People's theatre

Published on Monday 22 June 2009 21:32

Today, John Tiffany and Steven Hoggett, the directorial team behind Black Watch, open their most ambitious show to date, featuring 170 performers at six locations – and not a professional actor in sight. Susan Mansfield visits Thurso to find out more

SCENE 1: Gym Hall, Thurso High School

Two boys are on top of a table, fighting. They are throwing punches, ducking, swerving. But there's more to it than that. Their movements are elegant, fluid. It's less of a punch-up, more of a dance.

This is the kind of sophisticated physical theatre which characterised Black Watch, the National Theatre of Scotland hit which toured the world to sell-out crowds. But these are not professional actors, they are S3 pupils.

John Tiffany and Steven Hoggett, the directorial team behind both Black Watch and the NTS production of The Bacchae starring Alan Cumming, are now directing Transform Caithness, the latest in the NTS's series of large-scale community projects. Their show, Hunter, with over 170 performers and at least six locations, might just be their most ambitious show to date.

SCENE 2: Assembly Hall, Thurso High School

John Tiffany is rehearsing a scene with Dot Murphy and Joan Meyrick, members of the local amateur dramatics group, the Thurso Players. Johnny McKnight, the drama specialist on Hunter, is standing in for the third actress, pretending to be a middle-aged woman from Yorkshire.

Tiffany is on a mission to hack the scene back to under five minutes. In the last full week of rehearsals, the pressure is on to make sure the disparate elements come together in time.

"We've gone for a process that allows us to rehearse scenes in small bits over and over again so you can polish small gems," he says. "But the price we pay for that ambition is that we're not going to see the whole show until the dress rehearsal.

"It's right that I should be doing the most ambitious thing I've ever done in Thurso with community performers and over 100 kids. Do I look like I'm panicking? Aaaaarrrrgh!"

Meyrick (who, at 88, is the oldest member of the cast and, in her own words, "almost retired") finishes the scene with lines from Byron: "My soul neither deigns nor complains, though grief and passion there rebel..." Tiffany says her delivery is "heartbreakingly lovely". Then three people come in and start talking in loud voices about setting up a Powerpoint presentation for next period. His teeth clench and we exit stage left.

SCENE 3: St Peter's Episcopal Church, Thurso

High School pupils and members of Thurso Players rehearse the opening scene, a public meeting called because 17-year-old Parker Bell has gone missing. The audience will be formed into "search parties" which will visit locations in the town (currently being kept secret) by solving the riddles she left behind.

Much of the story of Hunter came directly from the S3 pupils. Rob Drummond, the writer on the project, sat in on workshops and where possible used the material they created. "This is a story they totally own," says Tiffany. "This is a story they want to tell. It's dark. It would be gorier if it was up to them.

"The treasure-hunt form has been bubbling in my head for a while. The idea of audiences becoming part of the show is, I think, where theatre is going. We want people to believe this story is happening right now, in the town."

But, as with all theatre, the way to make a story come alive is through painstaking, repetitive rehearsing. Tiffany runs the scene over and over, being encouraging, introducing gradual refinements. After two hours, everyone is noticeably more assured, and Tiffany is satisfied: "It's scary, isn't it?" he grins. "It's quite good."

SCENE 4, Outside Thurso library

Movement specialist Eddie Kay is rehearsing parcour moves with five pupils. Passers-by stare as they run, jump and vault over one another. Kay has been in Thurso for two months working with the young people. It was hard going at first. "They don't have drama or dance in school and a lot of them don't like PE. They were pretty reluctant to get involved." But things have changed. After being warned to expect no more than 30 pupils, the NTS team have seen numbers plateau at 105.

Stage manager Gary Morgan arrives with two wheelie bins and Kay asks a lad called Ryan to get into a bin and crouch down out of sight – "It's OK, we've cleaned them out big time!" – then hoist himself out on to the wall above.

The parcour is one of the scenes the audience will witness as they move from one location to another. Hoggett says: "I like the idea that people might not know whether something is part of the play or not. As soon as we've given something that's created by us between two venues, people start looking for the theatrical around them."

SCENE 5, Gym Hall, Thurso High School

John Tiffany is sitting on a bench, putting the guides through their paces. As Hunter is a promenade performance, the guides who will accompany each audience group have a crucial role.

Josh is one who is feeling the pressure. His face contorts as his lines desert him. He gets "five minutes with the script".

Five minutes later, he's back on, but has his script stuffed down the front of his T-shirt just in case. Tiffany runs the length of the hall and wrestles it from him, laughing. They run the scene; it's shaky, but he knows it. Once more and he's starting to sound confident.

Tiffany is by turns cajoling and encouraging. As guides, he explains, they must be ready to deal with any question the audience throws at them.

And they must be professional: no giggling when they spot their friends or fidgeting when waiting for their audience.

The bell rings and the kids exit. JT looks around at the NTS team. "OK, who's up for school dinners?"

SCENE 6: A corridor, Thurso High School

Crisis talks. Two girls due to rehearse an important scene have not turned up. At this late stage, Tiffany and Rob Drummond must decide whether to re-write the scene for a smaller group or give them one more chance.

Tiffany sighs. "Now I realise the frustration of teaching, you think you've got somewhere with somebody and then they disappear. We've seen too many movies like Dead Poets Society." Meanwhile, the rest of the group shamble into the gym hall, where Hoggett is ready with a pep talk. "You have to get better than this, we've lost ten minutes and we haven't even done the register. Is there any reason why you can't be ready on time?"

SCENE 7: The Thurso Club

Hoggett and Eddie Kay are line-dancing with the Kaithness Kickers, one of the community groups who feature in Hunter, doing a decent job of a fiendishly fast dance called The Witches Brew.

When Hoggett comes off, puffing, I say: "I bet never in all your professional life did you think you'd end up line-dancing in Thurso?" He smiles. "No, and it's all the richer for it."

The next number is a Country Barn Dance, to (somewhat surprisingly) Pixie Lott's number-one single, Mama Do. Everyone needs a partner and they're one down. Oh dear... I'm propelled on to the floor by a friendly woman called Helen. A few circuits later I'm dancing with Hoggett. "I bet," he grins, "never in all your professional life..." Touch.

SCENE 8: An undisclosed location in Thurso

The electronic band rehearsed by music director Brian Docherty is plugged in and ready to go. Sixty-six young people are doing a dance routine that Hoggett has taught them. They're fluent, but he's still pushing them: "I need at least 30 per cent more energy, give it some welly!"

"That's a routine we would ask the Black Watch boys to have done, it's that complex and sustained," says Tiffany, watching. And, for the first time, the sheer numbers involved are having a positive impact. Initially, it was about crowd management, now it's starting to look impressive. Tiffany says: "Watching that I thought: 'Thank god we've got that many'. We need that many kids. We've never had a sequence that dramatic. And they've worked their arses off and they're good."

&#149 Hunter will be performed to local audiences in Thurso today, tomorrow and Thursday

AMATEUR AMBITION

THIS may not be Black Watch or The Bacchae, but John Tiffany and Steven Hoggett are still expecting the highest professional standards. "Just because they've never worked professionally doesn't mean the piece shouldn't be as ambitious as anything we would make with professional actors," Tiffany says.

"I truly believe it has to be ambitious. When you tell a story that you know is having an effect on the audience, that for me is the transforming thing.

"Steven and I share a real passion and belief in work like this because we grew up together in Huddersfield where we had no access to professional theatre. We're not trying to turn them all into Billy Elliots, but we know how being involved in something you're proud of can give you self-esteem."

Ken Murphy, the depute headteacher at Thurso High School, has been impressed by the effect the show has had. "Last Friday was an in-service training day for teachers, but they got 52 out of 66 kids turning up for rehearsals on a nice day when they didn't have to be at school.

"It has certainly engaged them and caught their imagination, and part of that is because these are top-notch professionals at the top of their game. I think it has transformed their perception of themselves."

Tiffany says: "It's not us who have done the transforming, it's them."

And Hoggett adds: "The challenge was set and they rose to it."