Review: Solace of The Road at Derby Theatre.

 

'Solace of The Road' at Derby Theatre ( until  14^th March) is a gutsy reworking of Siobhan Dowd's novel about Holly, a young girl in care on her journey across the country desperately hoping to find her real mum in Ireland. The stage adaptation is skilfully executed by playwright Mike Kenny and the creative realisation of the work is shown through the sterling work of director Sarah Brigham, her team of creatives, the technicians and the six versatile actors. If you are looking for an entertaining, inspiring and moving night out at the theatre look no further.

For those who love Siobahn Dowd's original story they certainly won't be disappointed. In fact they will be thrilled by what has been done overall in its magical transference to the Derby Theatre stage. You could say that it is like the original with extra theatrical meat. My sincere apologies to the character Vegan Phil for mentioning the M word.

The piece is perfect theatre. It has invention. It has class. It has pathos and it has a great deal of humour. Four of the six actors play twenty multiple roles in a fast changing storyline. These are Naomie Ackie, Neal Craig, Jack Finch and Polly Lister. All bring tremendous light and shade to the piece through their interpretations but special mention must be made towards the roles played by Polly Lister and Neal Craig. The subtleties they convey as they morph between Mam/Foster Mother Fiona, Denny and Ray plus other roles are master classes in acting.

Rebecca Ryan plays Holly/Solace with great authenticity throughout the play and exudes just the right amount of sympathy as the vulnerable fourteen/fifteen year old on the run. As Solace in her confidence giving blonde wig Ryan still shows her character as a vulnerable girl desperate to be loved but far too capable of being exploited by some of the men she encounters on her journey. Luckily most of the male roles are sympathetic to her almost defenceless position in the world.

One of the most sympathetic characters is her key worker Miko played with warmth and affinity by Robert Vernon. Close to the beginning of the book Miko leaves the story to find his own successes in the world but in the play he remains as a visible guide in Holly's head during her adventures. Again, differently to the book, we also find the influence of Holly's former care home friends Trim and Grace (Naomie Ackie and Jack Finch) inhabiting the stage and offering their feelings, opinions and more.

The set design by Barney George is deceptively simple but offers great scope for interpretation of time and place through the two main levels and hidden spaces coupled with the very inventive use of large props flown in as theatrical suggestions of environments. Even cars, haulage trucks and a speedy motorbike are featured in this show through clever suggestions of vehicles. All this and more are aided by wonderful lighting and sound by designers Alexandra Stafford (lighting design and composer/sound designer Ivan Stott.

Overall, a terrific piece of theatre that should prove a runaway success for DerbyTheatre commercially and in particular as a demonstration of excellence through Derby Theatre's position and commitment to being a learning theatre.

Photo credits Robert Day

Solace of The Road at Derby Theatre - interview with Polly Lister and Robert Vernon

On a freezing cold wintry Tuesday afternoon I came into forty-five minutes of rehearsal for Derby Theatre's 'soon to be' production of the late Siobhan Dowd's novel Solace of the Road. In this case it has been developed into a play format by the acclaimed playwright, Mike Kenny.

After the rehearsal I met up with Polly Lister and Robert Vernon – two principal members of the cast - for a chat about the story and how they fit into it and how the rehearsals under artistic director Sarah Brigham were going.

Heidi McKenzie introduced me to the actors and vice versa and outlined my acting and writing credentials. It was a very relaxed and intelligent interview.

Once we were quickly settled I read Polly and Robert a one page synopsis of the book and asked whether in theatrical terms it related to the story that Mike Kenny has developed.



They both agreed that in broad outline of the story and its characters it was spot on. I asked them how far they were into the rehearsal process. Polly said they were day two of week two into the rehearsal process.

Polly Lister

Polly: Earlier on we were a doing an exercise where we were all told to write things down for our different characters but when it came to present, Miko (Robert's character) said “Well actually I've got three characters” That was really funny and actually from that became a blueprint of Miko. And so when Sarah talks about it we have Michael the real guy and then we have another two versions of him which is really Holly the main character played by Rebecca Ryan.

Rebecca Ryan

Robert: When he has to leave his job then he's Michael and then when he has to relate with Holly he becomes Miko. The version she meets most of the time is that version. There is a third phantom ghost figure which represents the romanticised island calling her. Call it an idyll on the green hills. We talked in ways of saying that Miko pulls her through the story and he is the Irish spirit guide who is a fantasy.

Polly is playing Holly's mum, her step mum and a variety of other roles along the way. Polly said that all her characters have an impact on Holly/Solace's life on her particular journey. They all represent certain themes which are all important to her development. And so I play Mrs Atkins who embodies the authority that she is railing against. I play Chloe who is a university student at Oxford who she meets on the coach who represents a better future for women. This is a very sort of wholesome vision of a strong young woman whereas I think she has only had negative versions of strong women before and this girl is presenting something quite authentic, polite, kind, intelligent, generous and she is still strong and groovy.

Robert: She becomes more accessible as well because at first she seems like something that Holly couldn't be and then no, you've also got this commonality - meaning she could be like her.

Polly: Yeah yeah and then of course there is the awful mogit woman she meets at the ferry port. Actually this woman does just represent just utter misery. I do get to play just a one noted character too. (laughs).

I said that in the brief rehearsal I had just witnessed there was a lot of laughter and excitement as some of your cast worked through a motorbike riding scene that necessitated human balance and body co-ordination skills. It was very funny but I asked whether the play had a lot of humour in it?

Polly: I think it has every sort of voice and every sort of tone and there are belly laughs and I also think there are wry smiles. I think there are knowing laughs and I think are variants of all emotions.

Robert: There are some very human moments as well, aren't there? Warm. But then there are psychological elements. There are some quite harrowing moments that are just sort of teased out and then just moved away from it. They leave just enough remnants of those difficult emotions so it is really interesting. The thing is that the pace is really fast.

some of the cast in rehearsal

Polly: Sarah said that the piece we worked on last night has really worked and whilst we are characters we are definitely in the cranium of Holly Hogan and so that any image we represent or present has a feeling as if Holly is developing an old fashioned photograph. Every sort of influence we give it makes the photograph something that we can play with as it is developing. The best way I can describe it is as if we are subtly playing with the tonal levels in her brain as she calls upon the bits that she knows will help or scare her

Phil: And do you think that would be aided not only by the acting/ conveyance of emotions but also enhanced by Barney George's set design and the lighting and sound scape? I'm thinking of the whole bringing those things home in the theatrical illusion of moments fading in and out as memories. Like you would see in an old fashioned photograph developing in the dark room tray. Eventually we get to see the whole sharp picture but it can still be manipulated and interpreted by the onlookers – the cast and the audience.

Robert: We are shifting through all these memories and we keep getting reminded that the design is about black. So the ability to have absolute darkness on the majority of the stage and just pinpoint one area and seeing nothing else you can just frame it along with a few things simultaneously. Suddenly you can go 'look at this!'. That's really interesting, it has a focus and can create very intimate things.

Phil: It is very much like what I saw in the Derby Theatre promotional video for this show. Moving swiftly from place to place and scene to scene.

Robert: Yes, that's spot on. I think also the danger with this sort of thing is that there are so many things happening so fast it can all just blur into one and you don't get the detail. It goes bang look at this and now bang look at this.

Polly: And playing the dichotomy between the two things in her head she can conjure an image top right of warmth and 'come to me – come to me' and beckoning and down here something different that contrasts. We are talking a lot about light and colour and dark and shade and everything... but... down here we are now skew whiff, slightly at odds with the other impression. They are both co-existing in her head and it is the one she chooses to extinguish that carries the story forward or for that matter bring up or put down. It's like emotional puppetry with light, sound and acting.

Phil: That's very interesting. I can imagine that as you tell it – how it might be presented.

Robert: Stylistically it is fascinating and there will be lots of explosions of light very quickly...

Polly: There is a thunderstorm on the heath where it is her epiphany or her nadir. But from the nadir comes her strength and resolve. We did a time line today and we worked out that she's actually, if everything chronologically makes sense, on that hill, in the pouring biblical rain talking to Jane Eyre, for four and a half hours! So she's in one hell of a thunderstorm and in that thunderstorm every emotion is crashing over another one and she's manifested in most of the characters in the play … screaming at them all.

I asked in all this dramatic cacophony if microphones might be used. The answer was that Polly and Robert believed that it would be done live without mikes.

Polly: We are using two hung mikes for radio announcements and such and that's more of an artistic thing than a vocal thing.

I asked Robert to tell me something of his character.

Robert: Oh well, right. Miko in reality was her care worker in Templeton House and they've had a very strong relationship. He is very dedicated but at the start of the play he is moving on to new things. In the play he is a part of her psyche that she looks to for comfort, for advice, and for guidance. Also he is just a buddy on her road trip. Sometimes it s nothing more than that – someone to bounce off and say “ hey look at that – look at this”. Light-hearted. I'm finding where we are getting to in the play now he transpires to be a very pointed absence where she meets the most threatening character. Unfortunately, he is not there at all. This means that she is actually confronting the issue at hand herself and in a mature way. Her age is only 15 but the majority of the characters believe she is 17 or even 18 years old throughout the play because of her behaviour. Looking back at Miko he is very warm and human and that's the thing – I didn't want him to be just some apparition.

Polly: We had a day when lots of children who lived in care and were coming out of the other side of it came in to work with us and the biggest topic of conversation they wanted to talk about was Miko's character. This was because on a scale of one to ten, when he says he is leaving Templeton House, if ten is the worse and one is the best plus this represents absolute abandonment and say, you felt ten when your mum left, what would Miko be? They all said 'ten'. It is that important and so it is so important for Robert to get the role spot on and he does.

Phil: That must have been moving to hear such an absolute opinion from the children in care.

Robert: Yeah, it was good to hear it in such strong terms because in the story we obviously would never under estimate the significance of her mum in her life even though Holly says that she can't remember her mum properly – it is all stories and pictures – poetically described as a painting running in the rain. Whereas he is a real person and the person that has been the most dependable
for her.

Polly: In rehearsal we did a thing where we had to write who had been around in her life more so who has been a constant in her life. The only person who beat Miko was her pet dog Rosabelle– a fluffy toy to which she had clung for a good proportion of her young life. Rosabelle has been with her in every single life event until the audience meet her.

I was interested to hear about a human being focussing their loving nature and need to express love on a toy when there was little human love in their life and I related a story about myself going through a divorce some years ago and happening upon a toy monkey found in a work environment which became a focus for me of succour for a while.

Polly: That's very sweet. In the story of the play Miko says to Holly that she should put the toy dog down, not pretend to feed it food any more, keep it, don't dispense with it but set it aside and lessen its value – let it just warm your feet. You can't treat the toy like a real thing any more – you need to grow up. Holly then chooses to leave the toy dog at the care home.

Robert: I really like that idea of the mementoes because as the play progresses elements of that are bleeding through into earlier moments and revealing truths through experiences and items. As you say – with these qualities and ourselves as living mementoes (especially in this story) she is the memento. She is the only connection to the mother really and that is referenced to. There is a twinkle in the eyes – a memory of the mum...

Polly: Like a shadow looking into the same mirror as Holly so she can see her mum reflected and the mum's saying “There's a little bit of me in those eyes” and that's obviously Holly saying “I can see my mum.”

That was possibly the most intelligent and insightful and poetic interview I have ever done. Many thanks for your feelings, your information and your intellect actors Polly Lister and Robert Vernon I look very much forward to seeing Solace of The Road at Derby Theatre.

The Odyssey trailer at Derby Theatre. Thinking of booking? Watch this and get excited!

This short video is a promotion from Derby Theatre of Mike Kenny's fantastic and fantastical adaptation of Homer's classic, The Odyssey open for booking until 1st March. As Homer once said, and I quote:

"We are quick to flare up we races of men on the earth.
There is a time for many words and there is also a time for sleep."

I beg you not to sleep too long on your decision to go and see this amazing show that is winning audiences and critical plaudits across the Midlands and beyond. Book through this LINK. There is no joy in 'flaring up' when the show is over!

Read my review and other Odyssey blogposts on this blog.

Tomorrow I am reviewing the companion piece to The Odyssey - Penelope Retold at Derby Theatre. I look forward to offering the insights of the playwright and performer Caroline Horton on Penelope's life and traumas.

Phil Lowe

The Odyssey at Derby Theatre. Nobody should miss this. It's totally un-mythable!

The Odyssey at Derby Theatre. Nobody should miss this. It's totally un-mythable!

This modern production of Homer's classic tale of a soldier king returning home from war, especially adapted by playwright Mike Kenny for the Derby Theatre stage is a triumph of story-telling, theatre and of mythology mixed with the grim realities of war and their aftermath.

From the moment a giant wave crashes on to the stage leaving Odysseus for dead on a beach and the Olympian gods decide to weave a story around the hero, the play begins a rich tapestry of torturous adventures. We encounter mythical monsters and seductive sirens that haunt brave Odysseus and kill off his men one by one. It is in turns, funny, exciting, clever and wickedly inventive but the inner thread that drives the story forward is the soldiers' tale. The true eternal story is one of the struggle of soldiers returning home from war, battle weary, inhabited by the terrible things they have seen and have been compelled to do in battle and how that impacts on their lives as a person back in the civilian world and on others they love. Some of them don't return. So it was in Homer's time and so it is still as relevant today, only today we have a name for it – post traumatic stress syndrome.

 
 

Wole Sawyerr imbues his complex character Odysseus with a great depth of feeling moving from a leader of men, the brave war hero full of his own grandness and calling himself a slayer of cities. Gradually as the play unfolds we see him become mentally broken by his experiences. As in all Greek tales there is a catharsis and the man finds a way of re-connecting through humility and attempts to rejoin his wife Penelope on his island of Ithaca after twenty years of absence. Sawyerr commands the stage throughout and garners great sympathy in an emotionally and physically challenging role. This is not selfish acting but selfless creativity that allows the whole ensemble of eight actors to support and tell the tale through and around him to great effect.

There are some extremely funny moments throughout however, especially around the brilliantly conceived scene in the Cyclops cave, all dark, damp and dangerous echoes and thunderous effects. Christopher Price as Polythemus the Cyclops must be the comic hit of the show as he struts around on stilts greedily eating up Odysseus' men. He is at once menacing and very funny and even tender towards his hilarious flock of rams. It is a scene which manages to combine real danger and some very funny touches as Odysseus tells the wounded Cyclops that his name is – Nobody. And Nobody did it!

 

The wonderful set design by Barney George allows for a large creative space to be utilised and to be endlessly creative upon through the actors own rehearsal Odyssey (terrifically sensitive direction by Sarah Brigham) and the inspired new writing of Mike Kenny. As well as the live music, a violin played by actor, composer and sound designer Ivan Stott and drumming, the piece has elements of often haunting song sung by the ensemble and a palate of superb lighting by Tim Skelly.

 

As an ensemble of eight the company work terrifically as a team and clearly enjoy the very active story telling with men and women morphing seamlessly from human to monster, from siren to animal. They sing and carouse, they fight and succumb to the whims of fate, of exhaustion by war and the fickle gods determinations. Each actor plays a variety of parts in a show of two decidedly different halves. The story of Odysseus' attempts to return home after ten years away fighting the Trojan wars and the mythology of the Odyssey forms the first half. The second half is how, on arriving back on his island, yet another ten years further on, the troubled and broken soldier king attempts to win back his wife Penelope and son Telemachus and destroy the evil suitors led by the brutal and constantly besieging Eurymachus (Christopher Price).

 

 

 

In this production acting versatility is the name of the game. Emma Beattie comes into her own as she portrays the hardened and determined wife Penelope struggling to control the ungracious suitors with her son Telemachus, (Rich Dolphin). Dolphin's portrayal is played with a finely acted, and very believable inner frustration building into manhood as he joins forces with his father.

Ella Vale particularly impresses as the beguiling enchantress Circe who, with a twist of her hand, turns men into pigs! Vale also portrays the devious plotting palace maid Melantho, and is especially chilling in her final scene under the control of Telemachus – her face is pure terror. Anna Westlake is deeply moving in her seductive singing as the siren and as the old woman Eurekleia who recognises Odysseus and grieves piteously for the slain suitors.

Ivan Stott is the most versatile of all, giving each role a distinct inner and outer life of its own often with great subtlety when he is one of the suitors rejected by Penelope and equally in his portrayal as the kind old Eumaeus. keeper of pigs and loyal to Odysseus' memory. His superb musical score brings a whole new depth to the play.

 

It is good to see that the Derby Theatre are pro-actively engaging local talent such as Adam Horvath, an ex Derby Shakespeare actor now professionally engaged in this totally un-mythable production of The Odyssey through the Brian Weaver Fellowship.

Production photos copyright Robert Day.

An exciting Odyssey at Derby Theatre - in rehearsal.

Booking at www.derbytheatre.co.uk

Opens Friday 14th February until Saturday 1st March.

Rehearsal images and video by Derby Theatre.

The talented cast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I arrived to sheep bleating and the blinding of a monster at Derby Theatre

I felt very privileged to be invited to attend one of the current rehearsals for Derby Theatre's exciting and upcoming productions yesterday. This is a new production of a new play by playwright Mike Kenny and is a modern adaptation of Homer's classic adventure The Odyssey.

Artistic director, Sarah Brigham and Heidi from the marketing department allowed me to witness the rehearsal process for an hour and to interview Wole Sawyerr and Emma Beattie who are playing Odysseus and his wife Penelope in the drama. Their interview has already been posted before this one and makes for fascinating reading about the nature of rehearsal and the actor's creative input.

I arrived at the rehearsal venue on Green Lane in Derby and was ushered into the rehearsal room mid act. I was greeted by the sound and vision of sheep bleating and an actor having their eye poked out by a very sharp stick! They were in the middle of a first run through of the scene where Odysseus and his crew are trapped in the Cyclops's cave and escape by blinding the creature and crawling out under the rams.

The eight actors were already mostly off book and the rapid physical creation of each scene unfolding through their actions and reactions in the storytelling had been clearly mapped out. The difference between the professional directorial process compared with the lengthier non professional world is fascinating to see and enjoy. This company have three and half weeks to complete the rehearsal and to be at performance level right across the creative board. An amateur production would be in rehearsal for three months mainly due to the fact that amateurs are working at other jobs during the day and commit themselves to the play/show during the evenings and weekends as a hobby not their career.

Sarah Brigham (director) spoke with the actors about 'super -objectives' and about the need to rack up the energy levels and dynamics as the characters went from island to island on their Odyssey adventure where each time more and more of the crew are lost to monsters and sirens until only Odysseus is left floating on a broken raft at the mercy of the sea and the revengeful sea god Poseidon.

They did a fast energy building exercise with Sarah and repeated the story again with a new energy including the blinding of the Cyclops Polythemus, the amusing escape under the rams and Odysseus bragging to the blinded Cyclops, the arrival at Circe's island where the men are turned into pigs and the torments of Odysseus as he is taunted by the sirens as they sail past their rock. There was a drugged up dreamy scene where some of the crew fall victim of the Lotus Eaters and this state was accentuated through a distorted music track and live music.

Sarah told the actors not to wait for the music but to let their actions dictate when the music plays. My rehearsal watching ended when Wole as Odysseus arrives at the island governed by king Alconicus and his beautiful daughter Nausicaa where he rests until the new challenge of returning to his land of Ithaca.

Prior to their break the actors gathered together to listen to a tape of an ex soldier discussing combat tactics and defensive deployment and post traumatic stress particularly caused by having to decide to kill a child in a war zone that his being held as a human shield by the enemy.

Thank you Derby Theatre for this great chance (and future chances) to see top class theatre in action through the rehearsal process.

Phil Lowe.

Interview with the leads in The Odyssey at Derby Theatre.

Interview with Wole and Emma currently in rehearsal for Derby Theatre's new production of Mike Kenny's The Odyssey.

I introduced myself to Emma Beattie and Wole Sawyerr as an aspirant writer for theatre and theatre reviewer and a big supporter of Derby Theatre having had a long and enjoyable experience of seeing most of their productions so far plus probably hundreds of plays from the former Derby Playhouse. I said the interview would be a relaxed talk about aspects of Mike Kenny's play The Odyssey. I wanted to find out how it was formed and how the play's text worked as a construction and story-telling medium and differed from translations of the original poetics by Homer. I had a brief understanding from the hour's worth of rehearsal I witnessed today and grasped that it has elements of narration through Odysseus, the lead, and other injections of story telling through the other actors who play a variety of other roles. This practice continues throughout the work and carries the story physically and vocally forward. Wole is playing Odysseus and Emma is Penelope/Athene / Man and Ensemble. Mike Kenny's The Odyssey is an ensemble work with eight actors directed by Derby Theatre Artistic Director Sarah Brigham.

The interview:

Phil: Emma, I understand that you were an actress in Electra and Iphigenia in Tauris. Did they have any similarities to this show?

Emma: Actually I work shopped it at the National with Josette Bushell- Mingo. The idea for them work shopping it and potentially doing it was for them to do an all black production. I think though I was the only white actress! (laughs) The idea was to open up these great plays that were just seen as 'white' the whole time. At the time I was involved in Last of the Haussmans at the National so I agreed to do this project for them. It was interesting, we had a German girl from a physical theatre company so it was similar to this in that it was quite physical plus quite about the power you can create using the whole body not just the voice with your complete self, rather than it just being about the words. And I think that's what we are trying to achieve here though it's not completely physical theatre and it's about every bit of you on stage telling the story. It's about the emotion coming from every bit of you and that will mean that, hopefully, it's about eight of us creating a powerful theatrical story and landscape on stage for you to enjoy and hear the story from. With some songs, with some music too although we are backing away a bit from 'songs' but trying to explore musically the combination of vocals so that it become a blend of all. It's like holistic theatre I guess. It's not just physical, it's not musical, it's not – verse. It's everything! We move the stage. We create it. We tell the story together. Odysseus tells the story as well as being the story. So suddenly he goes from narrator to Odysseus in the moment.

Wole: You are right Emma. It isn't just about having song it's also about that musicality being part of our world that we may sing during our actions, during our character's lives on stage. A natural thing rather than 'hey let's now sing a song!'

Phil: How long do the actors have to prepare for rehearsals and I appreciate that it may differ from production to production, from job to job - if you like? Also how much time do you have to study independently before rehearsals start so that you have a degree of preparation for the role/s you are about to play?

Wole: Good question. Definitely, it does vary from job to job. With this one, for example we had the script from Mike quite some while ago.

Emma: When decisions had been made mid December 2013 we had the script but also Christmas gets in the way and we were under the impression that it may be a draft and therefore could change.

Wole: Maybe not significantly but it is one of the drafts along the production line and Mike is a hard working writer- creative force. So we've got that time with it. In terms of being prepared there is obviously the research that any actor can do depending on what the job or script requires and Sarah and Mike were quite keen to share one of the books they were using as what you might call a cornerstone and were referring to it a fair bit. I think it was by Dr Jonathan Shay and it's the Odysseus in America and he did also do...

Emma: Achilles in Vietnam. Both were about combat trauma using Homer's characters as models.

Wole: That's right. So basically we can use those texts and beyond and more as well as looking at translations of Homer's original if we choose to.

Emma: You can do as much or as little as you have time to do depending on how much time you've got before you get to rehearsals. And sometimes... er it's a lovely luxury to have access to the script and to let it wash over you a bit but I find you don't want to make any huge decisions before you get to the rehearsal room cos you don't know which direction your director's going to lead you; where other actors and their ideas are going to take you. So it's good for you to remain fluent and flexible and be able to adapt. So that means that now this process, which we are shoe-horning into three and half week's rehearsal (which is quite short) with a lot to do, I think is a very intense three and a half weeks.

Wole: Which we are only starting to feel. I don't know about you Emma but I am only just starting to feel the intensity today.

Emma: Today?! (laughs)

Wole: Yeah cos last week it felt slower and Sarah's style is quite relaxed.

Emma: Is it? (laughs louder)

Wole: You've not worked with some taskmasters, believe me. Erm, yeah Phil, so that allows us as a company to be jovial and jokey but also to work and concentrate but also to breath a little. I think, as with any director, I don't want to speak for Sarah but, I assume we'll start to ratch it up a little because we have to and for our own sake as well.

Emma: You have your first week and then you think 'oh my God' we've got two and a half weeks!
You don't want it to just be about learning lines and turning up. You want to keep thinking about it and still allow things to change, to shift. I find I just eat sleep and breath it and have had all sorts of weird and wonderful dreams and have to resist the temptation to text Sarah about various ideas that had come to me.

Wole: Just to interrupt. I didn't resist the temptation to email about some music even though I'm not that musical. I had to actually let them know.

Emma: It's exciting to be able to contribute to the piece creatively.

Phil: I've seen some of Derby Theatre's pictures on facebook of some the costume designs. Can you tell me about those and the modern soldier style of them.

Emma: Yeah, I texted an actor friend over the weekend. He's actually in The Musketeers, so he's doing very well and I said to him that we are doing The Odyssey in Derby that the costumes are great and sort of military and think Sarah Connor Terminator 2 and he said, “Sarah Connor - much more fun than a toga.” I am very happy with the costumes. They give you an earthiness and a grounding and hopefully it will be a very raw experience for the audience and hopefully they won't feel that there are words and verse floating above them and that it's all Greek and inaccessible. Hopefuly it will...

Wole: Hit home.

Emma: Yes. In the great way that films like Terminator 2 and Alien do. Whatever you think about these films, they're classic films. They take you … and ...

Phil: Pull you to bits.

Emma: Yeah and that's exciting to do to an audience.

Phil: At what point or points during the play does the notion or motif, if you like, of a soldier's experiences, namely haunted (as the publicity says) by the experience of war and horrors of The Odyssey build into the script?

Wole: Into the script? I'd say literally the first moment we see Odysseus. But then it doesn't carry on again until the end of the first half and then on into the second half.

Phil: So it's a non linear piece?

Wole: Yes, as Homer's is really. Reflective. I think Mike Kenny has reflected that because we have a starting point where we see Odysseus and then we get taken through Odysseus's journey and it's the journey of his men and his family. Then we come back to the end of the first half and come back full circle to where we first saw him and then, carry on with the rest of the story. Does that make sense?

Phil: Yes.

Emma: We haven't even touched on that bit yet in rehearsals.

Wole: As Emma says, we haven't even touched on that yet although it's in the writing and Sarah and I have had some discussions around that and the effects of PTS (post traumatic stress) on Odysseus and the soldiers who have fought at Troy and tried to return home to a degree of normality. The effects of PST will influence Odysseus even through his narration because he has hindsight now – he's been through it to an extent and he's re-living it and he's not re-living it separate to what has happened. That makes sense in my head I hope the words make sense!

Phil: Perfectly. I can understand the cyclical theatrical device in the writing. It sounds very exciting and emotional. Lastly, has this particular play ever been performed before?

Wole: No, it's new writing.

Phil: New writing for Derby Theatre? Excellent. Thank you very much for your time.

Emma: Thank you. It's been great.

The Odyssey - Mike Kenny's major adaptation for Derby Theatre.

Homer’s  classical story,The Odyssey in a new version by Mike Kenny directed by Sarah Brigham will be playing at Derby Theatre Fri 14th February – Sat 1st March 2014. This promises to be an epic new version of the classic tale and Derby Theatre’s big production for Spring 2014 and its third home produced production with the excellent Cooking With Elvis and Kes as previous critical and theatrical successes.   

To mark 2014’s First World War centenary, The Odyssey, one of literature’s oldest stories, will explore and highlight the consequences of war through a brilliant and moving new adaptation brought vividly to life to life by an exceptional cast of performers through live music and emotive storytelling.

The Trojan War is over and it’s time for Odysseus to return home. The fighting may have ceased but storms still rage on the high seas. Our hero is forced to run the monumental gauntlet thrown down between him and the long- awaited reunion with his family. But getting home is only half the battle, as twenty years have passed and everything has changed in his absence. 
The show has been adapted by one of England’s leading writers and Olivier Award-winning playwrights, Mike Kenny (who has numerous production and adaptation credits to his name including The Railway Children for York Theatre Royal in association with The National Railway Museum).  

The cast includes: Wole Sawyerr in the central role of Odysseus (Henry VI Parts 1 & 2, Shakespeare’s Globe directed by Dominic Dromgoole); Emma Beattie as Odysseus’ wife, Penelope (The Last of the Haussmans, Iphigenia in Tauris and Elektra, National Theatre); Christopher Price (the Riddler in Batman Live, International Tour; Hansel and Gretel, Kneehigh; Oh What a Lovely War, Northern Stage); local actress Anna Westlake (who most recently appeared in Oddsocks’ production of Comedy of Errors) and Ivan Stott (Musical Director on Derby Theatre’s production of Kes and Musical Director and performer in Derby Theatre’s Christmas show in the studio, Pinocchio). The cast also includes Ella Vale and Rich Dolphin.   

Artistic director, Sarah Brigham said: “Mike’s modern adaptation of this classic story, about a soldier who returns home from war and who has to piece his life back together, has a modern day feel, resonance and relevance through its language and themes. It is a timeless piece which the brilliant ensemble of actors will deliver with a powerful and emotional punch against a soaring, live musical score.”   

Alongside the main show runs a connected piece called, Penelope RETOLD,  with performances from Wednesday 19th February until Saturday 1st March and it is billed as the perfect accompaniment and companion piece to The Odyssey, as it looks at the story from the perspective of Odysseus’ wife, Penelope.

The RETOLD programme is a series of brand new one-woman plays commissioned by Derby Theatre, from some of the most exciting female voices in contemporary theatre today. Penelope RETOLD will be created by theatre maker and performer, Caroline Horton, described in relation to her production of Mess as “a major, major talent”, Time Out.   

Tickets for The Odyssey: £10 - £25.50, concessions £10 - £23.50. Group and school rates available. 16-25 year olds: £5 per ticket on Friday evenings (proof of ID required). 
Tickets for Penelope RETOLD: £9, concessions £6. Or see it for £5 if you book for The Odyssey.

For more information and to book tickets call the Box Office on 01332 59 39 39 or online at www.derbytheatre.co.uk