The first blog in an exciting series by Sleight of Hand who are presenting The Man Who at the Tristan Bates Theatre.

This is the second time in my career so far where I have returned to a play, restaging it for a different space and a new audience. The only other play I have directed more than once is Shakespeare’s Richard III – one of my favourite classical plays for its dark wit and horrifically charming protagonist. Richard III is definitely a challenging text, and similarly The Man Who is an addictively thought-provoking and intriguing play. Based on a book by neurologist Oliver Sacks, The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat, the play (like its source) presents us with a series of fascinating doctor/patient scenarios. It draws audiences into a world of the unknown: crossing the boundaries between familiar and unfamiliar, comical and tragic, realistic and surreal with poignancy and impact.

Sleight of Hand’s production of The Man Who began life as part of the StoneCrabs Young Directors Festival in 2014. After a week of rehearsals, three actors stepped onto a bare stage in the Albany Theatre studio and brought the characters to life through mime and physical theatre. The techniques of Laban (familiar to many drama school students) have been important to our rehearsal process from the start: utilising his physical approaches we have found ways to help each actor move from one character into another psychophysically and instinctively. Mime is also key: we have tried to use abstract and surreal staging elements and the actors’ physicality to challenge audience perceptions.

We don’t want people to leave the auditorium feeling that they have sat on the doctor’s side of the desk all night: analysing from an intellectual distance the various interesting conditions presented. That is too easy, and rather dull. We want them instead to identify with the person behind the condition, to see the world from their perspective even if only for a few moments. The text itself encourages this, and our production seeks to push it further: with mime the actor controls what we see and perceive to a far greater extent, as they can mould a world of objects in front of our eyes, using the power of shared imagination.

Following its first performance at the scratch festival last year, our production of The Man Who was lucky enough to be selected for transfer to a larger space. Having had five days rehearsal, we were given another five before the second showing… However, we had a change of cast which threw a new challenge into the mix! One original cast member was able to stay on, but due to conflicting schedules the other two were unable to do the second show. With a quick audition process we found two talented new actors: Tom Cuthbertson and David Fairs. A new actor inevitably brings new ideas, new angles and perspectives into the rehearsal room which is very rewarding, bringing new life to the piece. The characters took on new shapes and qualities, and this is something which we again look forward to this year, as new actor Jake Francis joins original cast members Danny Solomon and Suzie Grimsdick in our current production.

Our second performance venue was Canada Water Culture Space: an amazing building with a cafe, library and various facilities including a theatre. Moving into a new (and very differently-shaped!) space brings new challenges and we had to reshape our staging significantly. Whereas the Albany Studio had been rectangular and small, Canada Water was a much less uniform shape with a more open auditorium feel, and it required much more flexible and open staging. In performance, we noticed a big difference in audience reaction: while the studio was intimate and encouraged vocal, audible responses such as laughter, sympathetic vocalisations, or gasping, the larger theatre auditorium meant that audiences kept their feelings a little more to themselves. The Tristan Bates Theatre is almost a mixture between these two spaces, being quite intimate but also larger than the Albany’s studio space, so we look forward to seeing how this affects the production and the relationship of performers to audience members.

In restaging a piece it isn’t all about simply reshaping it for a new space, of course. It is an opportunity to push ideas further and to try out new ones, and for us we wish to experiment with a slightly new approach, different aesthetic and rearranged structure – as well as find additional nuances to the characterisations. With restaging a show, it is really about achieving the perfect balance between learning from past experiences while remaining open to new and exciting creative ideas. It can be tempting to just hold on to what worked the first time, but ideally restaging also involves an element of experimentation: for what is creativity without risk?

Interestingly, when I directed Richard III for Elysium Theatre, the first time was for a black box studio and the second time was as part of The Wars of the Roses Project: a big immersive and site-responsive festival for a heritage venue. Our production of The Man Who is similarly, we hope, going to inform a longer-term immersive and site-responsive piece, but in this case a new play based on the stories of people suffering from these disorders today, entitled Ergo Sum. Our blog next week will talk about the support groups and charities we are working with in order to make this happen.

This blog was written by Director Ellie Chadwick. Ellie is a freelance theatre director working in London. She founded the Elysium Theatre Company which specialises in immersive heritage experiences, working with The National Trust and other venues, and co-founded Sleight of Hand last year after staging The Man Who for a scratch festival at The Albany Theatre in Deptford.

The Man Who, stage one of the Ergo Sum Project, is running from March 23-28 at The Tristan Bates Theatre: call the Box Office on 020 7240 6283 for tickets.