It
took a trip to a graveyard for the members of Biff Smith’s band A New
International to realise that the theatre show they’d signed up to do was for
real. As it turned out, A Dark Carnival was the latest opus from Vanishing
Point, the internationally renowned company that provides a vehicle for the
dark visions of its artistic director Matthew Lenton. With Smith and A New
International at its musical core, the seriousness of the project came as
something of a surprise to the band.
“It’s
probably fair to say the band are all sceptics,” says Smith. “It took them six
months to believe this was actually happening. I remember we decided to for for
a walk in the Necropolis, and afterwards going for a drink, and the penny
finally dropping when one of them said, ‘You didn’t tell me it was a real
theatre company’. The music industry and the arts world in general does tend to
attract blowhards and people who promise you the things that never materialise,
so I dare say that informed their attitude.”
This
is a fair enough assumption to make. Lenton, after all, had originally had a
notion for Tom Waits to provide the score for what looks set to be an absurd
and tragi-comic pop opera which goes beyond the grave to unearth a community of
the dead, while angels watch from above.
Things
changed, however, when Lenton heard a New International’s song, Valentino, on
the radio while driving. Lenton tracked Smith down, they met, and Smith “started
to become part of the world of the play.”
As
the video to a song from the show, Necropolitan, A New International’s
flamboyant mix of nouveau cabaret with retro sensibilities was a theatrical
marriage with Vanishing Point in waiting.
“It
was kind of a no-brainer,” says Smith. “I always liked theatre. I appeared in
Dracula at Cumbernauld Youth Theatre when I was a raw nineteen-year old, and
when I met Matt I Immediately started having ideas. I love things with a dark
sense of humour, macabre, Tim Burton, Rocky Horror. Fagin always appealed. I
love those songs I grew up with them. This is the first time I’ve written for a
brief, and I found that quite liberating. It’s almost like you’re halfway
through the creative process, like I had a head start. So I started writing,
and couldn’t stop for a while.”
The
first fruits of this unholy collaboration came a year ago with A Night at the
Theatre, three bijou concert performances of the sixteen songs penned by Smith
for The Dark Carnival, punctuated by short monologues written by Lenton and
performed by actors Pauline Goldsmith and Peter Kelly. Since then, the show has
been expanded to feature eight actors working alongside a parallel eight-member
version of A New International.
There
has always been an innate theatricality to Smith’s work, ever since his early
days fronting indie-pop troubadours The Starlets, who released three albums
before the band morphed into A New International. This gave full vent to
Smith’s penchant for mixing up music hall, showtunes and French chanson, all
laced up with gypsy, flamenco and epic cinematic strings.
“We
were struggling a bit with our third album,” Smith admits, “so when The Dark
Carnival came up it was a breath of fresh air. I love theatre that isn’t snobby
or exclusive, and is for everyone. That’s why I love Oliver and Lionel Bart.
Kurt Weill as well. Mac The Knife, people sing that at weddings and stuff.
That’s filtered through to popular culture, and I like that.
“I
think there has to be that connection, otherwise it becomes exclusive. It’s one
of the things Matt and I have spoken about. It would be great to get people who
may not usually consider the theatre as being a good night out to come along, people
who might normally go to gigs or concerts, because that’s what it is. It’s part
gig, part theatre show, and in some small way we can try and dissolve that
boundary, and have an environment where people aren’t afraid to sing along with
the songs or laugh at the farcical moments and not be afraid of being farcical
or funny. Sometimes that suggests you’re not being serious, but just because
you’re being funny doesn’t mean you’re not.”
This
is an attitude Smith has carried with him since he was a teenager.
“I
remember going to see Elvis Costello perform solo at the Pavilion,” he says. “My
mother’s hairdresser took me, actually, but that’s another story. I remember
seeing him perform on his own, moving between guitar and piano, and I thought
that was amazing. It just so happened there was a BBC2 Arena programme on
either the week before or after, and that was the punk rock moment for me. He’s
theatrical too. It’s as much about his lyrics as his melodies. I’ve always
thought that melody’s the thing that draws you in. It’s like someone with good
patter, but after that you want to know what’s going on about them.
“But
it doesn’t feel like a leap to me me to be working in theatre. I remember, one
of the first lightbulb moments for us as a band, we’d been together for years
at this point, trying to impersonate an indie band, but we never quite fitted
in with that. We were invited to perform at literary cabarets which were a
mixture of spoken word and music and suddenly realised we were probably a
better fit for this audience than we were for indie venues.”
Later
in the year, a pocket-sized unplugged version of The Dark Carnival will tour
the country as part of the Touring Network’s BRAW initiative. This will just
feature Smith providing the music while actor Robbie Jack tells stories. Has
Smith’s descent into full-on theatre runs on apace, has his appetite been
whetted for more?
“Oh,
yeah,” he says. “A door opened I didn’t know was there.”
Given
the world The Dark Carnival conjures up, let’s hope that door doesn’t lead him
straight to Hell. Smith cackles at the prospect.
“I’m
already there,” he says.
The
Dark Carnival, Citizens Theatre at Tramway, Glasgow, February 19-March 2;
Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, March 6-9; Dundee Rep, March 13-16. The Dark Carnival
by A New International is available now. The Dark Carnival:Unplugged will open
on the Isle of Eigg on May 13 and will tour to Theatre Royal, Dumfries, May 16,
Paisley Arts Centre, May 17, Lyth Arts Centre at Latheron Hall, May 22, Burgh
Hall, Dunoon, May 24, The Barn, Banchory, May 26, Byre Theatre, St Andrew’s,
May 27, Eden Court, Inverness, May 29, Birnam Arts Centre, May 30, Music Hall,
Aberdeen, May 31.
The Herald, February 5th 2019
ends
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