We thought you might enjoy hearing about the process of creating this production, straight from the mouths of the lovely people that have helped to create it!
Ladies and Gents...we present...the ensemble!
Ladies and Gents...we present...the ensemble!
Working on ensemble
theatre in such depth over the past few months has been a fantastic
challenging productive experience, the pleasure of doing it alongside
some of my close friends is a massive bonus too. I have always been a strong advocate
for Six Lips and it is great to finally be creating with them. I hope
you enjoy our interpretation of Malfi, its a difficult tragedy but I
hope you feel we have still got the nub albeit in a radically
different way. Cheers. Dan.
Being
fairly new to theatre, having only been in three shows previously, I
was excited to be given the opportunity to work with Six Lips and the
rest of the ensemble. I have found the group is hard-working and full
of ideas. The process by which we have taken apart The Duchess of
Malfi and put it back together has been interesting. We have worked
on what it is to be the Duchess and looked at all the different
aspects of her and her relationships with her brothers, her husband
and the servants. I am looking forward to our performance of the play
and to hear feedback from those who come see it. Donna
The
devising process over the 9 months has been very different to what
I've been used to, focused on ideas rather than the playtext. We've
spent a significant amount of time on the side-project of Improv
Nights, and on the physical problem of presenting the Duchess through
multiple performers. The relationships between characters have taken
a backseat to this, and so I hope this is judged more by the
evocation of thoughts and feelings than a story of individuals and
actions- very fitting for an ensemble approach. Tom
The
creative process behind our production of Malfi is completely
different to any other show I've been involved with, which has been a
great learning curve for me as a young actress. The fact that every
member of the cast has been involved at all stages of the production
(including themes, characterisation, script editing) has meant that
all of us have been inhabiting the same 'Malfi' headspace for months
now, ensuring a very thoughtful intention has been kept throughout.
Additionally, the months of ensemble training we received before hand
has been invaluable. We all now work seamlessly together, and this
incredibly supportive environment has enabled me to make bold choices
and pushed me beyond what I thought I was capable of as a performer.
These
things combined, have enabled us to produce an exciting, diverse, and
thought-provoking re-imagining of John Webster's great work. Sophie
Working
as part of Six Lips' ensemble has been an incredible and
inspirational journey which has deeply affected and strenghthened my
work as a performer. We have been expertly guided by the company in
the creation of a strong, impulse-driven ensemble, and have learned
how to communicate through body, movement and voice to create an
exciting and layered performance. We have explored and devised areas
of the play as a collective, responding as a group of artists
and engaging with the play from a collective perspective and allowing
that to shape our approach to individual roles. Six Lips based us in
physical and improvisational work at first, learning how to work
physically together to achieve complicated lifts and devise our own
sequences, and later worked in text as a stimulus for this work. I
have developed greater confidence in solo performance and
improvisations, and know that this work has improved my ability to
respond to actions and other performers within the rehearsal space.
Lily Luty
