Michael Cox: First, there seems to be a bit of confusion about Saturday Night and its relationship with your previous production, Interiors. Can you clarify that?
Matthew Lenton: It's not a sequel, but a further exploration of that world we discovered - a world behind glass - when creating Interiors. We were fascinated by what we had discovered and wanted to explore that form and the world behind glass more.
MC: The press release says that this has been influenced by the work of photographer Gregory Crewdson. Was there a picture in particular, or a certain style, that pulled at you?
ML: I find his photographs very atmospheric. They allow the viewer to dream their own events onto the image they see. This isn't only applicable to Gregory Crewdson, but to a number of other photographers and arguably photography in general. I think that Crewdson's work embodies this idea, of being able to dream one's own dreams onto an image, particularly well.
When we look at a photograph, we often read deeply into a single image, imagining the story the photograph tells. We bring our imagination to bear on the photograph. Who are the protagonists? What are they doing there? Is the relationship between them friendly or dangerous? There is a mystery, which we have to solve. We are really active ‘voyeurs’. When that picture starts moving, as it does in a film or a television programme, the component parts and their relationship to each other become less significant. No longer, it seems, are we being asked to read our own meaning into a picture. Rather, we are waiting to be shown what the picture will reveal.
MC: Can you tell me a bit about the production’s development?
ML: The development in Porto was about bringing a diverse company of actors together and getting them to work in a very particular and difficult way. It was about getting to know each other as a company and about beginning to share a theatrical language, exploring form and the possibilities of form. Much less time was spent exploring material.
MC: What is it about the 'visual' that interests, or inspires, you?
ML: I just like being able to dream my own dreams into what I see. I don't like being told everything or having everything explained to me.
Saturday Night tours Scotland until October 30.
RSS