Social Media

Phil Stewart - Moreau Interview

MOREAU is a unique and captivating reimagining of sci-fi horror classic The Island of Dr Moreau by HG Wells. This radical new version now explores trauma, therapy, rebellion and ultimately, hope. It also tackles the contemporary issues of identity and neurodiversity. It will run at Drayton Arms Theatre, South Kensington on 10th & 11th November.


Co-written and directed by neurodivergent theatre maker Phil Stewart - and produced by neurodivergent-focused theatre company Exciting Stories - 
MOREAU is a dark, challenging yet inspiring adventure that explores disability and asks: what really creates the limitations on those who are born different?

In addition to showcasing neurodivergent talent,  MOREAU is a unique and captivating theatrical experience. Inspired by Grotowski’s Poor Theatre, as well as Simon Stephen's recent one-man production of Vanya (starring Andrew Scott), and Eddie Izzard’s solo performance of Hamlet, this ambitious yet personal original stage production features just four actors performing sixteen speaking roles between them. 

Ahead of the performances we sat down with writer and director Phil Stewart to learn more.

What can you tell me about Moreau?
MOREAU is a bold new contemporary reimagining of the science fiction horror classic The Island of Dr Moreau by H.G. Wells. It tells the story of a hospital patient struggling with his traumatic past, being forced to engage in therapy or be thought of as broken and dangerous. This new stage version uses just four actors to take the audience on an epic yet inspiring adventure. Like the original novel, it examines power, control, and the consequences of tampering with nature - but this new version also tackles identity, trauma, therapy, rebellion and ultimately, hope.

What first drew you to this piece?
Initially, it was because I’ve always been a fan of science fiction horror. The H.G. Wells novel has a bit of a reputation, thanks in no small part to the 1996 movie version, starring Marlon Brando and Val Kilmer. So before I read it - some years ago now, as part of my degree in Film and Television Studies - I was expecting to discover a story about a crazy mad scientist creating monsters, attempting to ‘play God’. But when I read it, I found instead a story about how a minority community - the animals that become the Beast Folk - are forced without consent to conform to a set of behaviours by those in power. At least that’s how I read it. As a neurodivergent person, I instantly saw clear parallels with masking, where individuals are socially conditioned to suppress or alter their natural behaviours to fit fixed social expectations - a struggle I am very familiar with! This inspired me to write this new version, reimagining it for a modern audience, using the classic text as a framework, to highlight the difficulties that neurodivergent people face on a daily basis, navigating a world not made for them which demands conformity at the cost of personal identity.

The cast in rehearsals.
How did you approach your own reimagining of the piece?
Well again, it comes back to that movie version. It’s famously awful! There’s a brilliant documentary about the making of it, and it’s utter chaos! Anyway, in typical Hollywood fashion, the film focuses on entirely the wrong things, at least in my opinion. Rather than being about a character's journey, or any level of emotional depth, it’s more interested in being a showcase for special effects and visual spectacle, particularly with regards to the Beast Folk. As a result, it’s simply tedious. As an audience, we don’t care. I don’t believe audiences are particularly interested in special effects and spectacle, not really. Audiences want emotion over everything else. They want to feel - to truly connect with the characters presented in front of them. That’s the most important thing.

One of the benefits of theatre is that - unlike in the more visual media of film and television - theatre offers an incredible opportunity for unfettered access to the audience’s imagination. So for MOREAU, I was inspired by the Tony Award-winning stage version of The Elephant Man, where the lead character - played by Bradley Cooper, Mark Hamill and David Bowie among others - is performed without any prosthetics. That’s what we are doing in MOREAU - the audience has to imagine the extreme deformities of the Beast Folk. Having no special effects, no ‘real’ set or props, pretty much everything is transformed in the minds of the audience at some point - forces the audience to imagine, and this investment in the drama makes the experience both more personal and more intense. Maybe it’s my background in audio drama, but I’ve always felt the best special effects are always the ones inside your head. Of course, the challenge is simply to find an amazingly talented quartet of actors who can transform themselves and their surroundings for an audience. With Jimmy, Jack, Liv and Natassha, I have exactly that.

What was your creative process like in preparing for the show?
For me, theatre is all about collaboration and being open to ideas, and not being ‘fixed’ with a particular idea. So, the first thing I did was write the script like I wasn’t directing it, so then could later, as director, direct it as if I hadn’t written it. This gave me immense freedom to change things during rehearsals like I might with any other text. Freedom is very important to me. For me, being a director is less about telling people exactly how things need to be, and more about building a safe space for free experimentation and creativity and seeing what springs up. I feel the rehearsal period should be a time of play rather than a recital. So my creative process is more about setting up situations that encourage the actors, and the rest of the creative team, to make suggestions and come up with ideas. It makes it our show rather than my show. Then it's my job as director to make sure all the ideas join up and are compatible or complement each other. It's about synchronicity. It’s a bit like being a conductor of an orchestra - rather than a dictator.

What research did you do in developing your ideas?
As this is part of my MA in Theatre Directing, research is crucial to this production. In terms of rehearsal techniques, I read up a lot on Grotowski, inventor of the Poor Theatre, which this production very much is inspired by, as well as various movement practitioners, such as Michael Chekov and Pina Bausch, and the Viewpoints system, among many others. The focus has been on finding ways that can assist the actors in transforming themselves and the space around them, without the need for complicated sets, costumes, sound and lighting. It’s paid off massively.

Where did your arts career begin?
I think that depends on what you define as ‘career’! I’ve been interested in the creative arts since I was a child, initially performing in school shows and community theatre productions, then going on to study Theatre at A’level. In my late teens, I took an interest in film, making zero-budget short films, many, many years before YouTube. I also wrote, directed and produced audio dramas. It’s only more recently, in the last five or six years or so, that I thought I could actually make a proper career out of it. So, I completed a Film and Television Studies degree at the University of East Anglia, worked in TV production with Sky Studios - and now I’m doing an MA in Theatre Directing, with a plan to write, direct and produce theatre, audio drama and short films via my company Exciting Stories.

How do you reflect on your career up to this point?
If I’m honest, I’m not great at reflection. I guess when you put it all together, it looks like a plan. But it certainly didn’t feel like that at the time!

The cast in rehearsals.
What keeps you inspired?
Two things - one negative, one positive - although they are two sides of the same coin. The negative one first. Experiencing terrible theatre, audio drama, TV or films keeps me going. I instantly think ‘I can do better than that!’ It’s amazing how inspiring bad things can be! It’s very easy to be intimidated by greatness, but bad art can have the opposite effect. For example, this show would never have happened without the aforementioned Marlon Brando movie. It’s so bad!

On the flip side: something that the amazing Sasha Damjanovski once said to me during a talk about imposter syndrome: “There will always be people better than you, and worse than you. It's irrelevant. You have a human right to contribute what you have. Also, don't apologise for being fabulous.” Who can argue with that?

What would you hope someone takes away from seeing Moreau?
Ideally, a sense of hope. A feeling that people can be different and it’s not only their right, but it’s a good thing. Ultimately, MOREAU is about standing up for an individual’s right to exist freely in the same space as everyone else - no matter their neurotype, sexuality, gender or any other difference - without being forced to conform to socially accepted ‘norms’. I firmly believe that although we are all different - and that difference is a good thing and should be celebrated - ultimately, we are all the same. We are people. And nobody has the right to take that away from us.

Where can people see the show?
MOREAU is on at the Drayton Arms Theatre, South Kensington on Sunday, November 10th and Monday, November 11th, at 7.30 pm.

Tickets are available from https://www.thedraytonarmstheatre.co.uk/


Post a Comment

Instagram

Theme by STS