Who Fancies a Culture War: From melodrama to naturalism... (part one)

Both Rebecca D'Monte (British Performance and Theatre, Bloomsbury 2015) and James Woodfield agree (English Theatre in Transition, Routledge 2016): the melodrama of the nineteenth century is an inferior genre of performance, tainted by its rowdy audience and simplistic plots that celebrate the worst qualities of nationalism and prejudice. Woodfield is especially scathing, imagining a vulnerable theatre at the mercy of a voracious public.

In the first half of the nineteenth century, the theatres had been deserted by the middle and upper classes and were forced (my italics) to play to a predominantly uneducated, lower-class audience who... demanded... four hours or more of action, emotion, sentiment, spectacle and horseplay and novelty (2016: 1)

D'Monte is a little more circumspect, although retains the class prejudice that delights Woodfield .

The melodrama did more than pander to the tastes of an unthinking mass audience... it could also reinforce racial prejudices. imperialist propaganda and social anxieties... xenophobic representations of corrupt 'Asians' or barbaric Africans who threatened the Christian way of life but were trounced by British heroism and moral supremacy... the dichotomous view of women as Madonna/whore (2015: 18)

D'Monte at least has the courtesy to identify the objectionable elements of melodrama: Woodfield is content to prove his position by quoting Charles Dickens' description of Sadler Wells' audience (Shakespeare in Newgate, 1851), and dismiss fifty years of theatre as 'vulgar fare'.

Luckily for both authors, the melodrama is merely a prelude to their studies of that superior theatrical genre that emerged from the social melodrama, but pretended that it was something utterly new: naturalism. Naturalism - sometimes called 'realism' - became popular at the time that the theatres decided to woo those disgruntled middle-classes by making the theatre a more comfortable and expensive experience. Championed by Chekhov and George Bernard Shaw and Ibsen and every single critic who can't get past their own bourgeois values, naturalism claims to be rooted in a scientific observation of human life, but initially manipulated the burgeoning theories of psychology to replace a theatre shaped by narrative surprise with one driven by character and motivation.

I haven't come here to blame naturalism as a genre, although the idea that 'realism' is some kind of gold standard for a medium that is a bunch of make-believe (or, as Aristotle has it, mimesis) makes me ache. I'm more intrigued by what this shift reveals about the way that culture is occupied by the dominant group in a hierarchy, and the culture of the defeated groups is reduced to a vulgar side-show.

Oh yes: I am also using it to explain why contemporary theatre is far too comfortable. If a study of the transition from melodrama is naturalism might seem a bit dry, hold on. I am going to say some nasty things about theatre criticism in the twenty-first century. 

Eventually.

A Broad Dramaturgy: D’yan Forest @ Edfringe 2016

A BROAD ABROAD!

Feisty octogenarian D’yan Forest brings her new cabaret show, featuring songs, jokes, saucy memories and a ukulele, to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for the first time.

Appearing at Greenside @ Infirmary Street from 5^th to 27^th August, she looks back over eight decades of music, madness and foreign affairs, as she recalls her adventures after fleeing to France in the Sixties to escape a disappointing marriage.

Raised conventionally in puritanical Boston, D’yan quickly made up for lost time while working as a chanteuse in Parisian clubs, taking lovers of both sexes and extending her amorous horizons to Italy, Austria, Jordan and beyond. Her racy memories are punctuated by songs, both original and standards, accompanied by James Cleeve on piano and herself on ukulele.

What was the inspiration for this performance?

I wanted to share the exotic experiences I've had travelling around the world. I am 82 years old and feel I can use this opportunity to inspire others to travel and to find happiness. Coming from a more traditional standup comedy background, I wanted to use music and storytelling to move audiences a bit more than they would get with traditional standup.

How did you go about gathering the team for it?

Well, it's mostly me - but I did work with my director on the structure and developing some jokes and bits. It's so important to be on the same page...and luckily we both have a similarly radical sense of humor.

How did you become interested in making performance?

I had piano lessons when I was 5 years old. It was classical music. I don't know any better! I thought that was ALL piano playing. Then when I was a teenager in 1947, my mom dragged me to Boston to see the very first musical, "Oklahoma." I fell in love with the singing and dancing. I came home and acted out the show in front of my mirror.

I was hooked on musical comedy. So I took more piano lessons and singing, and my parents finally allowed me to do pop music - which at that time was a sin! I had a fight with my parents over it. My first song was "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun." Maybe I should add that to my repertoire?

Was your process typical of the way that you make a performance?

What process? We all have our own process. After making a living as a cocktail pianist and cabaret singer for 40+ years, and dabbling in standup for many years after that, it was time to marry my life experiences into this show. I guess my process was my whole life. I didn't want my whole life lived in vain.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

That life can be adventurous even at 82. I want to give audiences hope and hopefully, they'll laugh and cry and wonder "Is this all really true?" Trust me...I can't make this stuff up. 

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

I worked to make the show an arc...like a good story should. I connect with the audience and joke with them and even have them sing along  with me. I want it to be like an intimate cocktail party. Who doesn't enjoy cocktails?

Do you see your work within any particular tradition?

No. I do my own style. Just 100% D'Yan Forest. Let's hope it works over there.

the idea of the performance as a gig: what qualities do you think make this the case? what do they share?

This is my job...being an entertainer. And it's been that way for me for 60 years. So, I want people to get their money's worth. They get an exotic, erotic, charming entertainer who sings, tells stories, plays piano, plays a ukulele, and also rolls around the stage singing a song from "The Rocky Horror Show."

are there any musicians you'd point to as an influence?

Well, Ethel Merman certainly had a huge influence on me - even though I don't claim to have her singing chops. Cole Porter. Rodgers and Hammerstein. All the classic musical theater composers have influenced me - not only as a singer, but also as a songwriter. I have a great deal of fun with parody lyrics. I still love classical musical and I can still play it, but you won't hear any in this show. It's revenge on my parents!

what is gained by live musicians on stage?

It's more in the moment. There's an interactive element when the musician or musicians are with me on the stage. I not only need my pianist to accompany me, but I also use them as a secondary character as much as possible.

and is anything lost?

Unless their dress is more sparkly than mine, nothing is lost. I have to make sure my pianist doesn't upstage me so I ask them to dress down. Once you see my opening headdress, you won't be looking any further than the top of my head.

On returning to the US, D’yan became a regular performer in Manhattan cabaret clubs such as The Metropolitan Room, The Ukulele Cabaret and The Cutting Room, and – after launching herself as a stand-up ten years ago – comedy venues such as the Gotham Comedy Club, Caroline’s Comedy Club, The Broadway Comedy Club and Dixon Place.

It was in this milieu that she developed A Broad Abroad!, in conjunction with co-writer/director Eric Kornfeld, who has written for Bette Midler (Kiss My Brass, the Emmy-nominated The Showgirl Must Go On), Betty Buckley, Elaine Stritch and Rosie O’Donnell, amongst many others.

A Broad Abroad! premiered to rave reviews at New York’s Frigid Festival and D’yan performed it at the Orlando Fringe Festival in May before bringing it to the Edinburgh Fringe. Expect pithy songs, witty stand-up, risqué stories, ukulele-playing – and yodelling!

5-27^th August (not 14-15^th, 21^st-22^nd), 18.25 (60 mins). Suitability: 18+.

Greenside @ Infirmary Street (venue 236), 6 Infirmary Street, EH1 1LT.

£9 (£8); previews 5-6^th August £5; 2-for-1 8-9^th August.

Box Office: 0131 618 6967 

Duplex_Cutdown 1_16 from Dana Rubin on Vimeo.

Criminal Dramaturgy: Jilly Bond @ Edfringe 2016

CRIMINOLOGY 303

Retired detective Norma Bates has solved every murder case presented to her. Except one. It's quite literally coming back to haunt her.

Performance Dates: 6 - 27 Aug 

(Not 8 or 15 Aug)

Venue 13 21.30 (35 min)  

27 July (19.15), Bute Theatre, Cardiff                                

When her lecture is hijacked by an apparent ghost in the machine, Norma is forced to confront the details of her unsolved case. Reliving her encounter with the pivotal witness, whose own prejudices cast a lingering shadow over her investigation, she uncovers a tale of racism, betrayal and lost love. The figure who walks among the misty Scottish woods carries a lantern to light his way, but the very nature of the killer is called into question.

What was the inspiration for this performance?
 Discovering the first ten minutes of the play itself at a dramatised reading I was involved in as an actress - I was gripped by the idea of a traditional ghost story being wrapped in the sterile atmosphere of a university lecture theatre, but still having the power to terrify.  I have always been drawn to ghost stories anyway - not blood and gore, but the creeping realisation that something supernatural is at work - and is inescapable.

How did you go about gathering the team for it?  
We were very lucky to get Tommo Fowler on board as director - he and I had worked together at the Finborough Theatre last year, on a production which won the Studio Theatre Award for best play of 2016.  He directed and I acted.  I knew he was able to help me navigate my way through a monologue delivered directly to the audience, as I had done in I Wish to Die Singing, but also that he has a fantastic eye for visuals and the combination of technology and theatre.  

Originally my husband, who was a successful actor for 16 years and then switched careers, was going to play the non-speaking part of the Technician and take three weeks' holiday in Edinburgh while I performed - but then Tommo pointed out that he was perfect casting for the other main character - the Laird.  Julian has Scottish ancestry and red hair!  

And he went to public school, as we imagine the Laird to have done.  And he's still a brilliant actor!  Our third cast member will have just graduated from the drama school - Drama Studio London - at which Julian and I both trained, and where I still teach.  I auditioned a number of young men for the role, and Antonis stood out as having imagination and physical flair - a perfect combination for our mysterious technician.  And when I looked for a PR expert, Miriam was the obvious candidate.  

Our play sits absolutely in the centre of her sphere of interest, she did wonderful work for a company last year, and she and I got on like a house on fire (I use that term advisedly!!) when we skyped.

How did you become interested in making performance?  
I've been an actor since 1983, working in theatre, radio, TV, film and audiobooks.  I really love to keep pushing my own boundaries - I think it's the way to stay alive and vital - so in 2009 I started producing my own work (sometimes), with a writer I'd known since university, who'd written a part I wanted to play!  

And last year I helped to devise a piece about neurotransmitters in the brain and how they bear on addiction.  That experience increased my desire to keep working with new writers and helping to bring their work to the stage, if a play or a part seizes my interest.

Was your process typical of the way that you make a performance?  
I think as an actor I have certain basic building blocks in my method which I use when I'm preparing a role, but aside from that, every piece and performance is different, so the way of working is different too.  There is a certain shorthand between Julian and myself because we worked together as actors for 18 months in one company when we first met - and again a couple of times after that - so we share a language.  And Tommo and I have some of that too (a different language from mine and Julian's though!).  

What is most different about this performance is actually that the writer is rather geographically remote, as she was only in London for a short course and has now returned to the U.S. - she is helping to run a summer camp, so we can only contact her by email about once a week.  This has made the process of discussing and modifying the script slightly trickier than having the writer in the room with us, but the upside is that there is a very clinical focus on why and how certain parts of the text adapt.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?  
We hope the audience will be afraid, in the enjoyable way of people choosing to confront themselves with their fears and test their own boundaries!  We've thought a great deal about what frightens an audience as they watch both supernatural and crime stories - because our play is set in two different times and situations, what creates suspense in one part won't be the same as the other - and we have to keep the tension up throughout!  We also hope they'll recognise the dilemmas of the two main characters - and that we'll provoke discussion and thought afterwards about a number of prevalent themes:- the fragility and mutability of memory; how we define someone as an outsider; and how we all deal with what we find beyond our comprehension.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?  
We hope the audience will have an experience which surrounds them - so that they feel truly part of the 'lecture theatre' - and the other space into which Norma, the Professor, guides them.  We also thought about what frightens us as individuals, and have tried to incorporate those aspects – chaos; a sense of undefined menace; the inability to help someone in danger about whom you care; our own inevitable mental decline as we age.  

To create this, we'll use the technological paraphernalia of the lecture hall, with which many of the audience will be familiar - but we'll also use this to threaten the audience to some extent, as well as feeding in an unpredictable element from the cast and their behaviour.  And we hope that the audience will recognise in themselves the potential for self-destruction in Norma - particularly with regard to the unreliability of her memory which, again, we intend to enhance using the technology.  The audience shouldn't be sure what's true and what's not.

Do you see your work within any particular tradition?  
I think it's very much in the tradition of the best ghost stories - M R James's A Warning to the Curious; The Monkey's Paw by W W Jacobs and The Turn of the Screw by Henry James.  We hope we can follow in the footsteps of the stage version of The Woman in Black too!  

But the flawed female detective at the heart of the narrative also puts our play into the genre of the most current television series, where wonderful actresses like Suranne Jones, Lesley Sharpe and Anna Friel wrestle with their personal demons, while trying to do a decent job in a traditionally male arena.

 The work of promising new writer Rose Miller, 'Criminology 303' is the Edinburgh Festival Fringe debut for Tangent Theatre Company. By embedding the traditional ghost story in modern digital society, this play unearths deep fears about the vulnerability of human memory, while reminding us that nothing is really forgotten in the internet age.

"The ghost likes it when people lose sight of themselves" Rose Miller, Writer


About Tangent Theatre Company:

Born out of a match made in theatre heaven, Tangent Theatre has championed new writing - which they call 'the life blood of theatre for the future' - for just over a decade. Actress Jilly Bond and writer Peter Kesterton partnered on a number of projects, beginning with 'Air Guitar' for Bristol Old Vic, followed by Afternoon Dramas for BBC Radio 4, and a production of 'Glasshouse' in 2009. Most recently, Tangent commissioned and produced the World Premiere of ‘The Most Gorgeous Lady Blessington’ by acclaimed radio writer Martyn Wade, at the Wallace Collection in London.

Jilly Bond is known for her work with the National Theatre, with BBC Radio 4 (including 'The Archers') and for her award-winning audio books. If Jilly Bond is the famous voice, then her partner Julian Gartside is the face you'll recognise. Julian has made regular appearances on TV ('Casualty', 'Poirot', 'Morse' and 'Jeeves & Wooster') and film (Kenneth Branagh's 'Henry V’ and ‘Twelfth Night' and Stephen Poliakoff's 'Close my Eyes'). Director Tommo Fowler was Assistant Director for 2012 play 'Rainbow', which took home a Scotsman Fringe First Award, and recently directed award-winning 'I Wish to Die Singing' (also starring Jilly Bond).

Criminal Dramaturgy: Jilly Bond @ Edfringe 2016

CRIMINOLOGY 303

Retired detective Norma Bates has solved every murder case presented to her. Except one. It's quite literally coming back to haunt her.

Performance Dates: 6 - 27 Aug 

(Not 8 or 15 Aug)

Venue 13 21.30 (35 min)  

27 July (19.15), Bute Theatre, Cardiff                                

When her lecture is hijacked by an apparent ghost in the machine, Norma is forced to confront the details of her unsolved case. Reliving her encounter with the pivotal witness, whose own prejudices cast a lingering shadow over her investigation, she uncovers a tale of racism, betrayal and lost love. The figure who walks among the misty Scottish woods carries a lantern to light his way, but the very nature of the killer is called into question.

What was the inspiration for this performance?
 Discovering the first ten minutes of the play itself at a dramatised reading I was involved in as an actress - I was gripped by the idea of a traditional ghost story being wrapped in the sterile atmosphere of a university lecture theatre, but still having the power to terrify.  I have always been drawn to ghost stories anyway - not blood and gore, but the creeping realisation that something supernatural is at work - and is inescapable.

How did you go about gathering the team for it?  
We were very lucky to get Tommo Fowler on board as director - he and I had worked together at the Finborough Theatre last year, on a production which won the Studio Theatre Award for best play of 2016.  He directed and I acted.  I knew he was able to help me navigate my way through a monologue delivered directly to the audience, as I had done in I Wish to Die Singing, but also that he has a fantastic eye for visuals and the combination of technology and theatre.  

Originally my husband, who was a successful actor for 16 years and then switched careers, was going to play the non-speaking part of the Technician and take three weeks' holiday in Edinburgh while I performed - but then Tommo pointed out that he was perfect casting for the other main character - the Laird.  Julian has Scottish ancestry and red hair!  

And he went to public school, as we imagine the Laird to have done.  And he's still a brilliant actor!  Our third cast member will have just graduated from the drama school - Drama Studio London - at which Julian and I both trained, and where I still teach.  I auditioned a number of young men for the role, and Antonis stood out as having imagination and physical flair - a perfect combination for our mysterious technician.  And when I looked for a PR expert, Miriam was the obvious candidate.  

Our play sits absolutely in the centre of her sphere of interest, she did wonderful work for a company last year, and she and I got on like a house on fire (I use that term advisedly!!) when we skyped.

How did you become interested in making performance?  
I've been an actor since 1983, working in theatre, radio, TV, film and audiobooks.  I really love to keep pushing my own boundaries - I think it's the way to stay alive and vital - so in 2009 I started producing my own work (sometimes), with a writer I'd known since university, who'd written a part I wanted to play!  

And last year I helped to devise a piece about neurotransmitters in the brain and how they bear on addiction.  That experience increased my desire to keep working with new writers and helping to bring their work to the stage, if a play or a part seizes my interest.

Was your process typical of the way that you make a performance?  
I think as an actor I have certain basic building blocks in my method which I use when I'm preparing a role, but aside from that, every piece and performance is different, so the way of working is different too.  There is a certain shorthand between Julian and myself because we worked together as actors for 18 months in one company when we first met - and again a couple of times after that - so we share a language.  And Tommo and I have some of that too (a different language from mine and Julian's though!).  

What is most different about this performance is actually that the writer is rather geographically remote, as she was only in London for a short course and has now returned to the U.S. - she is helping to run a summer camp, so we can only contact her by email about once a week.  This has made the process of discussing and modifying the script slightly trickier than having the writer in the room with us, but the upside is that there is a very clinical focus on why and how certain parts of the text adapt.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?  
We hope the audience will be afraid, in the enjoyable way of people choosing to confront themselves with their fears and test their own boundaries!  We've thought a great deal about what frightens an audience as they watch both supernatural and crime stories - because our play is set in two different times and situations, what creates suspense in one part won't be the same as the other - and we have to keep the tension up throughout!  We also hope they'll recognise the dilemmas of the two main characters - and that we'll provoke discussion and thought afterwards about a number of prevalent themes:- the fragility and mutability of memory; how we define someone as an outsider; and how we all deal with what we find beyond our comprehension.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?  
We hope the audience will have an experience which surrounds them - so that they feel truly part of the 'lecture theatre' - and the other space into which Norma, the Professor, guides them.  We also thought about what frightens us as individuals, and have tried to incorporate those aspects – chaos; a sense of undefined menace; the inability to help someone in danger about whom you care; our own inevitable mental decline as we age.  

To create this, we'll use the technological paraphernalia of the lecture hall, with which many of the audience will be familiar - but we'll also use this to threaten the audience to some extent, as well as feeding in an unpredictable element from the cast and their behaviour.  And we hope that the audience will recognise in themselves the potential for self-destruction in Norma - particularly with regard to the unreliability of her memory which, again, we intend to enhance using the technology.  The audience shouldn't be sure what's true and what's not.

Do you see your work within any particular tradition?  
I think it's very much in the tradition of the best ghost stories - M R James's A Warning to the Curious; The Monkey's Paw by W W Jacobs and The Turn of the Screw by Henry James.  We hope we can follow in the footsteps of the stage version of The Woman in Black too!  

But the flawed female detective at the heart of the narrative also puts our play into the genre of the most current television series, where wonderful actresses like Suranne Jones, Lesley Sharpe and Anna Friel wrestle with their personal demons, while trying to do a decent job in a traditionally male arena.

 The work of promising new writer Rose Miller, 'Criminology 303' is the Edinburgh Festival Fringe debut for Tangent Theatre Company. By embedding the traditional ghost story in modern digital society, this play unearths deep fears about the vulnerability of human memory, while reminding us that nothing is really forgotten in the internet age.

"The ghost likes it when people lose sight of themselves" Rose Miller, Writer


About Tangent Theatre Company:

Born out of a match made in theatre heaven, Tangent Theatre has championed new writing - which they call 'the life blood of theatre for the future' - for just over a decade. Actress Jilly Bond and writer Peter Kesterton partnered on a number of projects, beginning with 'Air Guitar' for Bristol Old Vic, followed by Afternoon Dramas for BBC Radio 4, and a production of 'Glasshouse' in 2009. Most recently, Tangent commissioned and produced the World Premiere of ‘The Most Gorgeous Lady Blessington’ by acclaimed radio writer Martyn Wade, at the Wallace Collection in London.

Jilly Bond is known for her work with the National Theatre, with BBC Radio 4 (including 'The Archers') and for her award-winning audio books. If Jilly Bond is the famous voice, then her partner Julian Gartside is the face you'll recognise. Julian has made regular appearances on TV ('Casualty', 'Poirot', 'Morse' and 'Jeeves & Wooster') and film (Kenneth Branagh's 'Henry V’ and ‘Twelfth Night' and Stephen Poliakoff's 'Close my Eyes'). Director Tommo Fowler was Assistant Director for 2012 play 'Rainbow', which took home a Scotsman Fringe First Award, and recently directed award-winning 'I Wish to Die Singing' (also starring Jilly Bond).

Makin It Dramaturgy: Nicole Henriksen @ Edfringe 2016

Makin It Rain, is a frank look behind the curtain of Nicole Henriksen "day job" as a stripper, as well as an examination of our society's relationship with gender, sexuality, and image. All while answering the frequently asked questions of the industry. As well as being given a slot in Underbelly this year, Makin It Rain is also part of the Underbelly Untapped programme.

What was the inspiration for this performance?
The main inspiration was every creative friend of mine asking "When are you doing a show about that?" when I'd mention I was working as a stripper to fund my comedy shows. So I thought, maybe I should write a show about my experiences, but also use the platform of intrigue about the sex industry to discuss issues of gender, sexuality, and self image within out society. I knew it would be a disservice to make this a comedy show, and I wanted to push myself outside of the comedy bubble I'd been performing in for four years, and into the theatre world I'd always been intrigued by.

How did you go about gathering the team for it?
It's a solo show written and directed by me, and I'm a good friend of mine, so I did the ground work for free as a favour, plus I was available to tour the show as well, what a win!

How did you become interested in making performance?
I've always been interested in artistic creation and it was all up in the air until The Mighty Boosh busted my brain open and I started performing comedy that became more and more alternative as the years and solo shows went on, and now, it's time to change things up and step into the theatre world with this show, while staying to my alt comedy progression with my other show Techno Glitter Penguins.

Was your process typical of the way that you make a performance?
Makin It Rain was different to any show I've written before, mainly because it's actually about my life, my day job, and my family. But also, it's a theatre show and I was hesitant that I wouldn't do the genre justice. So, when it came to writing this show, it was different to a comedy show where I can write bits on the road and try them out, I wrote draft after draft and performed a sort of preview with close friends as a sounding board. Then of course, I had to story board when I was gonna get naked.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?
The reactions so far on the Australian tour have ranged from whoops, cheers, and applause breaks, to couples holding hands and quietly wiping away tears, so my main aim is to have people connect with the show and take something away, which ever form that takes, I'm very happy.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?
My main strategy is to create a relaxed feel to the show, to have the audience feel I'm an old friend sharing stories, rather than a performer on a stage. And really, I am sharing stories and reliving them as I go, so there's not a whole lot of strategy to the show, I just need to be ready to share, and everything else flows.

Do you see your work within any particular tradition?
Maybe I lack a knowledge of theatre and storytelling, but I don't really see my work within a tradition of sub genre of anything. It's some very candid stories, on a stage, and some commentary on on society, so I'm sure it fits in somewhere but maybe that's for the audience to decide.

Scorching Dramaturgy: Claire Coache @ Edfringe 2016

Open Sky presents:

Scorched

Zoo Southside, Studio, 5 – 39 Aug 2016 (not 15 & 22), 3.30pm (4.30pm)

Based on the life of his grandfather, writer Lisle Turner presents the story of a World War II veteran whose self-tattooed body reminds him of his past as dementia erodes his memory. In 1991 Jack reigns from his armchair, a decorated veteran of Tobruk, former river warden, boxer, horse whisperer, boat builder and charmer, but his mind drags him back to 1941 when he chased a German prisoner of war for two days across the scorching sands of the Sahara desert.

Claire Coache – (Director) – Scorched, Open Sky

What was the inspiration for this performance?

This is a really personal project for our writer Lisle Turner. His grandfather Jack was one of life’s true characters and a powerful male role model in his life. Jack never spoke about his experiences in WW2 but one summer suddenly started to tell these stories. Lisle would sit by the river with him, near Jack’s home in rural Northumberland and they’d talk for hours. 

Sadly this was in fact the onset of dementia and would lead ultimately to Jack being hospitalised and dying soon thereafter. The stories were so raw and powerful they needed to be told. Jack’s stories have been combined with other true stories told by veterans and stories from Lisle’s own experiences to provide the source material for our work.

For myself as director I have been leading drama sessions in care homes with elderly people, many of whom live with dementia, for the last eighteen months. I've been struck by how very elderly people are invisible in our society. We have an aging population but many of them are tucked away out of sight. 

We are so preoccupied with youth and beauty, we are in denial about our own inevitable decline. I have been humbled by the magnitude of people's lives. Telling Jack's stories was also a way of sharing some of the experiences that I’ve learned from.

How did you go about gathering the team for it?

Lisle and I have collaborated on all our theatre work and in our personal life for the last 20 years so that was a no-brainer. Robin Berry has worked with us on two other projects: From Newbury With Love and Cold (in development). Robin is such a joy to work with, a lovely cheeky chappy in real life and on stage a powerful presence. He also has the unusual combination of visceral physicality and great command of text. 

Making work is hard enough, so we are always looking for team mates who say 'yes', who take risks and are willing to jump off with us into the unknown. As a company we’re keen on building a network of professionals near where we live. This had led to new collaborations with production designer Purvin, one of the founder members of Pentabus, Ben Hughes our lighting designer who is a lecturer in technical theatre at Worcester University and costume designer Juliet Blamey who we met socially and has designed for Paines Plough and the Manchester Royal Exchange.

How did you become interested in making performance?

I was lucky enough to be involved in collaborative theatre making from a young age with the Birmingham Rep Youth Workshop. I have always enjoyed the process and how, if it's successful, we create something greater than the sum of our parts. I watched The Street of Crocodiles when I was in my first year of University. When the actors emerged out of piles of books and walked down the stage walls I was hooked. I wanted to create something magical too. 

My two years at Lecoq in Paris developed a performance-making reflex that I can only describe as compulsive. Every week we had to make something from scratch and now, eleven years after leaving, I still feel that kick from within that it is time to make something.

Was your process typical of the way that you make a performance?

We've worked in this way several times now. Lisle undertakes huge amounts of research and then writes prose fragments of action within a larger narrative framework. The descriptive and poetic prose provides fuel for the creative team and we find all kinds of images, movement scores and text in the space. When all those ideas surface we work collaboratively on them. 

I ask the actors, musicians and designers to respond in their own medium and then watch for that flicker of magic. When it’s there we tease it out and join it together until the story unfolds. Lisle then edits, writes any further dialogue and guides the structural shape of the final piece. It is a labour intensive way to make work but we find it gives a depth of feeling and a complexity of imagery that is difficult to achieve from a scripted dialogue alone.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

I hope they will get a sense of Jack’s personality, the futility of war and its impact on those we send to fight. There is also a deeper comment within the piece about masculinity and how we shape men in our society. I've been very moved by my work with dementia sufferers and I hope we manage to communicate the reductive nature of this condition. I also hope the audience can reflect on the impermanence of our own existence as they watch Jack's mind and body disintegrating. We’re not here forever and should probably be kinder to each other in what time we have.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

We find that our most important strategy, in fact our only strategy, is to be emotionally honest in the work. There’s an expression used sparingly at Lecoq which is “C’est juste”. It means something feels right or true or real. As an artist if it feels like that to you it will probably feel like that for the audience. There are moments in the theatre when something simply rings true and if we feel this resonance collectively we develop it and build on it. You have to follow your heart and then fix the practical problems with your head. If you can make an audience feel, they’re motivated to think and thought can lead to positive action. Hopefully this is how as theatre makers we can contribute to society.

Do you see your work within any particular tradition?

We are definitely shaped by my training at Lecoq so sit within the European theatre tradition. Lisle is a film-maker and brings a sense of the cinematic to his storytelling. We both practise meditation and themes of compassion and impermanence underpin our work. I'm also a mother and female artist. I am defining and defined by that emerging movement of women juggling these roles. 

Now we live and work in rural Herefordshire we often perform in non-traditional spaces. We turn up, create our world and tell our stories like countless minstrels and mummers before us.

ZOO Southside, Studio, 5 – 29 Aug 2016 (not 15 & 22), 3.30pm (4.30pm)

Diderot Did Decline Democratic Dramatic Discussion

As it happens, I am off the Happy Pills again. I am experiencing considerable friction within my nervous system. I'd like to apologise to the lovely and patient people who share my workspace at the CCA, and the duty managers who have had to put up with a higher level of distraction than usual from this hairy little bloke in the suit who seems to have lost his keys again.

I am in a real temper today. I was looking on Twitter to find somebody to flame, but the always intriguing @thejennawatt diverted me. Instead, I am going to have a go at Diderot.

The ever growing list of UK theatres where I can't afford to see shows is growing ever longer.

— Jenna Watt (@thejennawatt) April 8, 2016

It's ironic: Watt makes theatre, but she can't afford to see as much as she'd like. My research into the history of theatre allows me to pretend I have a long-dead culprit. When Diderot challenged the status quo of pre-revolutionary France, he advocated a bourgeois theatre. In the following centuries, architects, playwrights, companies and philosophers followed his lead, culminating in that day when Wagner turned off the lights in the auditorium, and forced audiences to make a pilgrimage to see his latest epic cycle. Basically, it got expensive to keep the riff-raff out, the kind of people that used to go to the Globe to have sex with a prostitute, shout at actors and occasionally listen to Shakespeare's poetry.

Of course, it is really Aristotle's fault (he did say that tragedy was for a noble class who had time and money), and a by-product of capitalism - oh, and the replacement of live theatre by the cinema, then television, then the internet, leaving what used to be the top entertainment as an esoteric taste.

Speaking as someone who decided that romantic opera is the pinnacle of live theatre, and is preparing to take his place with the Werthers Original set, I am worried that Jenna Watt has spotted the massive problem with any research into theatre. It has become expensive, exclusive and the means of production have shifted it beyond the financial reach of many people. This removes it from the public sphere what Habermas talks about - no good being part of public debate if only the rich can afford to see it - and the political content of works like Iphigenia in Splott is belied by the price of the ticket. For  rough guide, if the class of characters that a play is about can't get a ticket, it's not serious about them. 

It doesn't solve the problem entirely, but when Scottish Opera are offering bargain tickets to students (do they still do that?), or Buzzcut is pay-what-you-like, maybe the directors of the theatres could, like, offer cheap seats at the last minute, or go out into the street and give away any tickets that are left half an hour before the show? I know that last suggestion would cause problems. 

Anyway, access to culture might not be a human right, but I think it is part of a democratic society. I'll get around to that some day. I've got withdrawal symptoms to enjoy. In the meantime: I try not to forget that there is an economic dimension to Watt's question, and probably a class one, too. That neoliberal mantra about choice is a right load of hot air when that choice depends on how much spare change you've got.

Unvisible Dramaturgy: Kirk King on reviving a cult classic comic

Following yesterday's press release for Unvisible, there has been considerable discussion about whether this is a hoax, or the kind of ambitious performance that will change Scottish theatre. Saturnalia productions have refused to reply to my emails all day - increasingly angry as I thought my desire to have an exclusive had led me to be fooled - until Kirk King agreed to some email questions. So, in the spirit of my dramaturgy database...

First of all, is this an April Fool's joke? 
Kirk King: First of all, have you read The Invisibles? One of the main points of the series is that reality is a consensual hallucination, a mad juggling act with the balls all kept in the air by faith. 

Then there was that time when Grant realised that DC were going to cancel the comic, and asked the readers to perform a ritual masturbation to save it. Chaos magic is a major theme through the books - fake it until you make it, honey. The membrane between prank and perception is thinner than you think. 

So you are serious?
The answer to that depends on which side you are on, doesn't it?

Okay. So, you have described five performances. How do these relate to the source series?
Well, these performances are happening now, and Barbelith landed in 2013. King Mob is the only character who is carried over from the comics, although Ragged Robin might be in the first play. You'll have to come and see to find out...

Basically, King Mob has spent the last three years trying to live a life in the aftermath of a phenomenal victory. He can't do it: he's addicted to danger. Like Coriolanus, off Shakespeare, he's a warrior who can't do peace. He tries to medicate himself, which is how he ends up in the pubic triangle. The heady cocktail of sex, performance and alcohol opens him up to a message from Barbelith, and he realises that, far from being over, the war is still going on.

Is it still the archons versus the invisible college?
Again, wait and see. We follow KM as he tries to get a cell back together in a world where some of Grant's predictions have come true, others, not so much. He realises that the real enemies are not the Conservative politicians who are doing their best to destroy civil society, but another set of archons, The Universals. They insist on purity rather than order. And Aristotle is involved, inevitably.

Hold on, the Greek philosopher?
Yes. In The Invisibles, Grant was dealing with queer theory and post-modernism. If you look at the themes - BDSM, alternative history - these things have become the mainstream now. It's possible to say that we are living in KM's world. What do you think all those YouTube videos are about?

So queer theory is busy getting The Scottish Government to recognise gender fluidity. That's great, only once you start talking to those people, your revolutionary potential is out the window. Grant is taking on the people who started it - Plato, Aristotle. This is a classical take on The Invisibles' mythos.

Plus there's a mad finale on Arthur's Seat, where massed ranks of Bollywood dancers use subliminal bass to attack The Universals.

Can I be one of the people giving lectures in the fourth episode, Flexin' Mentallo, please? 
I'm glad you've mentioned that, because that is the part that I'm most excited about. We realised that there were some heavy duty ideas floating about, and there was a book, a critical book, that accompanied the series. We have some wild ideas for that day - apart from the academics - to replicate the dynamism of the old Barbelith website.

Send me a CV.

Where does Bollywood fit into this?
Appropriation. It's a big theme in the whole thing. Bollywood has some of the least 'pure' music in the world. It can be like a history of sound in five minutes, everything gets chucked in there. Disco, metal, the lot. Who better to fight The Universals than the absolute opposite of their rigid purity? 

It looks as if the time of The Unvisible has come.
When Grant wrote The Invisibles, he was ten years ahead: The Matrix ripped off his plot and his interest in the esoteric. It's only fair that he gets a voice in the current debates around queerness, gender fluidity, sexual subversion and intersectionality. He's always been at the cutting edge, of comics and philosophy. 

Unvisible

I said that I would not cut and paste anymore. This release is an exception... so excited...

New production company announce ground-breaking project that will change theatre, and comic books, forever.

Saturnalia Productions are delighted to announce a new theatrical production, Unvisible, which brings together some of Scotland’s most critical lauded and famous artists. With a script by Grant Morrison, based on his awarding winning series The Invisibles, and legendary actor Tam Dean Burn in the central role of King Mob, Unvisible will continue the adventures of his creator-owned characters from his best-selling Vertigo graphic novels. Directed by a fantastic collective of internationally renowned stars, including Stewart Laing, Katie Mitchell and Dominic Hill, Unvisible is a cross-platform, multi-media, site-specific spectacle that promises to challenge the audience’s perception of reality. It will feature design from some of Scotland’s finest visual artists, including Frank Quitely (New X-Men) and Sha Nazir (Laptop Guy).

‘Since The Invisibles ended in 2013, Unvisible picks up the story in modern times. King Mob, the revolutionary hero of Counting to None, finds himself isolated after his victory at Westminster Abbey, wondering what happened to the glorious future that the arrival of Barbelith was supposed to bring.’

‘There was only one choice for the role of King Mob,’ explains designer Sha Nazir. ‘Tam Dean Burn is a Glaswegian icon, associated with the exciting theatre of the 1990s – he starred in the original stage production of Trainspotting – and he happens to look exactly like Morrison’s hero!’

Following the format of the graphic novel series, and in the style of director Stewart Laing

ground-breaking Paul Bright, will be performed in five episodes in various locations across the central belt of Scotland. Although they combine towards the grand finale on Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh, each episode will be a stand-alone event.

‘The Invisibles was a revolutionary moment in comics,’ says producer Kirk King. ‘It challenged the form, bringing in ideas from queer theory, post-modernism and conspiracy culture, to shake up the reader’s very sense of what is real. Unvisible returns to these themes, but now it is time for the theatre audience to receive a dose of Morrison’s mind-bending intellect.’

Each episode will happen in a specially selected venue, beginning in Edinburgh’s notorious ‘pubic triangle’. Each episode will also happen in real time, since Morrison and co-writer Jack Lothian have followed the theories of Aristotle.

‘It might look like an archaic thing, the theories of unity,’ says Lothian. ‘But adopting it is an important part of Morrison’s intention! Like much of his work, there is a clever mix of art and philosophy, and audiences should not expect a classical tragedy… at least not immediately’

NOTES TO EDITORS

LISTINGS

UNVISIBLE: The metaphysical striptease

Venue: The Western Bar, Edinburgh

Dates: 21-30 September 2016, 12pm – 1am (every twenty minutes)

Prices: £4 entrance

In this immersive introduction, audiences are invited to join a down at heel King Mob as he drowns his sorrows in wine and women. When he recognises one of the dancers as his former lover Ragged Robin, however, he begins to remember his destiny.

UNVISIBLE: The Edith Manning Experience

Venue: Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh

Dates: 1 - 10 October 2016, 7.30pm

Prices: tbc

Venue: Bloc, Glasgow

Dates: 10 - 28 October 2016, 7.30pm

Prices: tbc

Featuring a band made up of members of Arab Strab, Mogwai and Holy Mountain (Chemical Underground), this punk ceilidh play follows King Mob’s attempt to bring back his old revolutionary comrades. ‘Think of it as The Blues Brothers meets Fellini,’ says Morrison.

UNVISIBLE: Bollywood Babylon

Venue: The Glue Factory, Glasgow

Dates: 1 - 10 December 2016, 11pm

Prices: tbc

Venue: The Voodoo Room, Edinburgh

Dates: 12 – 23 December 2016, 11pm

Prices: tbc

In the middle of a live DJ set by Glasgow’s Hush and dubstep legend Kode-9, King Mob and his cell prepare a new weapon for battle: sound generated by the appropriation of Bollywood and subliminal bass.

UNVISIBLE: Flexin’Mentallo

Venue: University of Glasgow

Dates: 10 January 2017, all day

Prices: Free

Part conference, part performance, this day is both the fourth part of Unvisible and a critical discussion of the series. Lecturers invited so far include Dr Carl Lavery (Absurdism and the Apocalypse, Morrison and Ionesco), Steven Greer and Dee Heedon (Autobiography when there is no self).

UNVISIBLE: Apocalypstick Now

Venue: Arthur’s Seat, Edinburgh

Dates: 23 June 2017, 7.30pm

Prices: tbc

Details to be released nearer the date.

Please contact Kirk King unvisibles23@gmail.com for further details. Interviews are available. Further collaborators will be announced in the forthcoming months.

Biographies

Tam Dean Burn  was born in Leith and grew up in Clermiston.

Previous stage adaptations include: Disco Biscuits (Arthrob); The Cutting Room (Citizens' Theatre).

Acting work includes: Tutti Frutti, Home Edinburgh (National Theatre of Scotland); Mary Stuart (Donmar Warehouse and Apollo West End); The Cutting Room, Venice Preserved, The Cherry Orchard, Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme, Scrooge, Peer Gynt, The Pleasure Man (Glasgow Citizens); Filth (Citizens, National Tour and Calgary, Canada); Platonov (Almeida); Berkoff’s Messiah (Edinburgh Assembly); Headstate (Lemon Tree and tour).

Television work includes: Wedding Belles, Longford (Channel 4); River City (BBC); Taggart (STV); Helen West (ITV).

Radio work includes: Velvet Love (Radio 4); ongoing solo show on resonancefm.com including The Complete Poems of William Blake. Tam has also directed and performed in many live radio plays for resonancefm.com.

Directing credits include: William Burrough’s Caught in Possession of the Rime of the Ancient Mariner (Citizens Theatre); Sniperculture (Traverse); Cruel Brittania (London Scala) all written by Johnny Brown for Underground Utopia.

Audiobook work includes: Trainspottng, Filth, Glue, Porno (Irvine Welsh), The Cutting Room (Louise Welsh, RNIB).

Grant Morrison is highly regarded as one of the most original and inventive writers to work in the comic book industry. He is recognised as being one of the best-selling writers in the medium in the last 20 years.

His revisionist Batman book ARKHAM ASYLUM (with artist Dave McKean) has sold over 600,000 copies worldwide and won numerous awards, making it the most successful original graphic novel to be published in America. In 2009, Eidos released the best-selling video game BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM inspired by the book.

Morrison is renowned for his ability to revive and re-imagine established characters, and has been orchestral behind runs of popular stories for the major companies including DC Comics characters; BATMAN, SUPERMAN, JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA, DOOM PATROL, ANIMAL MAN and for Marvel Comics the best-selling monthly, NEW X-MEN, MARVEL BOY and FANTASTIC FOUR.

His Graphic Novels and Comic Book collections have been translated into twenty languages and are sold worldwide to international acclaim.

In September 2011 as part of the new 52 re-launch at DC Comics, Grant began writing Superman again in the best-selling ACTION COMICS franchise, as the cornerstone book of the line.

In 2014, work at DC Comics includes a revisionist take on Wonder Woman for the Earth One Graphic Novel, WONDER WOMAN: THE TRIAL OF DIANA PRINCE. The epic, long-awaited maxi series, MULTIVERSITY, is due for release in June 2014.  

As part of his remit at DC Comics, Morrison has also acted as a Consultant, developing updated approaches on minor characters and recreating them as springboards for other writers. He has also had award winning and critical success using this revival method for his own maxi-series, SEVEN SOLDIERS in 2006. His take on Superman for ALL-STAR SUPERMAN cements his ability to breathe life into old franchises and his four year story run on Batman has woven a complex and intriguing best-selling tale the likes of which has not been seen in decades.

In 1997, Grant was the first comic book writer to be included as one of Entertainment Weekly's top 100 creative people in America.