By Phil Aherne
Why do a different version of the show at the Burton-Taylor?
Ben: It was mainly to give a better idea of what the Playhouse show would be. But there are other important reasons.
Emily: Because the show was set for Hilary we knew we had Michaelmas to develop the script and thought it would be a useful exercise to try out a couple of extracts with real actors and a real audience. As this is the first time that a piece devised entirely by students will be staged at the Playhouse we wanted to generate as much interest as possible in the project by showing how the adaptation process works. It was conceived as a two fold project. Firstly, it’s a marketing tool to generate interest for the larger production. We wanted to show people the style of the piece, and give them a taste of the tone, to try and get them excited about what we are trying to do. Secondly, there’s a far more practical purpose in allowing myself the room to see how my interpretation of the text would work with actors; to test out the viability.
Why do this production? Where did the inspiration come from?
E: It comes from my personal interest in taking texts that are completely elastic and free from theatrical convention, and then bringing them to life. I think the text is fantastic, and I didn’t need a script. By using a chorus, I could utilise their traditional function as both commentators on the action and illustrators of the internal thoughts.
How did you handle the absurd nature of the narrative?
E: The absurdity is centred on the mental thoughts, and is thus inherent and inescapable. It illustrates contradictions, things that jar. Alice is like any other girl, but she is also a walking sponge – her thoughts are twisted, mixed and tangled and then they pop out of her head in a physical dream world where everything is turned back on itself. It leaves the audience disconcerted and disorientated. The world comes from Alice, but she is the only one exclude from it.
So you’re saying that the narrative is fundamentally paradoxical?
E: The play is the experience childhood in an unobstructed manner. It makes the audience into blank slates for new perspectives to be projected on to. Most of the characters are adult, but they talk in a sensible nonsense. Alice feels ignorant, but the reader recognises her as the only sensible person.
How are you going to realise her world on stage?
E: Strip the stage back to it’s bare skeleton and fill it with colour and tone, so that the world is
moulded into the stage – it definitely is not Brechtian. The feel is mechanical, synthetic, man-made. The will be a wealth of electronic sounds to convey texture. The chorus will build up a connection with the audience. There will be spectacle through lyrical poems performed by the chorus.
How is the show at the BT different from the impending Playhouse production?
E: It will take the audience through the different elements of the show, and then combine them all in ss and progression of our piece. Ultimately, it will trace the path from reading the book to seeing it on the stage. It will illustrate the centrality of the music. It incorporates the audience, not least because it is in the round. The BT show was created to give an insight into the rehearsal and script development process behind the Playhouse show. Technicalities aside, the concept and design can loosely be separated into three parts – music, movement and words. We want to take the audience through each of these elements, separately at first, then all at once.
Just a Peep
