When two or more young people gather on street corners, there’s always a risk that something might kick off. An adolescent mixture of hormones and social circumstance, after all, is a heady brew. This is something tackled in writer/director John Retallack’s latest collaboration with choreographer Andy Howitt, in which words and movement combine to kick out at received notions of what it means to be a young person today.
The archetypes Risk portrays are familiar. There’s a gambler, a fighter, a prisoner, an opponent and that most typical of angry adolescents, the rebel. If such depictions sound as sickly sweet as The Breakfast Club or any other teen flick depictions of dysfunctionality, think again. Risk gives each character the dignity of a name, which allows each to be invested with a more fully rounded set of characteristics than a first glance might immediately imply. With this in mind, its no surprise that some of the details have been culled from real life young people at risk who Retallack met through a series of workshops.
“It’s not verbatim theatre,” Retallack is keen to stress. “Characters have been condensed, and there’s no one person identifiable, but it’s all come out of stories we’ve been told.”
Rather than patronise the play’s immediate constituency with something generic, however, Risk, according to Retallack, is seriously pushing theatrical boundaries.
“It’s avant-garde,” he says. “We need to find a new form of theatre to try and express everything young people in certain situations in a completely different way than it’s done before. The people in the play don’t express everything in words. They’re much more physical, and they’re much more prone to lash out, so you have to find a new theatrical language to do that with. There’ve been attempts to do that over the years by various companies, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. But it’s acknowledging that it has to come from somewhere other than a literary tradition. It’s not just about the text and the words that are spoken, but, with a more physical approach that comes directly from the body, it becomes an entirely different language.”
A major asset to this approach is Retallack’s ongoing collaboration with Howitt, whose work with Y Dance (formerly Youth Dance Theatre) has clearly been a major influence on Company of Angels approach, providing energy and access to the work’s immediate constituents. If Retallack could be said to be the brains behind Risk, then Howitt is the engine room, providing a furious dynamism to the piece. Both men, along with their bright young Glaswegian cast, provide heart and soul in this co-production between Company Of Angels, Y Dance, Glasgow’s Tron Theatre and The MacRobert Arts Centre in Stirling.
“Andy is vital to the piece,” Retallack says. “By being able to sit in on the workshops he does, you get access to the world of the people we’re talking about in very close proximity.”
Retallack founded Company of Angels in 2001 after directing with The Playwrights Lab for several years. Prior to this he was artistic director of Oxford Stage, and in 1977 was the founding director of Actors Touring Company, now more commonly known as ATC. Working also as a teacher for 20 years, that he kept his two working worlds so separate for so long now appears surprising. A trip to The Netherlands, however, changed all that.
“Theatre for young people in Holland is so far ahead of what’s going on in the UK,” says Retallack, “and it was a real eye-opener to see the sorts of things going on, where work is treated with the same respect and on an equal footing as work for adults. Things are starting to change here now, with the sort of work the likes of Tony Reekie are bringing to this country and putting them on at the Children’s Festival, but for a while there was nothing.”
Company Of Angels debut show, Hannah and Hanna, set the tone of the company with its heart-wrenching tale of two teenage girls, one from a working class English background, the other a Kosovan refugee, who find common ground on Margate beach. The play became the sensation of 201’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and duly scooped a much deserved Herald Angel award. Since then, Hannah and Hanna has been used as Company Of Angels’ calling card, has toured extensively and been translated into several languages.
Based in a Waterloo office in London, Company of Angels were last seen in Scotland with Club Asylum, in which Retallack first brought Howitt on board for a high-octane charge through the experiences of young asylum seekers. Since then, the Company has travelled the world, exchanging idea with like-minded practitioners who first provided the company’s inspiration.
As a way of taking stock of the company’s first five years, to tie in with this production of Risk, a collection of four of Retallack’s plays is being published. Itself titled Company Of Angels, the full scripts of Hannah and Hanna and Risk are contained alongside Club Asylum and another, piece, Virgins.
“It’s designed as a resource,” Retallack says of the collection. “These plays have all come from very different places for us, but there’s absolutely no reason they can’t be done by other companies. One thing they all have in common is how young people exist outdoors, whereas adults exist indoors. That’s a crucial difference, which is why we need such a different language to express it.”
Risk, Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Thursday-Saturday, then touring
The Herald, February 10th 2007
ends
The archetypes Risk portrays are familiar. There’s a gambler, a fighter, a prisoner, an opponent and that most typical of angry adolescents, the rebel. If such depictions sound as sickly sweet as The Breakfast Club or any other teen flick depictions of dysfunctionality, think again. Risk gives each character the dignity of a name, which allows each to be invested with a more fully rounded set of characteristics than a first glance might immediately imply. With this in mind, its no surprise that some of the details have been culled from real life young people at risk who Retallack met through a series of workshops.
“It’s not verbatim theatre,” Retallack is keen to stress. “Characters have been condensed, and there’s no one person identifiable, but it’s all come out of stories we’ve been told.”
Rather than patronise the play’s immediate constituency with something generic, however, Risk, according to Retallack, is seriously pushing theatrical boundaries.
“It’s avant-garde,” he says. “We need to find a new form of theatre to try and express everything young people in certain situations in a completely different way than it’s done before. The people in the play don’t express everything in words. They’re much more physical, and they’re much more prone to lash out, so you have to find a new theatrical language to do that with. There’ve been attempts to do that over the years by various companies, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. But it’s acknowledging that it has to come from somewhere other than a literary tradition. It’s not just about the text and the words that are spoken, but, with a more physical approach that comes directly from the body, it becomes an entirely different language.”
A major asset to this approach is Retallack’s ongoing collaboration with Howitt, whose work with Y Dance (formerly Youth Dance Theatre) has clearly been a major influence on Company of Angels approach, providing energy and access to the work’s immediate constituents. If Retallack could be said to be the brains behind Risk, then Howitt is the engine room, providing a furious dynamism to the piece. Both men, along with their bright young Glaswegian cast, provide heart and soul in this co-production between Company Of Angels, Y Dance, Glasgow’s Tron Theatre and The MacRobert Arts Centre in Stirling.
“Andy is vital to the piece,” Retallack says. “By being able to sit in on the workshops he does, you get access to the world of the people we’re talking about in very close proximity.”
Retallack founded Company of Angels in 2001 after directing with The Playwrights Lab for several years. Prior to this he was artistic director of Oxford Stage, and in 1977 was the founding director of Actors Touring Company, now more commonly known as ATC. Working also as a teacher for 20 years, that he kept his two working worlds so separate for so long now appears surprising. A trip to The Netherlands, however, changed all that.
“Theatre for young people in Holland is so far ahead of what’s going on in the UK,” says Retallack, “and it was a real eye-opener to see the sorts of things going on, where work is treated with the same respect and on an equal footing as work for adults. Things are starting to change here now, with the sort of work the likes of Tony Reekie are bringing to this country and putting them on at the Children’s Festival, but for a while there was nothing.”
Company Of Angels debut show, Hannah and Hanna, set the tone of the company with its heart-wrenching tale of two teenage girls, one from a working class English background, the other a Kosovan refugee, who find common ground on Margate beach. The play became the sensation of 201’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and duly scooped a much deserved Herald Angel award. Since then, Hannah and Hanna has been used as Company Of Angels’ calling card, has toured extensively and been translated into several languages.
Based in a Waterloo office in London, Company of Angels were last seen in Scotland with Club Asylum, in which Retallack first brought Howitt on board for a high-octane charge through the experiences of young asylum seekers. Since then, the Company has travelled the world, exchanging idea with like-minded practitioners who first provided the company’s inspiration.
As a way of taking stock of the company’s first five years, to tie in with this production of Risk, a collection of four of Retallack’s plays is being published. Itself titled Company Of Angels, the full scripts of Hannah and Hanna and Risk are contained alongside Club Asylum and another, piece, Virgins.
“It’s designed as a resource,” Retallack says of the collection. “These plays have all come from very different places for us, but there’s absolutely no reason they can’t be done by other companies. One thing they all have in common is how young people exist outdoors, whereas adults exist indoors. That’s a crucial difference, which is why we need such a different language to express it.”
Risk, Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Thursday-Saturday, then touring
The Herald, February 10th 2007
ends
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