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    Interview: From France. With Love

    by

    Charis Ainslie and Sibylla Archdale Kalid on This Last Piece of Sky

    This Last Piece of Sky is set across two cities, following two young people. The first is Louis, who finds himself in hospital as his family cannot cope with his behaviour, and it’s here he dreams of a girl called Sarah. The second person just so happens to be called Sarah, and she also is causing her family anguish due to her behaviour at school. But what is it that connects the two?

    The play is from French writer Kevin Keiss. But don’t panic, Charis Ainslie has translated it into English for us, and along with director Sibylla Archdale Kalid, is now bringing it to The Space next week. We catch up with both of them in this interview to find out why they think audiences are going to love this play.

    Our knowledge of French theatre is, to be honest, lacking, so we thought we’d ask Charis and Sibylla to give us a little education.

    Bonjour, mesdames… ok, that’s the limit of our French*, but we guess you speak it?

    Charis: Yes, I’ve been visiting France since my early teens and lived there for two years. As a translator, I’m working with it in written form pretty much all the time, and I’m currently working with three French writers so am getting to speak it a lot more.

    So what first attracted you both to this French play?

    Charis: I loved the mysterious feel of it. It’s quite poetic, but it also has a real sense of urgency to it. When I first read it I couldn’t wait to find out what would happen. The characters are brilliant – right from the start I could hear what the characters would sound like in English, and that’s really exciting. I particularly loved the character of Granpy. He initially comes across as a cantankerous old man, always finding fault with his grandchildren. But as soon as the family is threatened, it becomes clear that he’s fiercely loyal and will do anything to defend them.

    Sibylla: The first time I read it I was left with a lot of questions and a lot of images in my head of the key moments in the play; a TV that won’t tune in, a young person’s scribblings on a wall, a family walking to a bus stop. The text is fairly sparse and doesn’t explain itself, so it was a tantalising creative challenge to get under its skin and fill in the gaps.

    How easy is it to translate a play such as this? Do you have to alter much to keep the lyrical flow of the original?

    Charis: The writer, Kevin Keiss, uses language creatively to create the ‘other-wordliness’ of the play and in particular to convey the mental state of the main character, Louis. Louis believes he has discovered the secret of the universe, and his language expresses both his wonder – in flowing, lyrical passages – and his sense of frustration and despair – when his speech becomes clipped and truncated, marked by abrupt hiatuses. The biggest challenge was to recreate that without worrying that it sounded ‘off’ or awkward. Once I gave myself permission to recreate the strangeness of the language, I really enjoyed playing around with the poetry of it and recreating its rhythms.

    The play explores mental fragility in young people, is this a theme that is the same whether it’s France on England?

    Charis: I think it is, yes. Although Louis is depicted as a mathematical genius, there’s a truth beneath that romanticised version of neurodiversity. The isolation. The medical world’s preoccupation with diagnosis. The sense that no-one is actually listening to you and what you have to say – if you could even put it into words. There’s also something hugely relatable in the way Louis’s family responds to him – their concern, and their sense of powerlessness as they try to support him. And after the last two years there’s something universal in the feelings of isolation depicted on stage. But there’s also a sense of solace created by the unlikely friendship of these two young people, without the play ever descending to offer solutions or trite answers.

    Sibylla: I think what’s so compelling about the play is that it’s not clear that it is about mental fragility; is Louis mentally unwell, or is he on to something that the rest of us are too close-minded to entertain? Either way, as Charis says, the resulting experience of isolation is close to the bone at the moment, whichever side of the channel you live on.

    The play is set across two locations, one of which has experienced a military coup, is this based on real events or pure fiction?

    To answer this, it’s helpful to start with Louis’s experience. Louis is discovering – or at least suspects – that the universe does not operate along our accepted notions of space and time. It’s significant that, while nobody believes him, the world of the play confirms his suspicions. We’re invited to believe in a world that could be tomorrow or yesterday, that has echoes of real events but could also be presaging the future. The clues in the play don’t necessarily point to a real place or a given reality but invite us to believe in something we can’t explain. In that sense, we inhabit Louis’s world.

    Have you thought how you plan to portray two separate locations when you are at The Space?

    Sibylla: One of the challenges of staging the play has been depicting two distinct locations whilst also allowing for the increasingly fluid boundaries between them as the story goes on. Technology – a TV, phones – have been a useful way of delineating different time periods, and our design consultant, David Medina Aguila, has carefully designed the costumes to use colour and period details to indicate different times and places. The script itself also helps in this sense, as the tone and energy of the scenes set in the two places are notably distinct from each other.

    Charis: We’re also going to be exploring the connections and porosity between the two worlds through sound, music and lighting. We’re working with a brilliant Sound Designer, Raffaela Pancucci, and a brilliant Lighting Designer, Catja Hamilton, and we’re very excited to see what they come up with! There’s already a strong musical motif in the play: Louis speaks of the genius of Glenn Gould – a Canadian pianist who made a famous recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations in the 50s – and there’s a strong parallel between them: Gould was a musical genius, and a very eccentric individual. Music is also an inherent part of Sarah’s family – her grandfather was a classical violinist. One of the most poignant scenes in the play is when the family are forced to destroy their record collection because music has been banned by the regime.

    You’re taking the play to a local school after your run at the Space, what is the reason you wanted to do this?

    Charis: We want to make theatre for young people, and we want to make it accessible to everyone. The Space has strong connections to its local community, and we wanted young people there to be able to enjoy a theatre experience they might not otherwise have – to imagine other worlds and dream a little after what they’ve been through these last couple of years. It fits with our view of what theatre is about more generally. I mean, just this week people are talking about a show that’s charging £400 for a ticket! That’s the polar opposite of what we want to do. So many small theatres are putting on great work – and the Space has an incredible programme: great theatre, great acting and shows that will echo in you long after.

    Any plans for what is next for you, or this play, after this run?

    Charis: We’d love this play to have another lease of life – not least because it’s the first part of a trilogy! And I also have another play by the same writer for younger children that I need to find a home for. It’s about a boy whose father has died, and his quest to remember his father’s voice – aided and abetted by a huge whale, two beautiful golden birds and a family of guinea pigs. What’s not to love?!

    Sibylla: Working with the cast on this play has only whet my appetite to explore this play further; it’s opened up so many possibilities and strengthened my conviction that this is a furiously timely piece of work, so we hope to bring it back to audiences soon. To continue Charis’ children’s theatre theme, I’m also in development with a BSL-integrated devised piece about a female astronaut for 7-11 year olds, which I am co-directing.

    Photos from rehearsals

    Merci beaucoup pour votre temps to Charis and Sibylla. This Last Piece of Sky plays at The Space between 17 – 21 May. The play will also be livestreamed on 17 May, and available for a further two weeks on-demand following the end of the live run. Further information and bookings can be found here.

    You can follow the play’s Twitter account here to keep up to date with any further announcements.

    * We would also like to apologise to our reviewer Jane Gian for suggesting we cannot speak French. Jane is fluent and will be even be reviewing Dom Juan at The Vaults during one of its French performances this weekend. More

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      Interview: How To Fill A Space Like The Space

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      Author: Everything Theatre

      in Features and Interviews, Podcasts, Runn Radio interview

      4 May 2022

      51 Views

      Adam Hemming on running The Space Arts Centre

      This week‘s guest on our Runn Radio show was Adam Hemming, the Artistic Director of The Space Arts Centre. Adam has worked at the Space for 18 years, so has a strong record of supporting London’s fringe theatre scene. It’s a venue we love reviewing at, due to its range of shows and risk taking that can result in some amazing surprises in their shows.

      Adam hosts two of his own podcasts, which we can highly recommend. They are:

      Space Chats features interviews with shows that are performing at The Space. You can find the series on Spotify here.

      TV DNA is a podcast, as the title suggests, that talks about TV. You can find that on Spotify here. More

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      Interview: Accusations, Witches and Privilege

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      Fury Theatre on new play Abigail

      Fury Theatre’s Abigail is a play that takes a different look at the Salem Witch Trials. Rather than tackle the witch trials themselves, it focuses on Abigail Williams, one of the first to make accusations that lead to arrests. And the story takes place four years later, looking at how being an accuser may have affected Abigail and the effects this would have on her for the rest of her life.

      It certainly seemed to us to be a very different approach and a way to look at themes that still hold true today, so we sat down with the Fury Theatre’s Artistic director and writer Laura Turner, along with co-writer and director Stephen Gillard to tell us more.

      What made you want to create a play against the backdrop of the Salem Witch Trials?

      Stephen: It’s a point in history, infamous for the oppression of women, that resonates across the time periods. So much so that when we talk about “witch hunts,” we’re often referring to this particular period in history. We wanted to tell this story to try and suggest that, when it comes to the treatment of women, in law, relationships and the world at large, we may not have moved on as far as we think.

      And why from the viewpoint of one of the accusers, Abigail Williams? How much is really known about the accusers and how Salem became a focal point for witch trials? 

      Laura: Choosing a point of view for a narrative piece can sometimes be tricky simply because in good stories, all angles present interesting views, challenges and exciting avenues to explore. As you can imagine, that’s very much the case with the historical figures from the witch trials. But through time and other media, certain figures have gained a certain notoriety. Not just Abigail but also Tituba, the Bajan slave who was one of the first to be accused. This play shines a light on Abigail and the experience she as an accuser went through – being parachuted up onto a pedestal where the great and the good were listening to her, just a very young woman, in a way that was unusual for any woman of the time. Then, as soon as her use was done and the trials were over, she was dropped – by those men who had raised her up, and by history, and her society. We wanted to explore this dilemma – to ask what scars that experience leaves a young woman with, and importantly how does that resonate with today. In our society we see women in particular made famous overnight – from reality TV stars to pop stars, politicians, actors and writers – only to be dropped as soon as they stop conforming to whatever unknown, ever-changing idea of “what’s right”. Who is that “right” decided by, and what makes it any more “right” than any other choice a woman – or anybody – might make?

      Abigail was just a child when the trials happened, and there seems to be little known about her afterwards. What inspired the direction of your story? Is there any evidence she ever moved to Boston? 

      Stephen: There’s almost nothing known about Abigail after the events of the Salem Witch trials, apart from a possibly apocryphal tale that she was sighted in Boston working as a prostitute. The history is extremely hazy after Salem and that’s why we wanted to use her as a jumping point to show that women in history are almost always completely forgotten. Even women like Abigail who was famous in her community for the span of the trials is completely forgotten about once the events have played out. What happens to someone like that? Someone who’s worth in society is negligible at best. Even texts, plays and films that have looked at her usually stop at the point the witch trials finish. We thought that was interestingly symbolic of many women’s journeys through the past and indeed the present.

      You want to explore privilege and exploitation within the play, are you suggesting Abigail was an abuser or was she simply caught in a system that allowed abuse to occur freely? 

      Laura: Our Abigail is a complex, flawed character – like all people. She makes difficult choices in difficult situations, and that means that sometimes those choices are mistakes that she regrets later. We don’t shy away from that – Abigail is vicious, proud, judgemental and unkind. But she learns from her experiences, and she realises that she has been deeply affected by the pressure of the society around her – as you say, one where abuse and exploitation was (and still is) endemic. What’s important is the character arc that Abigail goes on, and also her intention. She never knowingly abuses anyone. She voices bigoted ideas at the start of the play because that’s what’s been instilled in her, from a place of fear. We want to explore what fear can push people to do and ask questions through Abigail’s story of what it takes to confront that fear and rise above it.

      You also explore the female bisexual experience; how much is known about this from the 17th Century, was it openly discussed or is it pieced together from fragments nowadays? 

      Laura: Abigail’s sexuality is another important element of the fear narrative we are creating. Abigail’s coming of age in the play is utterly inspired and fuelled by her burgeoning sexuality and the attraction that she feels towards a young woman she meets. This makes her reflect on the past as well, on some of the things she did and said – particularly towards Tituba – that came from a place of fear, of not having accepted herself and the fact that she is attracted to women as well as men. It’s important to note here that the real-life Abigail came from a very Puritanical society where sex wasn’t a subject to be discussed, let alone women’s pleasure. This has an impact on her. In the broader context of the time, there were, as always, mixed attitudes towards just about everything. We see this once Abigail goes to Boston – a much bigger place than Salem – where there are differing mindsets and more acceptance, but also more bitterness. There are certainly records from the 17th century of “women loving women” – both condemnatory and accepting – but Abigail herself is in the dark to her own feelings, let alone other people’s. Abigail in many ways becomes a play about self-acceptance, in its many ways.

      How much do the play’s themes still ring true over 300 years later? 

      Stephen: The themes we’re looking at are, it’s probably fair to say, far older than the 300 years that separates us from this story. They’re also occurring today, just as freshly as if they’d only just begun. The oppression of women around the world. The denial of women’s ability to govern even their own bodies. Massive disparity within the legal system. The mistrust of education or success when it comes to women. The demonisation of sexual agency and fear of sexual identity. Coercive control. Racial disparity and discrimination across all levels of society. These are themes that we look at in the play and we would say you only need to look at the news for five minutes to come across an example of them being as rife today as they were 300 or 3000 years ago.

      You’re playing at The Space, how important are venues such as the Space for new and emerging theatre makers such as Fury Theatre? 

      Laura: The Space is a fantastic venue to work with because they are so supportive of new work and particularly of the company behind the work. For us, this is our first in person production as a company, and we’re also bringing work directly to London from our company base in the East Midlands. There’s lots to think about and for me, this is the first show I’ve produced as well as written, but having the team at The Space there to give advice has been invaluable. I’d absolutely recommend it as a venue to other emerging companies, and the wider network of fringe theatres – and the reviewers, critics and audiences that support them – are such an important part of our industry, especially at the moment as we continue to rebuild after the last two years.

      And have you thought about how you’ll be putting the play on for best use of their wonderful livestream service?  

      Stephen: This will be our first live-stream event. We’re excited and we’re going to be learning our way through the evening. It’s wonderful to be able to reach out to people who can’t attend, to be able to offer a chance for people, particularly in Lincoln, where we’re from, to see the piece live on the stage. Who knows, we may find there’s a film idea in this somewhere.

      Thanks to Laura and Stephen for finding the time to chat with us. Abigail plays at The Space between 3 – 7 May. There will be a livestream performance on 5 May, which will then be available to watch on-demand for a further two weeks. Further information and bookings can be found here. More

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      Interview: Oli Savage tackles climate change with Greenhouse Theatre

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      The UK’s First Zero-Waste Performance Space

      Theatre for a Changing Climate – The Greenhouse Theatre at Canary Wharf

      In partnership with Canary Wharf Group, The Greenhouse Theatre is delighted to expand their award-winning eco-friendly holistic theatre project to new heights, right in the heart of bustling Canary Wharf, London.

      Kicking off on Friday 23rd July, visitors will be welcomed by an all-new version of The Greenhouse’s signature pop-up venue, made entirely of recycled materials. Nestled between the skyscrapers in the gorgeous Jubilee Park, The Greenhouse Theatre will be running daily with an exciting new roster of shows, workshops, and social experiences, bringing to life the perspectives of some of the UK’s most passionate emerging creatives and environmentalists and challenging just what it means to care about the climate.

      Building off of an award-winning run at the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe (The Stage’s Top 5 New Venues, Theatre Weekly’s Best of the Fest Best Venue Award) and back better than ever after a year spent apart, The Greenhouse Theatre at Canary Wharf is a continuation of the idea that minding the environment in any endeavor is neither a gimmick nor a limitation. In fact, it’s the name of the game. Every single aspect of the Greenhouse Theatre’s production – from costuming to marketing to even building the venue itself – is zero-waste from conception to execution. No matter what you find to do at The Greenhouse, you can rest assured that you’ll be making a difference.

      Theatre at The Greenhouse is intimate and exciting, bringing a human narrative to the facts, numbers, doom, and gloom of so-called “eco-entertainment.” Set among trees and under the sky, audience members will be transported to new worlds mere blocks from the center of London’s commercial heart. And with shows running just under an hour and with pay-what-you-want tickets, participating in emerging theatre has never been more accessible.

      Three new shows will debut at Canary Wharf, all written, directed, and acted by a team of diverse and passionate emerging creatives. As you Like It is an excitingly fresh all singing and dancing production of Shakespeare’s pastoral classic, showcasing a young girl’s love for the woods and how we can all re-kindle a connection with the natural world. Hjem is an all-new tale of two singers – an old Norwegian fisherman and a young English woman – who strum up a heart-warming friendship by singing shanties across the seas and connecting through their love of the ocean and music they share. Finally, 12 is an all-new romantic story set over the remaining 12 years we have left to abate the worst effects of the climate crisis. It follows just one relationship as it struggles to stay together in a world that’s falling apart and asks, in the midst of a global emergency, what are the things worth saving?

      As an installation in Jubilee Park, The Greenhouse Theatre is also dedicated to being a public space that brings the community together even beyond the box office. It will bring a host of extensive workshops, events, and social experiences for everyone. Talks, lessons, musical performances, and more will bring sustainability further into the community, offering opportunities to meet with the team, spend time with others, and learn something new all in the heart of Canary Wharf.

      For more information, please visit: www.thegreenhousetheatre.com and www.canarywharf.com. Shows run at 7:30pm: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and at 2:30pm/7:30pm: Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

      Listen back to our interview with Oli Savage, Artistic Director, who tells us about their production of As You Like It, as well as how the venue has been made and why theatre is an important cog in the climate change conversation.

      This three part interview was first broadcast on our Runn Radio show on 21 July.

      You can book tickets for their upcoming shows via the below link. More

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      How Comfy Are Your Seats? The Space

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      We absolutely adore The Space Arts Centre. And not just because one of our reviewers also happens to be heavily involved! It’s a venue that promises a home for exciting new writing, offering a place to try out new works that might not otherwise get the chance to grow. We might not love every play we see there, but we love that they are always willing to take the risk to try something different. It’s what draws us back at every opportunity.

      So who better then to be the second venue in our How Comfy Are Your Seats? series than The Space’s Deputy Director, Matthew Jameson, to share more on why you really should be visiting this wonderful building soon.

      Let’s dive straight in, what’s your role at The Space?

      It was an ever shifting, no-two-days-the-same kind of job even before the pandemic, and now it’s even more varied. I tend to manage the visiting companies and productions, co-ordinate marketing, deal with site maintenance and handle in-house producing, with a few bits of dramaturgy, programming and directing thrown in. I’m also the livestream camera operator and currently the de facto bar manager (but don’t get me talking about the bar…)

      We’ll be honest, last time we come we got a little lost due to road works, tell us the best way to get there.

      Not a problem, every first visit is a step into the unknown, but it does get easier. You can’t go too far wrong with the 5 minutes walk from Mudchute DLR. And we’ve got 3 buses that stop right outside the venue with a helpful announcement from Canary Wharf, who have just streamlined the bus traffic. If you’re feeling leisurely, you can catch the Thames Clipper to Canary Wharf Pier, which is a lush journey from Central London or the East.

      Right, we know how to find you, but once we get there, what’s on offer before we head in for a show? Is it time to mention that bar?

      Oh go on, get me talking about the bar! We’ve recently taken on management of the in-house bar (now named ‘the Space Bar’) and we are loving being pub landlords. We’ve got a long, sun-trap beer garden for this weather as well as an atmospheric inside seating area just at the back above the theatre, converted from what used to be the church’s vestry. We’ve been listening to our artists and audiences about what they want from a bar, so have been making some changes to our stock which have been very popular. We’re in the process of re-opening the kitchen to bring back a limited menu, hopefully from mid/late June, which we’ll expand as we go.

      And once we head inside, what’s the size and layout for a show?

      Under social distancing, we’ve been operating in either end-on, or reverse end-on for our raised main stage. Currently our max capacity is 40, and we’ve already had some sold out shows since re-opening. We’re lucky that we have no fixed seating, so in non-Covid times, anything goes! In the round, traverse, promenade, you name it, someone has staged it here.

      What type of shows are The Space’s forte?

      We’re all about new writing and/or emerging artists. But ’emerging’ doesn’t just mean artists under 30! We’re all about giving a platform to companies who want to showcase their skills, make socially relevant work or just need a supportive environment to get their show off the ground. For internal productions, we’ve had a cracking run of new writing festivals pre, during and post-lockdowns, which we’re bringing home with the Foreword Festival (playing from Next Tuesday 8th with Laura Horton‘s Labyrinth Diet to open). We’ve got four new scripts which were selected from our script development programme, ScriptSpace, that we’re giving full productions to.

      What can people normally expect to pay for a ticket for a show?

      It’s largely up to the companies that perform with us, but we try to cap our standard price and concessions as £15 & £12. For online viewers, we’ve been conscious of economic accessibility, so our livestream prices operate on 3 bands: £10 standard, £15 supporters rate and £5 low income rate. We want to make sure that everyone who wants to see our shows can, regardless of financial or geographical barriers.

      Any personal highlights from past shows?

      We’ve had a lot of brilliant work during my time here. I always love work that fully embraces the uniqueness of the venue, so Threedumb Theatre‘s revolutionary The Black Cat was a great example of how you can truly embrace streaming and digital theatre fusion. I also have great memories of Two Fest, our last in-house, in-venue production before the pandemic, 13 plays over three bills across two weeks. Absolute madness, but nuanced, varied work throughout.

      Do you have any “they played here first” stories of big names or shows that started with you?

      It’s our 25th anniversary as a venue this September, so we’ve seen a fair few who are now household names (including Les Enfants Terrible) as well as our dear patron Sir Ian [McKellen], who rehearsed and kicked off his 80th birthday one-man show here. We’re more excited about the next steps and developments of recent projects such as Four O’Clock Flowers by Louise Breckon-Richards, which is hitting the film festival circuit having debuted as a play at the last Foreword Festival in 2019. The companies and artists we have at the Space today are tomorrow’s headliners, see them here first!

      What are the plans for the coming months then, what exciting shows have you got lined up for us?

      We’re currently programmed for our Summer/Autumn season until the end of October, which is a far longer season than we’ve ever had before, but we’ve had plenty of pre-Covid projects to reschedule as well as many new and exciting shows approach us. I’m particularly excited for our first partnership with the London Horror Festival in October (who are currently taking applications here). There’s also a lot of top secret things being lined up for the 25th anniversary, but you’ll have to watch this Space.

      So tell us just why we should all come along to see a show at The Space? What’s your unique selling point?

      It’s a gorgeous, grade II listed building with the most reasonably priced, atmospheric bar in London. The theatre itself is intimate enough to be personal and grand enough to be epic. The shows we programme are made by the theatre innovators of the future and you’ll want to see them here first.

      Finally, and obviously the most important question of all, how comfy are the chairs?

      The chairs themselves? More padded than average. But the legroom? Unbeatable!

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      Thanks to Matthew for finding time in his very busy day to chat with us. You can find a list of reviews and articles from the Space below. More