Elinor Randle jogs down London Road with the effortless nature that makes you wonder if she wasn’t so immersed and integral to Liverpool theatre, would she have been one of Britain’s great Olympic hopes in a long distance stamina event. That energy, the raw endurance has certainly seen her through show after show and with Tmesis Theatre, those shows just get more and more endearing and offer something scintillatingly unique to the Liverpool culture scene.
That’s Amore, on at the Unity Theatre from the 28th to the 31st January, is the latest production from Tmesis Theatre and takes a look aspects of love, the frightened mewling but very sincere creature that lives within us all. Whilst Ms. Randle is not on stage for this production, the cast have benefited hugely from her knowledge and tremendous skill as a performer, notably in the outstanding solo show Wolf Red, as she directs the company back in their natural home of the much loved theatre.
Having ran down London Road to save me trying to stagger up the hill, it’s only right that I offer the director a cup of tea but true to the nature of her work ethic, she delves straight into the work behind That’s Amore and as I listen, the thought of the art of love crosses my mind.
This must feel like a very strange change in direction, not being the only person on stage in this particular performance?
ER: “Yes, especially after doing a solo show – Wolf Red – but it’s because of the intensity and pressure of that process, and not being able to see it from the outside, that I’m really happy to not be onstage now for this show. Wolf Red had quite a few different ‘outside eyes’ and it’s refreshing to not have to invite an outside director in and to take the challenge myself. I have a great creative team around me for That’s Amore, a great creative partner in writer Chris Fittock, and very talented performers, we create the piece together, and I find it exciting to be able to see and mold the whole picture”
Wolf Red was one of the most sensational pieces of performances I’d ever seen in my life, it was a tremendous piece. Does the process excite you regarding the direction, seeing it from a different angle? Does it excite you as much as Wolf Red did?
ER: “Yes, in a different way. I think it excites me more because I can see it, I enjoy thinking on the spot, giving guidance and seeing and finding ways of getting the right qualities out of the performers, and out of the team. Wolf Red was challenging, I loved performing it and I still will perform it, but I’m happy to take a break from performing. I feel more excited to direct, because it’s a stage in my life and career, after ten years of making pieces where we’ve always needed external ‘outside eyes’ that I want to be able to see it, equally as nerve-wracking as you always have doubts, but the right time for a different challenge. It’s great to watch rehearsals and feel excited about what’s being created.”
It’s almost like thinking with two sides of the brain because you’re trying to see it from your wonderful cast’s point of view and obviously from your own point of view. With your cast especially, it must install a modicum or large chunk of faith in you to steer them through the process?
ER: “Yes, we made a ‘work in progress’ about a year ago, that process was very good but it was the first time for me and for the performers, so we had to get to know each other and there’s always fear and vulnerability from both sides. In the first part of the process, myself and the writer, Chris, had the piece in our heads, and the performers were improvising, not really knowing fully where things were going. Now we all have the knowledge, after performing a work in progress that people responded really well to, what we are trying to achieve and I feel like I’m letting everyone in more now to the process, and because of that, we are more like a company creating together. I think we all feel more confident and it’s been brilliant to start rehearsals again, and everyone is giving a lot of themselves to create this piece”
That’s it really, isn’t it? That’s what’s acting or directing or any art must surely be about – love? I don’t know if that’s what you’d say?
ER: “I think so yeah, it can often feel a vulnerable position, as I care about the work and the piece so much, and if they don’t or they don’t take or trust what I give them, then the creativity doesn’t happen, and this time, I can’t rely on myself onstage, so a lot of the time is spent in creating the right conditions for them to improvise and create. The nature of the type of physical theatre I create, means it’s sometimes difficult as I always want the movement or emotion to come from a real place, and it’s trying to find that genuine place even if you are creating comedy or emotional scene that’s sometimes hard. I wake up in the morning and if my energy isn’t right then it won’t happen. I’m constantly thinking of ways, exercises or games that will steer the actors in the right way or create the right energy to then create the right scene, tone or emotion.”
Obviously I can talk about energy in the wonderful Unity Theatre, which almost seems to be like a second home almost to you and has boundless energy as well, do you find that in the theatre as opposed to other theatres around Liverpool?
ER: “Yes, it’s a home, it’s where we’ve performed all our pieces, apart from one which we put on at The Everyman. They give us time before the premiere to build and experiment with the technical elements of the piece, which is really important for a show like this- all elements, the design, music, lights, projections have to work together and are equally as important as the content of the piece. Also to have five performances is brilliant, playing to a home crowd and really having the opportunity to let the show grow before we start the tour. The pieces always develop through performance, and it will be nice and different, as I can watch now, and fine tune after each one. We’ve had fantastic support from Graeme Phillips who is leaving this year which is really sad, he instigated the commissioning of this piece, so it feels good to do this show in his final season as part of his legacy”
It seems that the cast have wholeheartedly embraced the whole process of the love that you are trying to install, how do you think they’ll be seen by the audiences, who are notoriously very kind to performers as long as they give their best?
ER: “After the work in progress, it was one thing that people commented on, that they were all great performers and they are all very different, with different unique qualities, which I think is important. You have to delve into your own experiences in order to explore what is obviously universal to everyone, ‘romantic love’. With this kind of physical style, you really go into it in a completely different way with your whole body and all your emotions, and this is the first time these performers have all worked together. For me, it’s about creating those conditions where almost immediately, two people who have just met have to be convincingly, completely and utterly in love. It’s amazing how quickly that can happen, in the process, and in real life! The performers really throw themselves into a piece which is difficult to perform because of the continuous changing of state, emotion, situation of character in a fast paced collage of romantic love and all that comes with it.”
It’s a great mirror, reflecting what can happen in real life. Two people who have never met before meeting over a cup of tea or at a bar can fall instantly in love.
ER: “Exactly! We did a lot of research into the science of romantic love, and the anthropological side of things and it is amazing how much can happen in just a glance or a meeting of two people’s eyes. We’ve played around a lot with primeval states and then to how culture influences our romantic selves, how much when we are being ‘romantic’ are we subconsciously enacting a scene we’ve seen before in a film? We might really be in the moment but we’re re-creating what we think the moment should be like. Looking at our primal selves, and what’s innate in us, it’s fascinating that body language is universal, that women in the amazon with no cultural references, flirt with exactly the same body language as western women who’ve overdosed on rom-coms. It was interesting that in the first rehearsals Chris and I were quite cynical but almost ‘fell in love’ with the love the performers were portraying, as they are so infectiously joyous.”
This is one of my arguments, people say that if you love someone you must fancy them, no you just love them for who and what they are and what they do.
ER: “Yes I’m sure that’s true. We are exploring romantic love in this piece, which of course has so many sides and complexities. We try and explore as much as we can in an hour- especially emotionally through physicality, and Chris Fittock, the writer who is there throughout the whole process, has written some fantastic text, where a voice gives us a more scientific, cynical or philosophical comment on romantic love. There will be, I’m sure, something that will strike a chord with everyone who watches it in some way, both humorously and emotionally”
That’s Amore is on at the Unity Theatre from Wednesday 28th January to Saturday 31st January.
Ian D. Hall