The birth of Retold Theatre

Sitting in a room with 23 or so other individuals each with their own artistic morals, principles and visions and being told to choose between two varying, but vague ideas was both an intimidating and challenging way to begin this module. The room became split between political theatre, and visual theatre. Two broad ideas of which you had to choose which appealed more. To be honest neither appeals to me, and my choice came down to me simply being put off by the idea of doing Political theatre more than I was at doing visual theatre. I didn’t really know what they meant by visual, I had originally hoped it meant visual in a more basic sense. That we would create visual theatre with our bodies, and it would be a very experimental performance. But the ideas were based more in spectacle, and though not originally too excited by the proposal I came round to it, and the idea of adapting fairy tales. Fairy tales have that grand appeal to them, and the adaptability of the work is obvious. This is our groups aim, adaptation. To take the stories you know and retell them. Hence a name was born with this, Retold theatre. Having toyed with the idea of devising we had chosen to instead adapt Carol Ann Duffy’s Grimm Tales, I was against this at the time, and I voiced this opinion. I believed that the writing of these adaptations did not fit with our groups aim, to retell stories in a unique way. However a majority of the group were in favour of Grimm Tales, and considering this I stated that I would support the project despite my misgivings. I was later appointed as writer for the group, and I attempted to create a beginning and ending for the piece, a framing device for the stories to be set in. The rehearsals for Grimm Tales were a struggle with opinions on what the theatre we were creating should be differing. These differing goals led to a fracture in the tone, and a complete mess to be honest. I do not exclude myself from the debacle that became Grimm Tales, the framing device I wrote was an attempt to mirror the style of the play and ended up feeling like a piece of children’s theatre. I was disappointed with my input, and we all felt demoralised. A change was needed. So we have sat down and agreed unanimously that we want to choose a different play. We have abandoned the fairy tale idea entirely, due to frustration with the concept, and discussed what we want from our theatre company as individuals. What direction do we want to take the company in? We feel we can re adapt existing dramatic works, popular one’s, perhaps those at which people feel are cliche and revive them. Or retell them if you will. Finally it came down to two plays, Cagebirds by David Campton, or Road by Jim Cartwright. I was favorable for Road, being a keen reader of Jim Cartwright, and convinced that the play could be adapted to fit our purpose. However again the majority of the group were favorable for a different option. I was not as disheartened as I was with Carol Ann Duffy’s Grimm Tales, as I could see the positives of choosing Cagebirds, and the play fits our aspirations of creating spectacle. Creating the cage, and bringing these characters to life seems to genuinely excite us all as a group, and I feel like I have my ambition to approach the project back.