Humans of NYT REP - James Dacre Interview
©JOHAN PERSSON, for press and publicity while production is being performed. All other usages must be agreed with Johan Persson
At university I took several shows to the Edinburgh Festival and got the directing bug through that extraordinary process of both making a show, but also learning how to cultivate an audience. I was someone that really enjoyed exploring lots of different aspects of what it means to put on a show and came to directing – and going to drama school - as a kind of logical combination of trying out all of the different disciplines involved in doing so.
I’ve always been passionate about directing Youth Theatre companies: of looking to the future and thinking how we want the industry to be in 20 years time?
I learn so much every time I step in a rehearsal room with a young company of actors like the NYT Rep who are both bringing all of the different voices and perspectives of their generation into that room but also have a determination to forge new ways of telling stories. Working with tomorrow’s theatre-makers has always been an important part of my practice and made me a better director.
Let The Right One In is a truly powerful story and it’s beautifully conceived film adaptation helped to bring the Nordic Noir genre of filmmaking into the mainstream. Jack’s theatrical adaptation draws upon both the original novel and also the screenplay.
It’s a thrillingly unusual melting pot of ideas: part crime thriller, part vampire story, part fantasy but with all the trappings of a hard hitting docu-drama.
It explores the many challenges of navigating life as a teenager and the different ways in which we go about making sense of the world as a young person. The story of a group of young people growing up in a world that they don’t yet fully understand. And a big question that this play asks is… what is a monster? Of course, monsters come in many different shapes and sizes… and they don’t always have fangs.
The play asks us to put so many extraordinary scenarios on stage. We need to stage a gym class, a large group of people ice skating, a swimming class and much besides, not to mention several grizzly murders and supernatural events!
The key to thinking about how we bring all these scenarios to life as an ensemble has been building a physical, visual, sonic and emotional theatre language that tries to place the audience within the action of the scene and to experience it from the point of view of those characters that are taking part in it.
For example, in the swimming scene, we’ve explored what it means to be underwater and how that looks, feels, and sounds. Of course, we can’t put a swimming pool on stage, so instead we have to conjure one up in the audience’s imagination. Where do we place that onstage? How would a group of swimmers occupy that space? How will we differentiate between “above the water” and “below the water” in the play’s iconic drowning scene? Could some members of our ensemble become the water whilst others enact those that are swimming within it? How can music, sound, costume, lighting, and video design enhance these choices? How much do we need to show and how much can be left to our audience’s imagination? The conclusion that we always come to is that it’s not about the swimming pool: it’s about the characters within it and what they’re experiencing and why.
The play asks us to put so many extraordinary and near impossible scenarios on stage. We need to stage an entire gym class, a large group of people ice skating and a swimming class, not to mention multiple grizzly murders and supernatural events. The key to thinking about how we tackle all of those has been building a physical and visual theatre language that tries to put the audience within the scene and to experience the scene from the point of view of the characters that are taking part in it.
In the swimming scene, we’ve really thought about what it means to be underwater and how that feels and sounds. What it means to come up for air and the difference with how that feels and how it sounds. Of course, we can’t put a swimming pool on stage, but what we can start to do is imagine what is the size of a swimming pool… how would a group of swimmers occupy that space? How do we differentiate between above the water and below the water? How potentially do some members of our ensemble become the water while other members are those that are swimming within it? How do we allow the audience to feel immersed within that pool through our video and sound design? How do we allow the audience to trust their ears and what they hear? Crucially, how much do we need to show? The conclusion that we come to is it’s not about the swimming pool, it’s about the characters within it and what they’re experiencing and why.
It’s been very rewarding working with this company of 25 brilliant young artists to lean into the youthful perspective of the story. As a piece of theatre it demands a naturalistic playing style at times but also enables us to flex our theatrical muscles in more expressionistic ways at others.
The ensemble has collaborated extensively with our remarkable movement director, fight directors and creative team and we’re even benefiting from the contributions of an illusionist. So, we’ve been fortunate enough to draw upon many different aspects of what it means to build a piece of theatre from working psychologically on characters to using ensemble-based physical theatre practice to build a world onstage.
The NYT Rep are an extraordinarily talented, versatile, enterprising and collaborative group who offer so many different perspectives on what it means to be young today. They each bring very different skills and qualities to the table, and there is an specialist in every type of field within the group. As with all good ensemble theatre, you learn so much from those that you are in the room with. And you work collectively to envision different ways in which to conjure up different worlds onstage.
