all roles. 

So, is dramaturgy relevant to our work? Of course, just as design or quality of performance is, but it's work that just gets done as part and parcel of our process, without someone specifically assigned to the role of dramaturg.

What particular traditions and influences would you acknowledge on your work - have any particular artists, or genres inspired you and do you see yourself within their tradition?
The source material – play, novel, short story – obviously has a defining impact on each of our shows, and we try to maintain some sense of the authorial voice and style in the performance. 

As a street performer, I can also say that the inventiveness and practicality of that world has been a big influence. I don't think you can do the sort of work we do without mentioning Jim Henson, whose contribution to puppetry and the mainstream perception of it was immense. 

Antonia's dad is Harry Christophers, founder and conductor of The Sixteen choir and orchestra, and he is an inspiration and a great source of advice as someone who has built an internationally recognised and respected company from scratch. 

Otherwise, we love to watch all kinds of work. Being at the Fringe always provides a fresh wave of inspiration, with an incredible variety to choose from.


Do you have a particular process of making that you could describe - where it begins, how you develop it, and whether there is any collaboration in the process?
Currently the work we've made for the theatre includes one Shakepeare play and four adaptations of classic British novels or short stories. So we read a lot. 

We start with the story we want to tell, and we try to identify what it is that we like about it, why it appeals to us, what makes it effective. Then we discuss how we can communicate that to the audience, what we want them to experience. 

In those initial stages we try not to let ourselves be limited by reality – what we can afford, what is physically possible – we just let our imaginations run wild. Then we start work on the adaptation, writing the script, while also having discussions about the look and design of the show, and talking to the composer about our initial ideas for the music. 

Once we're relatively happy with all that, we start the build – creating all the puppets, props, costumes and set items that we think we'll need. 

Finally, we go into rehearsals. Throughout our process we try to make sure we're not married to anything though, no matter how long it may have taken to build or invent – if it doesn't work, if it doesn't make the show better for having it, there's nothing we won't lose or change, even at the latest stages. 

Our work is collaborative every step of the way and in every area. Although we've grown to recognise our individual strengths and weaknesses, we still place a huge value on each others feedback and input.

What do you feel the role of the audience is, in terms of making the meaning of your work?
Live performance, at least for us, involves a unique experience. In my experience every performance really is different, even if only slightly, for both audience and performer. That exact experience and interaction only exists for the duration of that performance, and is only shared by the people in that room. 

Different audiences can react very differently to the same show, and sometimes that can even lead the performer to discover something entirely new in the work. Ultimately as the creator of a piece of work you can never really know what someone else will take away from it or how it will affect them, and that response can even change how you see it yourself. 

All of our shows are constantly evolving and developing, but I don't think we'd even consider a show to be 'completed' until it has been performed in front of a real audience at least a few times. Whatever our intentions, I don't think we can begin to fully understand the meaning of a piece of work until we've shared it with an audience.