Michael Cox: Okay, first the big one: Why do the Festival?
Ed Robson: Believe it or not, Cumbernauld Theatre had never been to the festival! The Company has been going 33 years and yet had never had the opportunity to make a festival show. The spirit of the Company is one of creative adventure. We're always looking to see how we can make new work, and the Festival seemed like an ideal opportunity for this Company to create something a little bit different.
MC: Was there a reason behind going to Remarkable Arts?
ER: We wanted to go to Remarkable because it’s gathering a real energy and commitment to unusual work, and to supporting and developing Scottish theatre. There's a broad range of work at Hill Street and we felt that our production would fit in perfectly with the atmosphere and the energy driving Remarkable Arts. We're playing in a small 80-seater, which is ideal for our production. [It’s] a close, almost claustrophobic atmosphere which suits the theme of our show perfectly. They're also great people. And we value that.
MC: Could you tell me about the play?
ER: Sure. Well, it’s all about witness protection. Of course, this is a well-worn theme for Hollywood movies - witnesses almost inevitably end up living in Malibu beach houses being guarded by Bruce Willis types. Of course, in the UK, you're much more likely to end up in a caravan in Arbroath.
That’s a truth of witness protection - it isn't like winning the lottery. It’s often more like a life sentence for people who've given evidence. It’s a hidden away, closed, secretive system that by its nature is impossible to penetrate. It’s fascinating, troubling, surreal and completely at odds with our current Wikipedia social trend for 'public information'.
Our production has developed into a dark, sometimes surreal, sometimes black comic show in which witness protection is more akin to a phantasmagorical event than a legal process! In the best style of the European Absurdist, it presents an imagined world in which the transformation of witnesses from real to fake is a Kafkaesque nightmare.
MC: Ed, as it's you, I'm guessing this is devised?
ER: You surmise correctly.
MC: How much of this was created before you got into rehearsal?
ER: You know me: I like a challenge. Apart from the title and the [blurb], absolutely nothing was devised pre-rehearsal.
I wanted to explore whether it was possible to work entirely from scratch with 3 actors to create a piece of theatre: Collective ideas, utterly collective decision making. No director-led decisions, everything done by consensus exploration.
This approach isn't easy. [It] hasn't been easy. It requires a real generosity of spirit from everyone involved, a lot of time spent investigating why something is dramatically interesting and where that might take our production, and ultimately an ability to let ideas go no matter how much one person might be committed to them.
The journey of the play itself, in its creation and delivery through devising, has meant its changed course fairly regularly, as new discoveries or, new ideas emerge. In many ways, it’s the key to this particular show: it’s grown and developed from one simple idea into a more complicated story and structure as we've grown in confidence with the material.
MC: Have there been any surprises or difficulties you hadn’t planned for?
ER: We're working with some new ideas for ambient surround sound effects, unusual uses of projection and one or two visual effects alongside the story. Bringing these different elements together has been trickier and more time consuming than I at first thought.
MC: What's the difference between making theatre for Cumbernauld and making it for the Festival?
ER: The million dollar question. It’s fair to say that all theatres know their audience well. And, rightly, we make work there that we know will both engage and challenge our audience.
The festival is different. You know a lot less about the audience, and that’s a liberating fact. The audience could, should, will be composed entirely different to that of our home base. As a result, we're able to make work that is, perhaps, able to take slightly more risks, and that is always a good thing! It’s also a challenge to us, a creative challenge, to discover what's possible within the limitations of the fringe.
You could, of course, do the same thing here - but the festival represents a chance to try out new ideas in the spirit of experimentation and discovery. That’s its purpose, its original spirit: The new, the unusual. It’s great to take the opportunity to be part of that.
Viewless performs at the Hill Street Theatre through Remarkable Arts, 5-29 August at 18:30.
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