15/09/2024 Dundee Fringe
Two Foolish Productions is a theatre company that two great friends, Chris Brannick and Karen Kirkup started many years ago - surprisingly as an accident. Their accidental creation has led to many wonderful shows that have visited numerous fringes around the UK, with their most recent performance ‘I Believe in One Bach’ taking the Dundee Fringe stage at the Keiller Centre this weekend.
The show is a psychological drama that focuses on ageing violinist Alan Gottlieb, who slowly descends into madness when his passion and career darkly overlap, as he ultimately loses himself to Bach’s B Minor Mass. The show deals with themes of love, loss, ageing, and the search for meaning in a chaotic world which are all guaranteed things audiences can relate to.
We had a wonderful chat with Two Foolish, with Brannick being referred to as the company’s Writer and Brains, and Kirkup the Director and Boss. They let us pick away at their creative brains as we spoke of their passion for performing, the respect they have for each other, more accidental accidents, and tips for those hoping to get involved with the creative industry.
‘What’s your favourite thing about performing and what is it that keeps you coming back for more?’
Chris Brannick: ‘Oh Gosh! That’s hard! For me, it’s about connection. When you’re in a room of people and you know, you’re having an impact and that’s responding, and it feels like it’s a shared experience - that’s partly it. It’s partly also because I feel we have message to say and it’s nice to get the message out there! If I sum it up in one word it’s communication.’
Karen Kirkup: ‘Oh yes! I enjoy directing, that’s sort of what I do. When I get a script I really, really like, which I do in this particular one, it develops the more you perform it, and the places and people change each time you do it. My biggest kick is I either want to make people laugh or I want to make them cry, as it’s harder to make them cry. I get more pleasure from that, when I know I’ve made somebody cry - when their meant to of course, as it means you have passed the message on. Theatre is emotional. I know films can make you cry, don’t get me into the Lion King! But there is nothing quite the same as being a few yards from somebody who is feeling the same emotions you’re feeling.’
Chris Brannick: ‘Yes to further add, I am a natural extrovert, it’s one of my personality traits. So actually being there, talking to people and being able to send stuff out is what makes me feel personally satisfied.’
‘What is it that works so well between you both that allows you to create your shows?’
Brannick: ‘It’s having different skills and having respect for those skills. I think she (Kirkup) is a bloody amazing director! There are times where she comes up with an idea and I go, there was no way I would have thought of that! And so, she makes my writing better.’
Kirkup: ‘When I get an idea, I get very enthusiastic about it! But no, I love his writing, and I love learning lines. They’re not easy lines to learn, but they are very evocative and very poetic, and so you have to learn word for word because they’re not the same. It’s like Shakespeare – you can’t cut. If you don’t say them the way they’re written, then they lose what’s said and it’s disrespectful to the writer if you are just paraphrasing all the time. I have one play where paraphrasing has improved the writing, but this is not one of them!’
‘Chris, I know you are a professional percussionist which means you are used to what life is like as a musician! Did your own personal experiences help with the writing progress of the play along with the creation of Alan Gottlieb?’
Brannick: Oh yeah! By the way, although I’m not a violinist I’ve played the violin, but not to a very high standard, so I kind of know what it’s like to be in that section. But there’s this whole thing when musicians get towards the end of their career, there is this kind of competency issue that crops up, and for professional orchestras, that’s a really big problem. If you want to keep the standard of the orchestra up, you have to get rid of the weaker players. And if the people are weaker because they’re old, that ages. It’s also really, really tough on the person it happens to, and so it’s a constant problem for orchestras. What do you do about the players who just aren’t good enough anymore? It’s very real, you know. I’ve seen it happen in orchestras, it’s a very real problem.
‘When it comes to the set design, how did you come up with the idea of simply using white wooden boxes? Karen’s characters all dress in white along with the props being white. Was this symbolic?’
Kirkup: ‘From my point of view, it was because this play is about Alan so he’s the one in colour. Everything else is mostly in his head - oh, spoiler alert! The white is to say this isn’t really the here and now, and it makes everyone focus on Alan. He was colourful and scruffy, so yes there was a reason for it. We could have easily done it in colours, but I thought no this needs to be like mist. I wanted to get that atmosphere of mist, of not being quite sure where he is in reality, or which bits are real and which bits are in his head, you know, just to leave it up to the audience.’
Brannick: ‘One of the accidental symbolism that came up is that Karen designed these props and I built them, not very well but they’ve lasted so far! And there’s the big white boxes which left me thinking, how am I going to pick that up? What I’ll do is I’ll just cut a couple of hand holes in either end, oh, hang on, we don’t know which way up the box is going to be! So I could cut across into each end then people will think of church and spirituality. So the crosses at the end of each box were actually just to pick them up!’
Kirkup: ‘The other thing on that is when we were practicing I said, this is too big cut it down! So he cut it down, and then when we got to put it in my car, it just fitted! I mean, it was like half an inch on either side, just slotted in like that, where if it had been the extra six inches, it would not!’
‘Have you got any tips for any aspiring writers or directors out there?'
Brannick: ‘It’s a cliché, so I’m sure you’ll have heard this before but the worst thing you ever wrote is still better than the best thing you never wrote. That’s my first tip – get it on the page! As soon as you get it on the page, you can do something with it. No novel that’s in your head is a novel, get it onto the page and never stop learning.'
Kirkup: ‘My one if you’re thinking from a director’s point of view is don’t go in knowing what you want the actors to do. Let the actors inform you about what they can do, and then pick up on the good things you like. Tell them what you’re after, but don’t say I want it to be said like this and I want you to move like that. Stay focused on the words, as they are so much more important than the way you’re standing on stage. So many directors are more interested in where the actors are standing than what they’re trying to convey. I often see this with directors trying to micromanage and that’s when you lose the joy of what the actors can bring to something. You end up with the same show as everybody else.’
Brannick: ‘The last thing I’d like to add is steal, just steal. There’s all sorts of examples of writers doing this by just taking the structure of something out there, changing the words and pulling the template out from underneath and it works! Steal!’
Kirkup: ‘As they say, don’t reinvent the wheel, just paint it a different colour!’
Two Foolish Productions can next be seen at the Wigtown Fringe on 27th September as they perform ‘I Believe in One Bach’ and hold their own workshop. The talent stemming from Brannick and Kirkup is extraordinary, and it is clear they have a deep passion for their work. I would highly recommend taking the chance to see them if they are ever near you!
Written by Holly Flynn, Staff Writer for The Magdalen
コメント