Anyway, the show sounds good and Captain Theatre will be missed. Maybe even mourned. I realise the immense danger of sounding sycophantic here, but I think even if you'd never met Narayani and Hanna you'd have to acknowledge that their plays have been among the most exciting and professional in Durham. Even Your Mum would agree. Ka-boom tish.

Anyway, the show sounds good and Captain Theatre will be missed. Maybe even mourned. I realise the immense danger of sounding sycophantic here, but I think even if you'd never met Narayani and Hanna you'd have to acknowledge that their plays have been among the most exciting and professional in Durham. Even Your Mum would agree. Ka-boom tish.

Anyway, the show sounds good and Captain Theatre will be missed. Maybe even mourned. I realise the immense danger of sounding sycophantic here, but I think even if you'd never met Narayani and Hanna you'd have to acknowledge that their plays have been among the most exciting and professional in Durham. Even Your Mum would agree. Ka-boom tish.

Like all directors I make mistakes; gambles don’t always pay off. However I stand by my creatures as a smart and enjoyable aspect of this production.  Although I have the deepest respect from Giles for taking on such a huge part, I was aware from the beginning that we are all just starting to find our feet in this profession and so to put him on the stage by himself for over an hour would be a little presumptuous of all of our abilities at this moment in time. I felt it more appropriate to give Giles the opportunity to play a great part as well as to give seven actors a chance to get involved in a fun show, to experiment with visual language and to give captain theatre an opportunity to explore the script’s potential in our own style.

So why chose this play I sense the next response would be? Well, because it’s a brilliant/beautiful script and Giles has an exceptional talent (an Arab/Italian/Negro accent is not very easy!). Also because it is a blank canvas (which appeals to the CT style-I think, unlike Crom, better than other texts I have picked up in the past) and because it was fun, something I see to be essential in putting on a play.

Like all directors I make mistakes; gambles don’t always pay off. However I stand by my creatures as a smart and enjoyable aspect of this production.  Although I have the deepest respect from Giles for taking on such a huge part, I was aware from the beginning that we are all just starting to find our feet in this profession and so to put him on the stage by himself for over an hour would be a little presumptuous of all of our abilities at this moment in time. I felt it more appropriate to give Giles the opportunity to play a great part as well as to give seven actors a chance to get involved in a fun show, to experiment with visual language and to give captain theatre an opportunity to explore the script’s potential in our own style.

So why chose this play I sense the next response would be? Well, because it’s a brilliant/beautiful script and Giles has an exceptional talent (an Arab/Italian/Negro accent is not very easy!). Also because it is a blank canvas (which appeals to the CT style-I think, unlike Crom, better than other texts I have picked up in the past) and because it was fun, something I see to be essential in putting on a play.

Like all directors I make mistakes; gambles don’t always pay off. However I stand by my creatures as a smart and enjoyable aspect of this production.  Although I have the deepest respect from Giles for taking on such a huge part, I was aware from the beginning that we are all just starting to find our feet in this profession and so to put him on the stage by himself for over an hour would be a little presumptuous of all of our abilities at this moment in time. I felt it more appropriate to give Giles the opportunity to play a great part as well as to give seven actors a chance to get involved in a fun show, to experiment with visual language and to give captain theatre an opportunity to explore the script’s potential in our own style.

So why chose this play I sense the next response would be? Well, because it’s a brilliant/beautiful script and Giles has an exceptional talent (an Arab/Italian/Negro accent is not very easy!). Also because it is a blank canvas (which appeals to the CT style-I think, unlike Crom, better than other texts I have picked up in the past) and because it was fun, something I see to be essential in putting on a play.

My two cents: I thought this was a very professional production, occasionally beautiful, excellently acted, but I was underwhelmed by the script. It was overwritten, too prosey, and the narrative was weak. I'm surprised it was chosen to be staged. Good work from Captain Theatre; not so great from Justin Butcher.

My two cents: I thought this was a very professional production, occasionally beautiful, excellently acted, but I was underwhelmed by the script. It was overwritten, too prosey, and the narrative was weak. I'm surprised it was chosen to be staged. Good work from Captain Theatre; not so great from Justin Butcher.

My two cents: I thought this was a very professional production, occasionally beautiful, excellently acted, but I was underwhelmed by the script. It was overwritten, too prosey, and the narrative was weak. I'm surprised it was chosen to be staged. Good work from Captain Theatre; not so great from Justin Butcher.

the inclusion of a'chorus' in the production was something that i think we all knew might divide an audience. purely a matter of taste i think – some people would like it, others wouldnt. the decision to include six other actors (plus a three-man band) in what was written as a one-man show was of course something of a departure from the script, but i think it reflects hanna's desire to do something different, and innovative, with what she saw as a blank canvas - part of the attraction of the script. personally i think the creatures of theatre were fantastic and entirely achieved what they were intended to: one and a half hours is a long time to sit and listen to someone talk, so we were concerned to bring the story to life thru visuals as much as we could – the creatures were a crucial part of this, helping to bring to life the world of scaramouche's memories. the other main reason for including a chorus was, simply, for a bit of fun. quite a lot of theatre in durham of late has been a bit overly-serious (dare i say self-important). we wanted this production to be fun and entertaining, particularly as so much of the script deals with themes of a far more sombre nature; again, the creatures were vital to this – particularly in the pre-show ('a pre-requisite in assembly rooms productions'?).

i was a bit disappointed to see that crom chose to comment negatively on the fact that on saturday night the caravans broke! i would have thought that crom, of all ppl, would know that sometimes tech and props can just go wrong! i thought that the cast dealt with this perfectly well. and it was a remote control caravan! come on, thats awesome!

finally (sorry this is getting rather long), a quick note on the accents. perhaps the three trinidadian accents were quite similar to each other, and likewise the 3 italian and 3 gypsy accents; but i would hope that the trinidadian was not 'indistinguishable' from the welsh, nor the english from the italian or african; and if yasu was reminiscent of other accents, it does state that he is 'a bizarre concoction of arab, negro and italian'.

finally (i mean it this time), on the age thing – the idea was to blur the lines a bit between his 100 yr old self and his younger self, as he drifted in and out of his memories, reliving or simply describing them to varying degrees. but if this was unclear or ineffective, then fair enough!

right. finished now. thanks to everyone who came to see the show – hope most of you liked it! and thanks to everyone involved – i am proud to have been a part of it.

the inclusion of a'chorus' in the production was something that i think we all knew might divide an audience. purely a matter of taste i think – some people would like it, others wouldnt. the decision to include six other actors (plus a three-man band) in what was written as a one-man show was of course something of a departure from the script, but i think it reflects hanna's desire to do something different, and innovative, with what she saw as a blank canvas - part of the attraction of the script. personally i think the creatures of theatre were fantastic and entirely achieved what they were intended to: one and a half hours is a long time to sit and listen to someone talk, so we were concerned to bring the story to life thru visuals as much as we could – the creatures were a crucial part of this, helping to bring to life the world of scaramouche's memories. the other main reason for including a chorus was, simply, for a bit of fun. quite a lot of theatre in durham of late has been a bit overly-serious (dare i say self-important). we wanted this production to be fun and entertaining, particularly as so much of the script deals with themes of a far more sombre nature; again, the creatures were vital to this – particularly in the pre-show ('a pre-requisite in assembly rooms productions'?).

i was a bit disappointed to see that crom chose to comment negatively on the fact that on saturday night the caravans broke! i would have thought that crom, of all ppl, would know that sometimes tech and props can just go wrong! i thought that the cast dealt with this perfectly well. and it was a remote control caravan! come on, thats awesome!

finally (sorry this is getting rather long), a quick note on the accents. perhaps the three trinidadian accents were quite similar to each other, and likewise the 3 italian and 3 gypsy accents; but i would hope that the trinidadian was not 'indistinguishable' from the welsh, nor the english from the italian or african; and if yasu was reminiscent of other accents, it does state that he is 'a bizarre concoction of arab, negro and italian'.

finally (i mean it this time), on the age thing – the idea was to blur the lines a bit between his 100 yr old self and his younger self, as he drifted in and out of his memories, reliving or simply describing them to varying degrees. but if this was unclear or ineffective, then fair enough!

right. finished now. thanks to everyone who came to see the show – hope most of you liked it! and thanks to everyone involved – i am proud to have been a part of it.

the inclusion of a'chorus' in the production was something that i think we all knew might divide an audience. purely a matter of taste i think – some people would like it, others wouldnt. the decision to include six other actors (plus a three-man band) in what was written as a one-man show was of course something of a departure from the script, but i think it reflects hanna's desire to do something different, and innovative, with what she saw as a blank canvas - part of the attraction of the script. personally i think the creatures of theatre were fantastic and entirely achieved what they were intended to: one and a half hours is a long time to sit and listen to someone talk, so we were concerned to bring the story to life thru visuals as much as we could – the creatures were a crucial part of this, helping to bring to life the world of scaramouche's memories. the other main reason for including a chorus was, simply, for a bit of fun. quite a lot of theatre in durham of late has been a bit overly-serious (dare i say self-important). we wanted this production to be fun and entertaining, particularly as so much of the script deals with themes of a far more sombre nature; again, the creatures were vital to this – particularly in the pre-show ('a pre-requisite in assembly rooms productions'?).

i was a bit disappointed to see that crom chose to comment negatively on the fact that on saturday night the caravans broke! i would have thought that crom, of all ppl, would know that sometimes tech and props can just go wrong! i thought that the cast dealt with this perfectly well. and it was a remote control caravan! come on, thats awesome!

finally (sorry this is getting rather long), a quick note on the accents. perhaps the three trinidadian accents were quite similar to each other, and likewise the 3 italian and 3 gypsy accents; but i would hope that the trinidadian was not 'indistinguishable' from the welsh, nor the english from the italian or african; and if yasu was reminiscent of other accents, it does state that he is 'a bizarre concoction of arab, negro and italian'.

finally (i mean it this time), on the age thing – the idea was to blur the lines a bit between his 100 yr old self and his younger self, as he drifted in and out of his memories, reliving or simply describing them to varying degrees. but if this was unclear or ineffective, then fair enough!

right. finished now. thanks to everyone who came to see the show – hope most of you liked it! and thanks to everyone involved – i am proud to have been a part of it.

Captain theatre – Good!
Dancers – why?
Giles de Rivaz – Excellent!
 

Captain theatre – Good!
Dancers – why?
Giles de Rivaz – Excellent!
 

Captain theatre – Good!
Dancers – why?
Giles de Rivaz – Excellent!