Presents
TITANIA - A SOLO CABARETSummerhall – Demonstration Room
7-30 August (Preview Aug 5)
18:25
An innovative re-imagining of A Midsummer Night's Dream, performed and created by renowned international theatre practitioner Anna-Helena McLean, formerly a principal performer with Poland’s legendary Gardzienice Centre for Theatre Practices, will have its Edinburgh premiere at Summerhall this Fringe.
This intoxicating one-woman performance promises to be an engaging, funny, sensual and participatory event. The much-loved queen of the night plays out events from her past, hosting nightly revelries in an attempt to woo audiences off the path and back into the woods. A heady fusion of original music and vocal acrobatics, Titania is the Queen of the Faeries’ tale with an amplified twist.
What inspired this production: did you begin with an idea or a script or an object?
I'd been working with archetypes in Shakespeare for a while with the ACT (Actor - Chorus - Text training practice). Titania resonated with me in particular. I usually choose a part because there is something I find incomplete about it, for me personally. In A Midsummer Nights Dream I couldn't believe such a woman, queen, lover, priestess would be mute by the end of the play and wanted to give more depth to her journey with music and by telling the story from her perspective. I had also been involved in tragic Greek classics for a good while (playing Electra with Gardzienice for 6 odd years!!) and wanted to do a play about the foolishness and joy in life - while never shy of the darkness from which that light is often found.
Why bring your work to Summerhall?
It's a brilliant and versatile venue run by passionate, inspiring and forward thinking people not to mention being well regarded and followed by audiences of works similar to those my own company produces. I respect Rupert's judgement a great deal and was thrilled to be invited to play my solo there and took his suggestion of the Demo Room. I have aspirations about bringing a larger site specific work to Summerhall in the future and I'm excited about getting to know more about the run of the building first hand.
What can the audience expect to see and feel - or even think - of your production?
Audiences are immersed in original, funky, fun music, quickly casting them as Titania's own personal chorus - at their choice. Clicking fingers and humming along, wrapped up in the themes of love like fairies themselves.
The musical landscape artfully unfolds... interwoven with dramaturgical threads from the original play. This happens apparently unexpectedly, and with some wile and wit. By their participation, the audiences themselves marry what might be recalled of the base 'Mechanicals' with the lost and searching 'Athenian Lovers'. At once inspired and formed by the Fairy Queen this dark cabaret comes from the heart, revealing something cathartic and pure. A tale on true love.
The musical landscape artfully unfolds... interwoven with dramaturgical threads from the original play. This happens apparently unexpectedly, and with some wile and wit. By their participation, the audiences themselves marry what might be recalled of the base 'Mechanicals' with the lost and searching 'Athenian Lovers'. At once inspired and formed by the Fairy Queen this dark cabaret comes from the heart, revealing something cathartic and pure. A tale on true love.
The Dramaturgy Questions
How would you explain the relevance - or otherwise - of dramaturgy within your work?
Structure is integral to everything in my work. With enough time to balance the devising processes with 'outside eyeing', my aim is that every movement, sound and impulse - musical, physical or text based - is charged with intention, driving the story forward. The form I use even in my large scale work is highly stylised and poetic but the psychological through line is simple and fundamental to everything that happens.
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?
I was brought up in a travelling theatre, often busking across Europe. This is formative to my personal approach to making theatre, it's function and combination of styles.
I went on to be a classical cellist and cello sits at the centre of this show.
I then worked with Gardzienice helping me harness my instincts, focus them into an extraordinary ensemble energy and start perceiving the values in building music scores as dramaturgy.
On returning to London it has been the spoken word poetry scene and its popular appeal and organic, meaningful interaction with audience that spurred me to make this piece as well as a beautiful working relationship with circus composer Peter Swaffer Reynolds who introduced me to looping.
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 have created a unique system of devising original theatre inspired by classics and am moving into new writing now. My process was started through years of hosting platforms for professional, multi disciplinary exchange as well as leading workshops and building work in progress performances for international and diverse audiences. My technique is now settled and reliably effective even with actors joining me for the first time. I call it ACT or Actor - Chorus - Text.
Titania is a personal piece built in response to an invitation abroad that had to be solo for it to be affordable. I took it on myself to translate work I usually make on a larger scale into a cabaret, solo context. ACT reaches optimal impact with at least 11 on stage and thus far up to 25 as an upper limit.
What do you feel the role of the audience is, in terms of making the meaning of your work?
My work is all about perceiving and cultivating 'transparency'. Achieved through partnership and and type of complete surrender to something greater than one self. This need not be as esoteric as it might sound. Usually I generate a live, organic ensemble with fixed rules, tailored for each constellation of players to guarantee a story telling is engaging, real, raw and awakening every time it is tapped.
In Titania the structure is held as a solo with tightly spun music, an instrument that demands a high level of physiological application and a direct and intensive connection with the audience.
Audience involvement, their first appearance, the way they meet the space, what they bring in their mood, expectation and character, how they choose to respond and engage in a live exchange, empowered by the licentiousness of a well known story, within the parameters of a theatrical happening. More and more in my work the audience are cast as a role and their every shift and breath is acknowledged and scored into the improvisational life of the performance. The audience are as much a part of the outcome of the piece as it is up to me to ensure I deliver the work at its optimum while listening to the moment with as open capacity as I'm able.
Are there any questions that you feel I have missed out that would help me to understand how dramaturgy works for you?
It is a much larger conversation I believe and not something in this
case that can be best understood in words as the style is fundamentally psycho-physical and not linear nor rational. Theatre is a living act and human sensual exchange.
Coming to train in the ACT method helps this dialogue move forward with some authenticity. I am leading workshops while I'm up at the fringe 13-15 August 11am to 2pm and encourage anyone curious to come along. Enquiries to admin@moonfool.com
To conclude though, I believe in story. All acts of good theatre have intention in every turn.
The Dramaturgy Questions
How would you explain the relevance - or otherwise - of dramaturgy within your work?
Structure is integral to everything in my work. With enough time to balance the devising processes with 'outside eyeing', my aim is that every movement, sound and impulse - musical, physical or text based - is charged with intention, driving the story forward. The form I use even in my large scale work is highly stylised and poetic but the psychological through line is simple and fundamental to everything that happens.
What particular traditions and influences would you
I was brought up in a travelling theatre, often busking across Europe. This is formative to my personal approach to making theatre, it's function and combination of styles.
I went on to be a classical cellist and cello sits at the centre of this show.
I then worked with Gardzienice helping me harness my instincts, focus them into an extraordinary ensemble energy and start perceiving the values in building music scores as dramaturgy.
On returning to London it has been the spoken word poetry scene and its popular appeal and organic, meaningful interaction with audience that spurred me to make this piece as well as a beautiful working relationship with circus composer Peter Swaffer Reynolds who introduced me to looping.
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 have created a unique system of devising original theatre inspired by classics and am moving into new writing now. My process was started through years of hosting platforms for professional, multi disciplinary exchange as well as leading workshops and building work in progress performances for international and diverse audiences. My technique is now settled and reliably effective even with actors joining me for the first time. I call it ACT or Actor - Chorus - Text.
Titania is a personal piece built in response to an invitation abroad that had to be solo for it to be affordable. I took it on myself to translate work I usually make on a larger scale into a cabaret, solo context. ACT reaches optimal impact with at least 11 on stage and thus far up to 25 as an upper limit.
What do you feel the role of the audience is, in terms of making the meaning of your work?
My work is all about perceiving and cultivating 'transparency'. Achieved through partnership and and type of complete surrender to something greater than one self. This need not be as esoteric as it might sound. Usually I generate a live, organic ensemble with fixed rules, tailored for each constellation of players to guarantee a story telling is engaging, real, raw and awakening every time it is tapped.
In Titania the structure is held as a solo with tightly spun music, an instrument that demands a high level of physiological application and a direct and intensive connection with the audience.
Audience involvement, their first appearance, the way they meet the space, what they bring in their mood, expectation and character, how they choose to respond and engage in a live exchange, empowered by the licentiousness of a well known story, within the parameters of a theatrical happening. More and more in my work the audience are cast as a role and their every shift and breath is acknowledged and scored into the improvisational life of the performance. The audience are as much a part of the outcome of the piece as it is up to me to ensure I deliver the work at its optimum while listening to the moment with as open capacity as I'm able.
Are there any questions that you feel I have missed out that would help me to understand how dramaturgy works for you?
It is a much larger conversation I believe and not something in this
Coming to train in the ACT method helps this dialogue move forward with some authenticity. I am leading workshops while I'm up at the fringe 13-15 August 11am to 2pm and encourage anyone curious to come along. Enquiries to admin@moonfool.com
To conclude though, I believe in story. All acts of good theatre have intention in every turn.
Creator and performer Anna-Helena McLean says:
"This solo is a surprise, to me too. My work
has always been ensemble based and completely live. Titania's fairies are acrobats of an electronic nature, conjuring an immersive total theatre world predominantly through sound. This work is a testament to living in the moment and transferring the essence of real experience into theatrical codes, with no attachment to any previous aesthetic. The show runs as a beautiful contradiction to the rigorous physical theatre practice of Actor – Chorus – Text I am known for. I am very excited to be coming with both to Edinburgh Fringe for the first time"
"slightly sinister and wholly elfish... the sounds are as haunting as the words and gestures"
★★★★ – whatsonstage
"very entertaining... dark, sexy piece" – The Oxford Times
“Titania is the most exciting adaptation of a Shakespearean play that I've ever seen. It had all the power and drama of a 20-person production, but it was as cool and charming as watching my favourite musician at a jazz club... Electrifying” – Director, Walkabout Theater, Chicago
“virtuoso performance” – Director, Trestle Theatre
Created and performed by Anna-Helena McLean
Associate direction by Rosanna Lowe
Produced by Trestle Touring Theatre and Amy Ludwigsen (Chicago Shakespeare)
"This solo is a surprise, to me too. My work
"slightly sinister and wholly elfish... the sounds are as haunting as the words and gestures"
★★★★ – whatsonstage
"very entertaining... dark, sexy piece" – The Oxford Times
“Titania is the most exciting adaptation of a Shakespearean play that I've ever seen. It had all the power and drama of a 20-person production, but it was as cool and charming as watching my favourite musician at a jazz club... Electrifying” – Director, Walkabout Theater, Chicago
“virtuoso performance” – Director, Trestle Theatre
Created and performed by Anna-Helena McLean
Associate direction by Rosanna Lowe
Produced by Trestle Touring Theatre and Amy Ludwigsen (Chicago Shakespeare)
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