Michael Cox speaks with Magnetic North's artistic director Nicholas Bone about their latest production.
What is it that makes us human? What really separates us from other animals? Why do humans find strangeness and otherness so threatening? Director Nicholas Bone has actively asked these questions through Magnetic North’s latest production, Wild Life.
Bone became fascinated by the story of Victor, the famed ‘wolf boy of Aveyron’ found living in the wild in the south of France in 1800, when, at around the age of 16 or 17, he saw a film depiction of the story. The tale and images associated with it ingrained themselves in his memory. “What brought me back to it was finding a book about feral children in a bookshop about five years ago.” Research led him to not only find many stories featuring Victor but also other children, including the famous American ‘wild child’ Helen Keller.
The research led him to the idea of creating a modern day Victor. In embarking on the production, he assembled an impressive team. He asked noted playwright Pamela Carter to write the script, thinking that the concept would appeal to her. Wanting to create an original experience, Bone also approached visual artists Sans facon to design the production, hoping that they would “bring a different feel to the production.”
The result is a production that takes an innovative, if not challenging, look at parenthood. When asked if he sees parallels between the play’s parents (Dave and Daisy) and parents in real life, Bone says, “While Victor is obviously a more extreme case than most parents encounter, I think it is a shock to discover that lots of things are innate and instinctive, but that doesn’t mean they’re all necessarily good things. As a parent you learn very quickly that it is not as easy as you think it should be – you might read in a book that if you do X then Y will happen, try it, and then discover that this is either a) not true of your child, b) true, but only once and then you have to find another solution etc etc. In the play, Daisy has a somewhat romantic idea of how child rearing should be done but discovers that good intentions are not enough and discovers what I suspect most parents discover which is that anger is often close to the surface and you have to work very hard not to allow it out.”
As the production gears up for its tour, Bone says that the biggest surprise he’s found is how funny the play actually is. “The play is very funny, but in quite a dark way, and I’m fascinated to see whether people laugh and, if so, how they laugh. There’s quite a dark edge to the play, so it’s a fine balance to achieve.”
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