Teenage rebellion sure ain’t what it used to be. Take David Watson’s play, Flight Path. In the 22 year old’s main stage debut, which arrives at The Traverse Theatre this week, its troubled protagonist Jonathan is as far from a stereotypical happy-slapping ASBO case as you could imagine. But when his university lecturer Dad walks out on his social worker Mum, all that right-on state schooling goes wrong as Jonathan takes a walk on the wild side. Rather than organise a massive party on Myspace like some debauched impression of TV drama Skins, however, Jonathan starts moonlighting as a burglar with his best mate Joe. As if he doesn’t have enough on his case, the 18 year-old also has to deal with his Down’s Syndrome brother returning home from the residential centre he’d been farmed out to.
Enough old-fashioned angst already? Director Naomi Jones seems to think so.
“What’s unique about the play”, Jones says of her production for the Out Of Joint company, “is that rather than the more predictable kind of drop-out, Jonathan is from a strictly middle class background. High grades are predicted for him at school, but he’s caught up in this time of flux and rebels against all these typical trappings of success. Untimately, though, out of all this rejection he starts out on a new tack on this kind of third way, where the presence of his brother becomes a positive force. Out of this he learns to take responsibility and become the man of the house.”
If such a scenario sounds familiar, one need only look at the recent television drama, Coming Down The Mountain. Mark Haddon’s script for the small screen similarly focuses on two brothers, one with Downs Syndrome, the other a frustrated teen kicking against the pricks of his relatively comfortable background. While Jones is aware of the play, neither she nor Watson have seen it, and were already knee-deep in rehearsals for Flight Path when the film aired.
“While the presence of the brother with Down’s Syndrome is important in Flight Path,” Jones points out, “it’s not the main thrust of what the play is exploring. It’s more about his brother being one more piece of the mosaic of Jonathan’s life.”
Given that Watson has experience of being a care worker, such a plot device does touches on sensitive issues of how such characters are portrayed. While Scott Swadkins, the actor playing Jonathan’s brother, wasn’t born with Down’s Syndrome, he does have a chromosomal disorder which brought up recognisable parallels in rehearsals.
“He went to a residential school and has experience of some of the things that happen in the play,” Jones says. “At the end of the day, though, he’s another actor playing a part, and you can only hope there’s an affinity there as any actor might do with any part.”
Flight Path marks something of a sideways shift for Out Of Joint, who for the last fourteen years have presented new plays directed solely by Stafford-Clark. With Jones at the helm, this co-production with London’s Bush Theatre will see the company use an outside director for the first time. Formed in 1993 by Max Stafford-Clark following his departure from the Royal Court, up until now Out Of Joint has been a laboratory for this singular visionary’s artistic practice. Having suffered a stroke in 2006 on the eve of the publication of his artistic memoir, Taking Stock, Stafford-Clark has been forced, at least in the short term, to take a back seat.
Having worked for Out Of Joint as assistant director on all the company’s main projects over the last five years, and having effectively come up through the company’s boot room, Jones was the obvious choice to take on Flight Path. Especially as by her own admission, she is a director made in Stafford-Clark’s image.
“It feels like my apprenticeship was with Max,” says Jones, who wrote a dissertation on Stafford-Clark’s work at university. “So it’s a great privilege to be doing this, and to feel that I’m paying something back at last. The great thing about Out Of Joint is that they’ve trusted us on this play. David’s a relatively untried writer and I’m a relatively untested director, but the whole ethos of the company is about taking risks, and that’s really given me an appetite for working on something like this. Working for somebody whose work you’ve admired from afar is amazing. I certainly never thought when I was doing my dissertation that I’d be in the rehearsal room and become part of the same creative process as Max. What I’ve learnt from him is his amazing commitment to detail, whereby text becomes this absolute mine of information. I’ve also learnt from his actioning technique, which builds from every single moment of a play into something solid, and which I’ve stolen from wholeheartedly. Max hasn’t seen the play yet, so this is my audition piece, really.”
As a lynch-pin of British theatre, Max Stafford-Clark has relentlessly explored new writing, each phase in his career marking epochal shifts in a theatrical landscape which has resolutely reflected the social one. His brilliant career began at The Traverse in 1966, where he became one of the theatre’s earliest artistic directors, championing works by Stanley Eveling and others. In 1974 Stafford-Clark founded Joint Stock, which for a time he led in tandem with his tenure at The Royal Court.
During this period he directed politically inspired works such as Howard Brenton’s 1973 treatise on terrorism, Magnificence, which premiered at the Court, and David Hare’s Fanshen in 1975 with Joint Stock. As the times changed, Stafford-Clark’s finger remained on the pulse in the face of the political climate, and in the 1980s he directed Andrea Dunbar’s Rita, Sue And Bob Too. For Out Of Joint, he directed Jim Cartwright’s Road, and announced the arrival of Mark Ravenhill with the premiere of Shopping And F***ing. This decade saw his radical take on Macbeth, in which an all black cast echoed the regime of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin as immortalised in Giles Foden’s book, The Last King Of Scotland.
“Max has always denied a political objective in his work,” Jones points out, “but obviously his tastes and concerns are going to come through. In that way Out Of Joint investigates our contemporary culture in a way that is outward looking. Something like Flight Path is quite domestic, but I like to think it’s got an over-riding political sensibility as well.”
Out Of Joint productions have regularly played at The Traverse over the years, continuing a relationship with the theatre where Stafford-Clark cut his directing teeth. Flight Path, though, suggests the beginning of a new era for the company. Not that the redoubtable Stafford-Clark is in any way sitting idle. While he won’t direct the next Out Of Joint show, a new play by David Edgar called Testing The Echo, he has just returned from America following his production of J.T. Rogers’ Rwandan set drama, The Overwhelming.
“Having to take it easy must be frustrating for Max,” says Jones of her mentor, “but he has such an indomitable spirit, and a lot of people wouldn’t be able to perform at the level he does. He might look like he’s taking a back seat in the shadows, but he’s not really.”
Flight Path, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Tue-Sat
The Herald, November 6th 2007
ends
Enough old-fashioned angst already? Director Naomi Jones seems to think so.
“What’s unique about the play”, Jones says of her production for the Out Of Joint company, “is that rather than the more predictable kind of drop-out, Jonathan is from a strictly middle class background. High grades are predicted for him at school, but he’s caught up in this time of flux and rebels against all these typical trappings of success. Untimately, though, out of all this rejection he starts out on a new tack on this kind of third way, where the presence of his brother becomes a positive force. Out of this he learns to take responsibility and become the man of the house.”
If such a scenario sounds familiar, one need only look at the recent television drama, Coming Down The Mountain. Mark Haddon’s script for the small screen similarly focuses on two brothers, one with Downs Syndrome, the other a frustrated teen kicking against the pricks of his relatively comfortable background. While Jones is aware of the play, neither she nor Watson have seen it, and were already knee-deep in rehearsals for Flight Path when the film aired.
“While the presence of the brother with Down’s Syndrome is important in Flight Path,” Jones points out, “it’s not the main thrust of what the play is exploring. It’s more about his brother being one more piece of the mosaic of Jonathan’s life.”
Given that Watson has experience of being a care worker, such a plot device does touches on sensitive issues of how such characters are portrayed. While Scott Swadkins, the actor playing Jonathan’s brother, wasn’t born with Down’s Syndrome, he does have a chromosomal disorder which brought up recognisable parallels in rehearsals.
“He went to a residential school and has experience of some of the things that happen in the play,” Jones says. “At the end of the day, though, he’s another actor playing a part, and you can only hope there’s an affinity there as any actor might do with any part.”
Flight Path marks something of a sideways shift for Out Of Joint, who for the last fourteen years have presented new plays directed solely by Stafford-Clark. With Jones at the helm, this co-production with London’s Bush Theatre will see the company use an outside director for the first time. Formed in 1993 by Max Stafford-Clark following his departure from the Royal Court, up until now Out Of Joint has been a laboratory for this singular visionary’s artistic practice. Having suffered a stroke in 2006 on the eve of the publication of his artistic memoir, Taking Stock, Stafford-Clark has been forced, at least in the short term, to take a back seat.
Having worked for Out Of Joint as assistant director on all the company’s main projects over the last five years, and having effectively come up through the company’s boot room, Jones was the obvious choice to take on Flight Path. Especially as by her own admission, she is a director made in Stafford-Clark’s image.
“It feels like my apprenticeship was with Max,” says Jones, who wrote a dissertation on Stafford-Clark’s work at university. “So it’s a great privilege to be doing this, and to feel that I’m paying something back at last. The great thing about Out Of Joint is that they’ve trusted us on this play. David’s a relatively untried writer and I’m a relatively untested director, but the whole ethos of the company is about taking risks, and that’s really given me an appetite for working on something like this. Working for somebody whose work you’ve admired from afar is amazing. I certainly never thought when I was doing my dissertation that I’d be in the rehearsal room and become part of the same creative process as Max. What I’ve learnt from him is his amazing commitment to detail, whereby text becomes this absolute mine of information. I’ve also learnt from his actioning technique, which builds from every single moment of a play into something solid, and which I’ve stolen from wholeheartedly. Max hasn’t seen the play yet, so this is my audition piece, really.”
As a lynch-pin of British theatre, Max Stafford-Clark has relentlessly explored new writing, each phase in his career marking epochal shifts in a theatrical landscape which has resolutely reflected the social one. His brilliant career began at The Traverse in 1966, where he became one of the theatre’s earliest artistic directors, championing works by Stanley Eveling and others. In 1974 Stafford-Clark founded Joint Stock, which for a time he led in tandem with his tenure at The Royal Court.
During this period he directed politically inspired works such as Howard Brenton’s 1973 treatise on terrorism, Magnificence, which premiered at the Court, and David Hare’s Fanshen in 1975 with Joint Stock. As the times changed, Stafford-Clark’s finger remained on the pulse in the face of the political climate, and in the 1980s he directed Andrea Dunbar’s Rita, Sue And Bob Too. For Out Of Joint, he directed Jim Cartwright’s Road, and announced the arrival of Mark Ravenhill with the premiere of Shopping And F***ing. This decade saw his radical take on Macbeth, in which an all black cast echoed the regime of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin as immortalised in Giles Foden’s book, The Last King Of Scotland.
“Max has always denied a political objective in his work,” Jones points out, “but obviously his tastes and concerns are going to come through. In that way Out Of Joint investigates our contemporary culture in a way that is outward looking. Something like Flight Path is quite domestic, but I like to think it’s got an over-riding political sensibility as well.”
Out Of Joint productions have regularly played at The Traverse over the years, continuing a relationship with the theatre where Stafford-Clark cut his directing teeth. Flight Path, though, suggests the beginning of a new era for the company. Not that the redoubtable Stafford-Clark is in any way sitting idle. While he won’t direct the next Out Of Joint show, a new play by David Edgar called Testing The Echo, he has just returned from America following his production of J.T. Rogers’ Rwandan set drama, The Overwhelming.
“Having to take it easy must be frustrating for Max,” says Jones of her mentor, “but he has such an indomitable spirit, and a lot of people wouldn’t be able to perform at the level he does. He might look like he’s taking a back seat in the shadows, but he’s not really.”
Flight Path, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Tue-Sat
The Herald, November 6th 2007
ends
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