Dyma Arielle Gray, crëwr a pherfformiwr yn It’s Dark Outside, yn rhannu’r broses â ni o greu’r sioe, gan chwarae â phypedau a’r gwaith ymchwil i ddementia. Bydd It’s Dark Outside yn ein Stiwdio Weston ar 6 Ebrill, 7.30pm
Hi everyone!
We have just started our UK tour of It’s Dark Outside and we are already enjoying the beautiful green countryside, the old buildings and the mist! The great thing about touring here (being from Australia) is how close everything is. We can go from one town to another every single day (in our van, driven by the lovely Oz). It’s all so close! When we tour in Australia, it’s a flight or a fairly hefty drive to get from one place to another.
It’s Dark Outside is a theatre show commissioned by Perth Theatre Company created and performed by Tim Watts, Chris Isaacs and myself. It also has a beautiful original score by the incredibly talented Rachael Dease. I’m going to write a little something about the process we went through to create it!
We have just started our UK tour of It’s Dark Outside and we are already enjoying the beautiful green countryside, the old buildings and the mist! The great thing about touring here (being from Australia) is how close everything is. We can go from one town to another every single day (in our van, driven by the lovely Oz). It’s all so close! When we tour in Australia, it’s a flight or a fairly hefty drive to get from one place to another.
It’s Dark Outside is a theatre show commissioned by Perth Theatre Company created and performed by Tim Watts, Chris Isaacs and myself. It also has a beautiful original score by the incredibly talented Rachael Dease. I’m going to write a little something about the process we went through to create it!
We started with the idea of wildness. In the beginning we were playing with all sorts of things: gorillas, the Wild West, a tarzan-esque child, an old man. Some ideas stayed, some didn’t. When we generate content for the shows we do it by getting into a space, bringing a whole bunch of stuff and playing. We had gorilla puppets, cowboy boots, we made a crude wild boy puppet, and we got an old man mask off the Internet, heaps of stuff.
Eventually we realised we were creating two different storylines, one was the gorilla and the wild boy and the other was the Wild West and the old man. We chose the old man.
We had been looking into dementia and the effects it had on sufferers and we came across a fascinating phenomenon called ‘sundowners syndrome’. Boiled down: As the sun sets (and shadows lengthen) Alzheimer’s patients can become more agitated and the instances of wandering increase. The idea that someone who has lost parts of themselves could have this natural urge to escape into the world (wild) at sunset really captured our imagination. It became our central image (which the whole show revolves around): An old man wanders into the wild at sunset.
From there we played with shadows, the old man, westerns, a tent and much more. One day, we were in the middle of making an old man puppet body and there was some stuffing in the space. We often end up playing with pretty much anything that’s in the space. So lo and behold the stuffing ended up in the show, but not only that, it ended up being a fairly central image. An image for thoughts, memories and all that came with that.
Eventually we realised we were creating two different storylines, one was the gorilla and the wild boy and the other was the Wild West and the old man. We chose the old man.
We had been looking into dementia and the effects it had on sufferers and we came across a fascinating phenomenon called ‘sundowners syndrome’. Boiled down: As the sun sets (and shadows lengthen) Alzheimer’s patients can become more agitated and the instances of wandering increase. The idea that someone who has lost parts of themselves could have this natural urge to escape into the world (wild) at sunset really captured our imagination. It became our central image (which the whole show revolves around): An old man wanders into the wild at sunset.
From there we played with shadows, the old man, westerns, a tent and much more. One day, we were in the middle of making an old man puppet body and there was some stuffing in the space. We often end up playing with pretty much anything that’s in the space. So lo and behold the stuffing ended up in the show, but not only that, it ended up being a fairly central image. An image for thoughts, memories and all that came with that.
From the stage where we generate ideas and play with things we moved onto the editing stage. This is where we string the ideas together into a narrative and find ways to transition from one scene to another. Throughout the whole process we also have consistent showings, where we show scenes and ideas to a variety of people (other theatre-makers, Tim’s parents, friends, sometimes general public) and get feedback. Showings give you several gifts.
1. You aren’t precious about ideas, images or scenes that you are creating.
2. You get to constantly check what the audience is reading from the ideas meaning you know exactly what the show is saying.
3. You know if something is a bit naff!
4. Sometimes audience give you new ideas of what direction something should go in.
Eventually we had the show and have now done several seasons around the world and in our hometown of Perth in Western Australia. We still chat to audiences after the show and have made tweaks based on feedback we have received and also little changes based on things we weren’t 100% happy with.
If you do come and see the show, please come say hi afterwards, we’d love to hear what you think!
Arielle
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