We sat down with some of our brilliant cast and crew prior to our production of "Reading Gaol" which starts next week! Next Up is Artistic Director David Brady on what you can expect from Reading Gaol, and some of the elements of putting the show together...
Two shows in 6 weeks is a bit mad, isn’t it? For those of you who joined us for Earnest, we;'re looking forward to welcoming you back, and if you’re new, hello and we're looking forward welcoming you to the Lion and Unicorn!
Reading Gaol is the climax of our 2017 look at the work of Oscar Wilde and it’s definitely been a creative challenge for us. I sometimes refer to it as a “grand experiment” and some respects that’s exactly what it is - trying some new ideas, concepts and performance styles that are new to us. Whereas Earnest is a much more “black and white” satirical piece of comedy, Reading Gaol has so many more shades of grey and we hope to be able to challenge your “moral compass” a little bit. We've also experimented with different types of storytelling and from what's coming out in rehearsals, RG has a much stronger "physical theatre" feel to it, which has been really interesting to explore more.
From a writing perspective, it's been really great to producing our "own" work again - and the five monologues you'll see on stage really capture our point of view, and its been brilliant to be able to use Oscar Wilde's beautiful words as a framing mechanism to be able to tell our stories, which pay homage to the men and characters that inhabit Reading Gaol, but also respond to the original material in more of a contemporary style. We've got all the bases covered, I think, from an emotional gut punch to some really dark humour in some of the pieces. We're excited for you to see it!
As is usual before a show, our thanks, firstly to our stellar group of boys: James Bowen, Ross, Myles, Jonathon and James Baxter-Derrington who’ve not only worked so hard to bring these brand new characters to life, but also kept us laughing through rehearsals and made this experience a joy. (Even if the hardest challenge has been getting them to STOP CORPSEING IN REHEARSALS!)
Again. we could do this without a brilliant production team, and we have one of the best in Erin, Harriet and Cat - Proforça is driven by the hard work, dedication and belief of a brilliant team of these fantastically talented, strong and creative women and their enthusiasm, passion and talent knows no limits. We are not worthy.
Finally a big cheers to our audience for coming back to see us again, particularly for something a little bit different and experimental. Thanks for all your support in so many ways. Look out for some exciting news about next year and we hope to see you in March 2018.
Enjoy the show, it’s what we did for love.
David X
David is the Artistic Director of Proforca Theatre Company and the Director of "Reading Gaol" which starts this week. Watch out for the Stan Lee style cameo at the start of the show. You can follow Proforca on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @ProforcaTheatre and via our website at www.proforca.co.uk.
"Reading Gaol" is being performed on November 2nd - 4th 2017 at the Lion and Unicorn Theatre. Tickets are available now and can be found at our website at www.proforca.co.uk/boxoffice or via www.lionandunicorntheatre.co.uk