Theatre
ALL LIFE’S PRISONS
Unifaun Productions returns to St James’ Cavalier in March with a hard-hitting drama by the world's greatest living playwright, Edward Bond, called ‘OLLY’S PRISON’. The Malta Independent on Sunday asked the play’s highly experienced British director CHRIS COOPER about what audiences can expect.
How did your connection with Malta start?
I was first invited to work with young people in schools and staff at the Drama Centre in March 2010 thanks to the British Council. There I met Unifaun’s producer Adrian Buckle who teaches there. Adrian was interested in both how I work with young people and my work with Edward Bond, so we began to discuss collaborations. As part of this project I returned to do workshops in Malta in May last year and Adrian visited Birmingham last November to participate in our Edward Bond Festival.
You used a series of workshops last year as a basis to choose your actors for Olly’s Prison didn’t you?
Yes I did choose the actors based on the workshop, you could say they chose the play. Actors always determine how to structure a production from rehearsal through to performance – they embody the play. Edward says that it’s the actors that make theatre and I agree with him. We have to understand the structure of the play (and we will do this together), I can help with this and offer guidance but ultimately it is the actors who will enact it on stage for an audience. Hamlet is never just Hamlet. Olly’s Prison is the same. It is this particular production of the play at this time in history enacted by this cast – they will find Malta in the play so that the audience can meet themselves on stage. I think we have a very well-balanced cast of experienced and younger actors. I enjoyed the energy this created in the workshops and I think that will transfer into a Maltese production of the play.
Tell us a bit about Olly’s Prison.
It’s a play about the prisons we all live in: sometimes they are constructed for us, sometimes we construct them ourselves consciously and unconsciously. We need public space to reflect on this. I think that we are living through very difficult times, and I believe that this applies to Malta as much as anywhere in Europe. Complex problems that cannot be resolved through simplistic solutions are being created everywhere.
Olly’s Prison is centred on a crime. Of the protagonist’s guilt there is no doubt, but we realise through the play that this is not the problem and that knowing why the act was committed in itself does not explain why the protagonist is guilty, and that there are many injustices that created it. The play takes us deeper into our culture and ourselves and exposes the violence that saturates our society.
Edward once said that he writes about violence as Jane Austen wrote about manners. He meant of course that our society demands this of him. I think that in Olly’s Prison he dramatises the relationship between crime and punishment that asks the same questions Dostoyevsky asked us in ever more personal and searching ways – I think that is essential for Malta and any sane society.
Edward Bond himself will be in Malta for the play’s first performance. Why do you think he has been dubbed ‘the world’s greatest living playwright’?
In my eyes he has no peer. For over 50 years he has consistently challenged us to ask what it is to be human through his plays. He is never afraid to confront us with the logic of our situation socially, politically or culturally, however uncomfortable that can makes us feel. I remember some years ago a journalist did an interview with Bond about our production of his play A Window. It was predictably entitled “Writer still going to the extreme” when in reality it should have been called “Society still going to the extreme”.
I think he understands the value and function of drama like the Greeks understood it and he has used this understanding to create a new form of contemporary theatre that insists we examine how we live and the values we live by: a form that insists we make choices about who we are and how we live. It is a form that denies us the leisure of sitting back and observing and excusing ourselves from responsibility. He is able to draw back the ideological veil that prevents us from seeing the world as it is and us in it.
What are your impressions of the scene here?
I haven’t seen much theatre in Malta so I can’t comment on the scene, other than to say it seems quite vibrant, like there is a lot going on. I very much enjoyed the two-day workshop on contemporary and ‘Bondian’ theatre. I was impressed by the actors I worked with because they were very open to the ideas we were putting into practice and they were very creative in doing it. What I appreciated was the willingness of the actors to stray off ‘terra firma’ and test themselves with very challenging material.
I am very grateful for the opportunity to work with Unifaun Theatre and the actors and production team Adrian has assembled. I admire the company for its professionalism and for choosing to do this play. I think that any theatre ecology, any scene, needs plays that challenge our values if it is going to continue to develop and evolve artistically, and I think that Olly’s Prison is that kind of play.
What are the main differences between ‘classic’ theatre and ‘contemporary’ theatre?
That’s a huge question. In short I’d say that Greek drama continues to tower over our stage today. That’s because they knew the function of the theatre; to explore the paradoxes at the heart of being human. I think that function has become very confused and largely confounded today. All aspects of culture have been commoditised – we consume drama like we consume other goods we purchase – but strangely the commodity culture in turn consumes us.
I think that in the UK, certainly, the mainstream theatre has become increasingly vulgarised by the need to make money. We have lost sight of what drama is. I don’t know if people will look back and say the early 21st century was a particular era in the history of theatre, but I worry that our theatre is becoming devoid of drama, form predominating over content, and I do wonder if they will look back at the spectacle presented on our main stages today and think further back to the last days of Rome.
What’s the state of British theatre like at the moment?
Again I can only reiterate what I’ve already said about the function of theatre in society and commoditisation of culture. The recession has had a very big impact on the ecology of theatre, very big, and mostly upon the smaller companies that are struggling to do the most innovative and creative work and directly confront the crisis we are living through. Our government does not value the arts and their role in society. They seek security in the market place, of course. Cuts in public subsidy and investment can be offset by corporate sponsorship and philanthropy, well that might be okay for the RSC but it’s a disaster for the vast majority of theatre companies and arts organisations.
What’s your advice to Maltese who aspire to be professional actors in the UK?
I’m not very good at advice. I’d suppose I’d say that it’s really important to ask yourself why you aspire to do that and what kind of work you really want to do. It’s very important if you are going to avoid becoming a commodity in the market place, just turning out for every audition going can be a very destructive process. It’s worth remembering the line from Hamlet: ‘Unto thine own self be true’, and don’t let them buy you.
Do you see yourself doing more work with Maltese theatre companies in the future?
Yes I do see myself doing that. Whether I will get the opportunity is another thing entirely. I lot will depend on how this production goes and on whether people see it as a useful contribution to Maltese theatre.
Director Chris Cooper
Chris was born in Yorkshire, England. He has worked in theatre and theatre-in-education since 1986. In 1999 he became the Artistic Director of Big Brum in Birmingham where he lives with his wife and children. He has directed over 30 productions for Big Brum since then, including eight new plays by Edward Bond.
His work as a freelance director, teacher and workshop leader takes him to many countries, including Greece, Hungary and China as a consultant, trainer, director and teacher every year. He is also the author of over 20 plays and is currently writing a new play for Big Brum to be produced in the autumn.
“I’m very fortunate to love what I do and enjoy the creativity and freedom every day brings. I owe so much to the integrity and honesty of the children and young people that I have worked with over the years,” he told this newspaper. “Being Artistic Director of Big Brum is also a huge privilege; I am surrounded by very talented people who are very committed to and passionate about what they do,” he added.
“Working with Edward Bond has been an extraordinary highlight. I first worked with him when I was an actor in his second Big Brum play Eleven Vests in 1997 and I think it’s fair to say that it transformed my understanding of theatre completely. I had already read all of his plays and met him on two or three occasions, but to work with him in rehearsals as an actor was qualitatively different; being in that production changed my life. Sixteen years on, now as a director, the challenge is as exhilarating as ever. Theatre, drama, occurs where the self and society meets, Edward really demands that we constantly ask ourselves what theatre is for and in doing so think about who we are and the kind of world we want to live in,” he concluded.
The play
The play was originally written as a TV series for the BBC. Unifaun Theatre Productions have joined forces with St James Cavalier to produce it. The cast includes Manuel Cauchi, Pia Zammit, Jo Fuller, David Persiva, Victor Debono, Steve Hili, Joseph Zammit, Simone Spiteri, Philip Leone Ganado, Leander Schembri and Colin Fitz. Harrowing, but with streaks of black humour, this play is not to be missed.
Olly’s Prison will be staged at St James Cavalier on 8, 9, 15, 16, 17, 22, 23 and 24 March. The 8 March show starts at 7pm and will be followed by a talk with the playwright Edward Bond. This production is supported by the British Council, the Malta Arts Fund and the Malta Lotteries Good Causes Fund. Bookings from: www.sjcav.org
Playwright Edward Bond
The English playwright, theatre director, poet, theorist and screenwriter was born in 1934. He is the author of 50 plays, among them Saved (1965), the production of which was instrumental in the abolition of theatre censorship in the United Kingdom. Bond is broadly considered one among the major living dramatists but he has always been and remains highly controversial because of the violence shown in his plays, the radicalism of his statements about modern theatre and society, and his theories on drama. Bond will attend the first performance of Olly’s Prison at St James’ Cavalier.