Magical Mystery Tour

KENNY MATHIESON finds preparations going into overdrive in Thurso

THE NTS Creative Team have set a hugely ambitious target for the Transform Caithness project. With two weeks to go, they are working with over 160 participants drawn from local schools (mainly Thurso High School, where the project is based, but also primary pupils) and community groups to create a show that will take place in six different venues around Thurso.

John Tiffany and Steven Hoggett (who worked with John on the acclaimed Black Watch and The Bacchae for NTS), the joint directors of the project, have sworn me to secrecy on what those venues will be, but I can say that audiences will be asked to meet at St Peters Episcopal Church in the centre of town before setting off on a search to find out what has happened to a 17-year-girl who has mysteriously disappeared.

John Tiffany (Photo - Christopher Bowen)

“We couldn’t find a venue big enough to do one show,” Tiffany explained, “so we started to think about doing it in different venues and sending the audience on a treasure hunt of sorts, which is when the title Hunter came up. It has developed from that core, and we have basically let the kids create the story from there.

“Doing a Transform has been an ambition of mine since they appeared on the NTS roster, but until now I haven’t had the time.” Tiffany, the Associate Dircetor – New Work at the NTS, added. “When Caithness came up as a possibility I was keen. I love it up here – I remember directing a Henry Adams play when I was at the Traverse, and spending quite a bit of time here in Thurso. I know George Gunn very well, too.

“Talking socially to Steven about it he said he would love to do it as well. He had been working with Eddie Kay in Frantic Assembly, and I had been talking to Johnny McKnight about doing something anyway. He is our secret weapon – the kids adore him.”

Progress has clearly been rapid since my last visit in late May. Following a general warm-up, Hoggett and Kay work on specific movement routines for the show in the gym with different groups of kids, while in the assembly hall McKnight and Tiffany are doing the same thing with the drama performers.

Group sizes in drama today vary from five for a scene involving a sèance to three times that number. In the gym, Hoggett and Kay are working the movement groups hard in physical terms, and Eddie pushes them to give their utmost to it: “the more energy you give it the better it looks,” he tells them.

In the assembly hall, Johnny McKnight is working with the actors not just on delivering their lines and actions, but also on the motivations of the characters they play. He quizzes them constantly on why their particular character is saying what they say or reacting as they do, building up the full character behind the outward action.

While there is a clear plan and a definite script in place, aspects of the developing show are also in a fluid state. McKnight and Tiffany work out a whole new sequence with the larger of their groups, allowing the kids themselves to come up with lines in a devising process, and only then committing them to paper as part of the finished script.

The kids throw themselves into this with real enthusiasm, something that has surprised many of their teachers. It is a commitment that Tiffany has welcomed throughout the process.

“What’s been overwhelming is the way the kids are up for it. We thought we might end up with 30 maximum, and in fact we have over 100, and it’s not a skive for them by any means. We work them hard, both physically and in terms of things like learning lines, and they are really up for it.

“I think the key is that they feel it is their project, and they want to be proud of it. I think it’s also important that we tell a story, and that they then see an audience receive that story and feel like actors or storytellers or musicians.”

In the final movement session of the day, Hoggett and Kay take four kids to an external location near the riverside to work on one of a number of routines that the audience will encounter as they walk between venues.

Again, nothing has been prepared in advance for this segment, but they work it out on the spot, creating a movement sequence to fit the location, overlooked by a curious audience of mums picking up their children from the nearby primary school.

“We are just looking to get the physical moves established today,” Hoggett explains, “and once they are comfortable with that we will work a bit more on characterisation and on things like flirtation and they way they look at each other and so on.”

On the nights of the actual shows, the audience which has assembled at St Peters will be spilt into different groups, and will be guided around the venues (also by participating pupils) before all coming together again in the final location. Each venue will host a short segment of the play, and each group will experience them in a different sequence, piecing together clues that will only finally unravel in the last venue.

The guides have an important job on the night, and may need to improvise material if they are required to hold their group for a few minutes. The logistics of the show are daunting, with the community groups – including the Ormlie Youth Drama Group, the Ormlie Young Mother’s Group, the Kaithness Kickers (a local line dancing group), Melvich Gaelic Choir and the Thurso Players – also requiring both rehearsal sessions and integration into the shows.

Room A3 at Thurso High School is the nerve centre of this complex operation, presided over by producer Julie Brown, who is also Johnny McKnight’s co-conspirator in their Random Accomplice company in Glasgow. A huge white board on the wall chronicles who is doing what and all the comings and goings, but she admits that while detailed advance planning is essential, they also have to respond to continual change and new – often unexpected – developments.

“We try to plan ahead as far as we can, but inevitably it changes on a day-to-day basis and we have to react to that. So it’s a case of adapting to the changes but keeping an eye on what is coming up. Things are happening all the time, and there are still people coming into the process even at this stage. Thank heavens for white boards …

“It’s a wee bit of a change from working on a one man show! The size and diversity of the cast has been a huge challenge in trying to schedule rehearsals and so on. The number of venues involved is a logistic challenge as well, in terms of things liking getting in to rehearse without disrupting what is already going on there.”

There is clearly a growing sense of excitement about the project as it moves into its final stages. No one is in any doubt about the amount of work still to be done, but everyone is determined that the show will make a real impact.

“At the last count we had 165 performers,” John Tiffany said. “Am I mad?”

We agree he probably is, but that has never deterred him before.

“The nice thing is that nobody is going to ignore it … Even if people don’t want to come and see it, they will definitely know it is happening! We are basically going to take over Thurso, and the audience are going to have a great time walking round the town. They will come across things happening on the way to the venues that we have set up, and they will see other things that we haven’t, and they won’t be quite sure –†is it them or isn’t it?”

This will be a friendly invasion, though, and Julie Brown paid tribute to the level of co-operation they had received from the locals.

“We have been made to feel very welcome in Thurso. In fact, it’s been a wee bit overwhelming at times. There is a real sense developing that this project belongs to everyone involved in it, and that is really nice.”

The performances of Hunter will take place in various venues in Thurso on 23, 24 and 25 June. Tickets are free but limited, and are available from Caithness Horizons at the Town Hall (01847 896508), or from www.thebooth.co.uk (£1 booking fee applies)

© Kenny Mathieson, 2009

Links

• National Theatre of Scotland

• NTS Learn

• Thurso High School

Associated Page

• HI-Arts Feature May 09 – Transform Caithness

• HI-Arts Feature June 09 – Transform Caithness 2

• HI-Arts Feature May 09 – Transfrom Moray

• HI-Arts Feature June 09 – Transfrom Moray 2

• HI-Arts Review – Transform Moray