Gunter (NHB Modern Plays) E-Book

Lydia Higman

• Herausgeber: Nick Hern Books
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Seitenzahl: 58

Beschreibung

1604. A small village outside Oxford. Two boys have been murdered by local brute Brian Gunter at a football match and their mum wants justice. But Brian is also the richest and most powerful man in the village, and has an ego too fragile to tolerate public slander… A nasty feud begins, and when Brian's daughter Anne starts demonstrating strange afflictions, an allegation is made: she has been bewitched. Impassioned and highly theatrical, Dirty Hare's award-winning production of Gunter, co-created by Lydia Higman, Julia Grogan and Rachel Lemon, tells a true story of deception, witchcraft and football. The play premiered at Summerhall at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2023, where it was awarded a Scotsman Fringe First Award, Pick of the Fringe from both Playbill and Lyn Gardner, whilst Dirty Hare were named one of The Stage's Fringe Five list of breakout theatremakers. It transferred to the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2024. 'An incantation, working dark magic into a small room' - Financial Times 'Atmospheric retelling of a famous witch trial… there's a sensuousness to the storytelling… appealingly energetic' - The Stage 'Electrifying… equally intense and playful' - Playbill

Leseprobe

Lydia Higman, Julia Grogan and Rachel Lemon

GUNTER

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Original Production Details

Preface

Production Photographs

Characters

Gunter

‘Oh, Where the Bad Man Sleeps’

About the Authors

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

Gunter was produced by Dirty Hare and first performed at Summerhall as part of the 2023 Edinburgh Festival Fringe on 2 August 2023, and at the Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Sloane Square, on 3 April 2024. The cast was as follows:

JULIA GROGAN

LYDIA HIGMAN

HANNAH JARRETT-SCOTT

NORAH LOPEZ HOLDEN

Director

Rachel Lemon

Designer

Anna Orton

Lighting Designer

Amy Daniels

Composer & Lyricist, & Sound Designer

Lydia Higman

Sound Designer

Tom Alford

Associate Designer

Anisha Fields

Movement Director & Choreographer

Aline David

Video/Projection

Michelle Alise

Voice Coach

Rebecca Whitbread

Sound Design Consultant

Tom Foskett-Barnes

Production Manager

Helen Mugridge

Stage Manager

Aime Neeme

Assistant Stage Manager

Molly Hands

From the Royal Court, on this production:

Captioners

Jess Andrews & Rachel Dudley

Stage Supervisor

"Steve Evans& Maddy Collins"

Lead Producer

Hannah Lyall

Sound Supervisors

David McSeveney& Jet Sharp

Lighting Supervisors

Lucinda Plummer& Deanna Towl

Costume Supervisors

Katie Price& Lucy Walshaw

Company Manager

Mica Taylor

A Preface about People, Process and the Past

Jules

Five years ago, I had a call from Lydia about Anne Gunter. She was finishing uni and had come across the story of a young girl feigning possession. It sounded heavy and hectic, and we’d just written the fiftieth draft of our play Belly Up, so – like a fool – I ran a mile when she suggested it would make a fantastic new project.

Fast forward to July 2022 and I’m sitting outside a Brighton pub in the harrowing wind, listening to Lyd and Rachel’s wild plan of making Anne Gunter’s story into a stage show and being asked if I want to come on board. This time, a bit loose from the Amstel, I hear what they’re suggesting and am immediately swept up in their vision. A world of pin vomiting, football and levitation. I was absolutely in. Sick of waiting around for replies to emails and all the usual bollocks that comes with our under-funded industry, we nail down three things: we will make and produce the play ourselves, it’ll have three actors, and a historian will frame the action.

To get under the skin of Gunter, we had to get to grips with the early seventeenth century. This was easy for our resident historian, but for me and old Rach, it meant Post-it notes and a shitload of research. The three of us descended on Wildcard Studios (a beautiful cheap space for artists, since closed down), where we took our sandwiches and spent days dragging story beats out of the limited archives and wrestling with how many Thomases appear in Anne’s tale. After weeks of grappling, we finally had a very loose shape of a story; it had lots of gaps but we knew enough to apply to the Edinburgh Fringe. And when Summerhall accepted the show for August 2023, we very quickly had to actually make it.

With ticket money left over from Belly Up, we were able to pay two of the most wicked actors out there – Norah Lopez Holden and Letty Thomas – to come and R&D the project with us in Pelican House. Lyd kicked off proceedings with a history presentation and Rach ran improvisations and set up scenes where the three of us actors played with the characters. At this point I was Brian – which was hilarious because I’m five foot four and have the frame of a dormouse. We went from Pelican House to Cornwall, where we learnt Lydia’s haunting music and swam in the sea and I wasn’t playing Brian any more and everything was happy. It was incredible because the gaps in the story started getting filled. We felt closer to Anne, if that’s not too yikes to say.

Then everything became a bit serious because we’d got the phenomenal Hannah Jarrett-Scott on board, and we were sat in Tottenham Quaker Meeting House with a banjo and three weeks to rehearse and make a show. And so began the messiest, wildest devising process, handled with absolute fearless freedom by Rachel Lemon – who deserves an Olivier for being the most exquisite rudder in all the chaos. Tottenham Quaker House is a space so tranquil you can’t quite imagine Hannah, dressed as Brian, shredding Franz Ferdinand in a wig. Or the occasional AA group member accidentally strolling in on Norah vomiting pins. Or me, dressed as a bear, gyrating in maple syrup. It was a magical three weeks. We’d start and end the day in true Quaker style, standing up if we were moved to speak. Sharing our fears and hopes for the project, slagging off arts cuts for making theatre so fucking impossible. We played a lot of volleyball to keep connected as a team, because the truth is it was a really tough process in moments, and we had very little time.

Then we were off to Edinburgh! Only to get the date of our tech rehearsal wrong. A four-hour tech, now reduced to two. And with most of the team still in London, I had to play Anne and Brian and nineteen other parts (life made) while our legendary lighting designer Amy Daniels managed to programme the entire show. We had to cancel our first performance and we cried the whole first day at the festival. So, do not be fooled by the Fringe First and the Financial Times review. We did not get off to a cracking start. But we bloody managed it. And it was absolutely glorious. And I am forever in awe of you, Lydia and Rachel – thank you for your ferocity and for letting me in on the curious world of Anne Gunter.

One thing I’ve taken from this process: if you’re making work you believe in, and you’ve got good friends around you, the rest doesn’t matter. Because you’re doing it. And making work is hard at the moment, it’s not being made any easier. So, we’ve all just got to keep doing it and doing it. Until, hopefully, it gets a little easier.

Another thing we’ve learnt from making Gunter is the value of space. Space is expensive and hard to come by. We are aware of the privilege we had making Gunter. We had kind people open their doors to us and without that – having failed in our Arts Council bid – we wouldn’t have been able to make the show. Making theatre is expensive and taking work to festivals like the Edinburgh Fringe just isn’t feasible for a lot of companies. Yet it’s really one of the only places that celebrates new artists and work. So, something is going very wrong. And we need to keep fighting for that to change.

We want to thank the following people for making our journey that bit easier:

Tom Forster at Summerhall for taking a punt on us.