SCENE Wellington Issue 8 September

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I SSUE 8 | SEP TEM BER 2018 Oth ello | Medu sa S h e D an c ed on a Fri da y

WGTN

ISSUE 8 SEPTEMBER 2018

They had to search for the right space to perform in.

Jett explains: “When we knew we were going to be entering a dystopia, the production started looking outside the usual theatre locations. First off at warehouses, carpark buildings and the like. When these turned fruitless we landed on Te Whaea’s Basement Theatre. The space is large and open, and with its bare bones we can build from the ground up and have control over every aspect of the productions overall look.”

OTHELLO

BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Directed by Jett Ranchhod & Lilia Askew Mirrored Faces Productions Te Whaea: National Drama and Dance Centre 11 Hutchison St. Newtown Wed 5th Sept - Sat 15th Sept 8pm Sun 9th Sept 3:00pm TICKETS: $25/$20/$15 BOOKINGS: Eventfinda It's a fact. You do a play that's been around a while, it's most likely been written by a man.There's a hole in my history that isn't filled by the roles that were written for me. These days people creating theatre make efforts to address this by attempting to re-jig the original material.

I guess it's worth a try...

their promotional video, to include nuclear explosions and general holocaust. Since that time – surprise! - the world has been in constant conflict. The United Peace Corps is run by General Othello. As technology and ammunition are limited, the fight is being conducted by sword and steel.

Co-director Jett Hanchhod feels that this scenario works well with Shakespeare's text. The swords and soldiers of the original Othello's time will be authentic and, says Jett,“ modern sensibilities can be examined, focusing specifically on race, love and jealousy.”

The script has been cut to focus on these themes. And to allow the actors involved to ensure the strengths of their female characters. A challenge, in this story? I ask about their publicity assertion that the production will “ bring some grunt” to the female cast.

So, although feeling that perhaps Shakespeare gets more than his fair share of attention, I'm giving another one a go this month.

Something, Jett says, that's always bugged him and co-director Lilia Askew is that female characters in Shakespeare are either crazy, weak or witches. Yes. But Lilia and Jett feel that their production will address the issue. That they will show Desdemona as a strong and independent woman, that she isn't defined by fragility and will do everything in her power to survive. Okay.

Mirrored Faces have set their Othello in a dystopian 2145, after killing off a third of the world's population one hundred years earlier. This undefined incident seems, in

They also say, however, that racism and gender inequality are as prevalent in the world they have created for this production as it is today. So the more things change…?

Lighting designer Devon Nuku and costume designer Jodi Walker are ensuring that the dystopian setting is an immersive experience. Visual projection will be used to deliver important story- telling elements. Sound will also play an integral part, introducing location, creating atmosphere but also, Jett says, “ playing a larger character-based role.” Something to be heard rather than described, he suggests.

Mirrored Faces Productions understands that, for the most part, audiences enjoy the majority of their media and entertainment via cinema, television or through online streaming services. So despite the play's collapse of world order, there are some technologies about – recordings, PA announcements, texting and phone calls are used at times to convey story information and cover some minor characters.

I asked Jett what the major challenges have turned out to be for him, Lilia and the cast.

“Ensuring a unity between change, modernisation and staying true to the themes laid out by Shakespeare.

However, with the team of artists we have assembled we believe we are up to this challenge and look forward to audiences seeing what we have done to make this narrative an experience for everyone to enjoy.”

Interesting concept - enjoyable dystopia... Let's see it.

BY NICOLA PAULING

Nicola's grandmother was a member of the Salvation Army, who around mid last century was often involved in the process of the adoption of babies here. The Hopegoods, who lived in the UK, asked if Nicola's grandparents could help them find a baby.

What process has gone into devising this theatre experience? The three creators - Nisha, plus Julia Croft and Virginia Frankovitch - are the performers as well. They don't play characters, but rather “versions of themselves.”

In fact, baby Margery lived with Nicola's grandparents for a few months while the Hopegoods came out by boat to New Zealand. They took her back with them, and though the families kept in touch, Margery didn't return until four days before her death in 1992.

She remembers meeting Margery's brother when he came out to NZ. “But she was the legend, the star, the one we were all waiting to meet. When I say we, I mean my brother and sister. My grandparents and my parents had met her several times already on visits to the UK. They would always encourage her to visit, insist almost. As you can

Inspired by TV and film notable Jill Soloway's speech 'The Female Gaze' (well worth googling) this Medusa will consist of “deconstructing, smashing up and teasing the classic narrative to see what the female gaze could look like.”

Their work tends to be non-narrative, however. What we will get is a kind of theatre poem - “an ode to the goddess, a calling, an uprising, a destructive use of staging culminating in a multidisciplinary collage of deconstructed theatricality and live art.” Nothing will be delivered neatly to us on a platter. We'll need to trust and work with the performers through the experience. Though not explicitly involving audience participation, it will be “active” for the audience.“And,” adds Nisha, “surprise is our favourite element.”

Nicola Pauling had a special reason for creating this show.

It's based on the murder of thirty-one year-old Margery Hopegood in Hamilton in 1992. And for Nicola, it's part of her family's history.

“For many years, it was a story that niggled away at me, often in the shower, driving the car, it would come back to me and I would say … one day!”

And for something completely different - Medusa. One of the ultimate in female “baddies” - a monster with a head of snakes whose gaze can turn people into stone.

Her myth is the jumping-off point for what one of the creators, Nisha Madhan, describes as “an exploration of rage and reclamation of power.”

This new production wants it's audience to question power and the structures that hold power. Their aim is to find a way of reclaiming women's stories from within. To shift narrative points in stories in order gain back power from the male-centric voices that have dominated storytelling for so long.

It's NZ Theatre Month. So a good time for a NZ actor to perform a play she wrote which tells a NZ story.

Why did Margery come? Was she searching for her birth parents? Why was she in Hamiltion?

Zanetti Productions Circa Theatre Friday 21st Sept - Sat 6th Oct Tues - Sat 7:30pm, Sun 4:30pm TICKETS: $35/$25 BOOKINGS; Eventfinda

The expression “female gaze” Wikipedia also tells me, is a response to the above.

Presented by Best On Tap Director Kerryn Palmer Bats Theatre Wed 12th - Sat 15th Sept 8pm TICKETS: $20/$15/$14 BOOKINGS: www.bats.co.nz

So has this been a story she'd always wanted to tell on stage? Yes, Nicola agrees, it has.

CREATED BY NISHA MADHAN, JULIA CROFT & VIRGINIA FRANKOVITCH

The male gaze, Wikipedia tells me, is “the act of depicting women and the world, in the visual arts and literature, from a masculine, heterosexual perspective that presents and represents women as sexual objects for the pleasure of the male viewer.”

SHE DANCED ON A FRIDAY

Nicola grew up with the story and the ongoing friendship with the Hopegood family. She was twenty when Margery made her return trip to New Zealand. Spoke to her on the phone the day before she died. Margery was about to come and stay with Nicola's family.

MEDUSA

imagine, they felt a deep guilt for what happened to her when she finally did come.”

But despite the family connection, a lot of research was necessary for the script. Around seven months of it.

“Interviewing family - mine, hers and her birth family.

Along with police and city officials involved in her case.”

Obviously, she needed the support of the families to go ahead.

After that came about five months 0f writing. She wrote the first draft alone and then began working with Kerryn Palmer who agreed to be dramaturge on the project.

Dance. And it's from this hymn that the show's name has been taken - the significance of this becomes apparent during the play.

Hard work on stage? “Yes, it isn’t easy doing a solo show.

It’s physically hard and due to the nature of this work, emotionally draining. But it’s a challenge I’ve always wanted to take on, to experience. It’s like a theatrical marathon.”

She Danced on a Friday premiered in Hamilton last year.

Metres from the place where Margery was murdered.This, says Nicola, was a humbling experience.

For Nicola, collaboration is important in creation. “Kerryn was critical to guiding me through the second draft and subsequent edits. She then stepped into the role of director, along with Dr Sally Richards. It was a team effort getting the piece to what you see on stage now.”

“ We hadn’t anticipated the depth of feeling still present for many Hamiltonians. Audiences sat with us after each show, sometimes for up to an hour after each show as we talked about the performance, the history, their memories of that tragic event. They thanked us repeatedly for bringing the story to Hamilton first. We hadn’t expected that, the intimacy of the experience for us and for them.”

Nicola is also supported by musician Matthew Hutton, who has created the score for She Danced on a Friday. The music includes Margery's favourite hymn, The Lord of the

So, the story of a young woman's short life. A tragedy. A personal story. Part of our history. Good on you Nicola, for bringing it to the stage.

They have processes that find flexibility within the traditional roles of actor/director/creator that they feel most people adopt in the theatre industry. This resistance to hierarchical working structures is an attempt to articulate and refine a feminist methodology in theatre creation. They believe it to be integral to the creation of feminist work. The politics, says Nisha, are deeply embedded in the process, as well as in the form and content.

They also, she adds, tend to laugh a lot, panic, cry, drink beer and repeat themselves.

Definitely ambitious in aspiration, Medusa comes to us as part of the fourth Women's Theatre Festival at Circa Theatre this month. Celebrating women's voices, the publicity tells us. Or, in this case, their gaze.

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