NTS Transform Caithness 2

2 Jun 2009 in Dance & Drama, Highland

The Hunters are Coming

KENNY MATHIESON catches up with progress in Thurso

DRAMA practitioner Johnny McKnight is covered in sweat by the time he has led a gym full of third year pupils in Thurso High School through a very active warm-up routine. It is one they have grown used to in the course of the previous four weeks, and while there are groans and grimaces aplenty, there are also lots of smiles, laughter and some lusty singing along to the pounding dance music.

Enthusiasm does not seem in short supply in this group, although McKnight and composer Brian Docherty are happy to admit that it took a little time to start to break down the initial suspicion that greeted their efforts. That reluctance gradually broke down, and the project of introducing the kids to the concept of creating a new work of theatre from scratch in less than two months is taking definite shape.

“So far it’s been a matter of building up their confidence – some of them have never done any drama or movement of this kind before, so the work has been very much skills-based and confidence building, and us getting to know the young people and them getting to know us,” McKnight said.

Transform Thurso: LtoR: Back: Caitlin Sinclair, Shannon Fulton, Hannah Paterson, Johnny McKnight. Front: Joanna Harper, Kate MacNicol

“They have to discover whether it is actually for them or not, because not everyone is going to want to do it, so it’s been largely prep so far, and now we start to put together the ideas that have come from them on the shape of the show. We are not here to do a youth theatre project, and the kids have responded to that challenge. They think that is cool. They want it to be dark and a bit weird and a bit edgy.”

While the project is taking shape, it is a complex shape, and much of the detail remains fairly provisional. They have been ambitious from the outset in what they are trying to achieve, and that is reflected in the complicated logistics that must come together on the three nights of performances at the end of June.

Consider the elements. The show, entitled Hunter, will take place in several venues (probably six) around Thurso. The audience will be divided into small groups, and each group will see the events of the story – hinging around the disappearance of a woman – in a different order, before coming together for the final denouement.

The cast includes not only the third year group from Thurso High, but also a group of fifth and sixth year drama students who will join in once their exams are over.
And there is a considerable representation of community groups as well, including the Ormlie Youth Drama Group, the Ormlie Young Mother’s Group, the Caithness Kickers (a local line dancing group), a Gaelic Choir from Melvich, and the Thurso Players, an amateur drama group ranging in age from around 10 to 92, as well as a smattering of individuals who responded to the community evening held earlier in June.

The idea of staging the show as a kind of treasure hunt has been in place from early on. McKnight, Docherty, writer Rob Drummond and movement specialist Eddie Kay will be joined in Thurso by the show’s co-directors, John Tiffany and Steven Hoggett, from early June, but their input has already substantially guided the shape of the emerging work.

“Logistics is a huge factor,” McKnight explained, “in terms of how we move people from place to place and how they experience the story. We will have over 120 participants, so we have scope to do lots of things, including perhaps little things going on in the street as you move around the venues and so on – there are lots of possibilities.

“It is hugely ambitious, and that is very exciting for us as a team as well. It is going to challenge us as theatre-makers as well as the local people involved, and we are all in the same boat – we are trying to make something that we don’t have a blueprint for, and they are contributing their own ideas.”

The preparatory stage of the process is now almost over, and the serious building of the final show can begin. Most of their work so far has been in the school, but some workshops have taken place with the community groups, and that process is set to accelerate from early June.

“One of the problems has been just how busy all these groups are,” Brian Docherty explained. “The Gaelic Choir in particular have lots of gigs and competitions, and we actually shifted the dates of the shows slightly to allow them to take part.

“There have been a lot of different strands going into building the story, and we feed all these ideas to Rob Drummond, and everyone gets to see them and have an input, but what we ultimately have to do is build some sort of dramatic form that will take us through the piece.

“We can have a lot of red herrings and distractions as well. We have to be clever with it – we don’t want people getting halfway round and thinking, right I’ve got this sussed, but at the same time it can’t be so weird or disjointed that they end up not really caring what happens.”

Although producer Julie Brown and the team face a large logistic challenge, McKnight feels that it may turn out to be easier in some ways to break it down into its component groups for the various venues, rather than trying to organise a group of over 100 participants in a single theatre.

The problem of maintaining school routines has also been a test. On the day I visited, their access to the kids had been cut to allow them to attend classes in the afternoon, a response to concerns from teachers that they were missing too much regular school work at this stage.

That is simply the kind of situation they have to deal with in the course of a Transform, and in general the school has been enthusiastic about participation. Deputy Head Ken Murphy is a particularly keen supporter of it, but hadn’t envisaged being involved until he revealed that he was a member of the Thurso Players. There was no escape after that – a tailor-made role has been found for him.

The pace of development should now pick up significantly as the various participants become fully involved and it starts to take shape. Pulling it all together will provide a stiff challenge, but it is one that all concerned are clearly relishing.

The performances of Hunter will take place in various venues (some still to be confirmed) around Thurso on 23, 24 and 25 June.