Abigail Pickard Price directs Burke and Hare, the final play in Jermyn Street Theatre’s REBELS SEASON. Following last year’s uproarious The Hound of the Baskervilles, three actors once again take on a host of vivid characters. Tom Wentworth’s, Burke and Hare premiered at The Watermill Theatre in spring this year and toured to 21 rural venues to sell out audience and rave reviews.
Burke and Hare is at Jermyn Street Theatre 28th November to 21st December 2018.
You are directing Burke and Hare at Jermyn Street Theatre, what can you tell us about the production?
Following the true tale of William Burke and William Hare our production at Jermyn Street is a mad capped comedy in which three actors play over twenty roles. Those familiar with the pair will often believe that they were grave robbers, the reality is they made their money another way, murder and in this version of the story the anatomist Alexander Monro shows the audience his version of the events.
How did you get involved with the production?
The piece was originally the brainchild of Cheltenham based theatre company Jenny Wren Productions who suggested that The Watermill Theatre might develop it further. I am Associate Director of The Watermill and was delighted to be asked to take the piece onto the next stage of development. Myself and writer Tom Wentworth workshopped the show in autumn last year and the rest is history, we played at The Watermill in spring this year and toured village halls within close reach of the theatre and we are delighted to now find ourselves at Jermyn Street.
There are only three actors covering every part, what challenges or opportunities does that give you as a director?
This presents the biggest challenge but the greatest joy of working on this production. It forces you to think theatrically and to trust in the audiences’ imagination, it becomes the key form of storytelling. The cast, Katy Daghorn, Alex Parry and Hayden Wood are all brilliantly creative and forever finding a solution (and if you are in the front row you might well become part of the solution!). Having a cast of three has allowed us all to play with the way we tell the story, to be openly creative, sharing the creation of the storytelling with the audience as part of the event itself. It does mean everyone has to think fast though! To aid the telling there are a lot of very rapid costume changes so Anna, our ASM is a complete miracle worker backstage ensuring everything is in the right place at the right time!
How do you plan to recreate 19th century Edinburgh on the Jermyn Street stage?
Prolific anatomist and lecturer Alexander Monro was in receipt of the hangman’s contract in 1828, when our play is set, therefore the supply of cadavers from the noose went directly to him and he could excel in his field. When Burke and Hare started killing they sold the bodies to Monro’s competitor Robert Knox meaning that Monro’s reputation greatly suffered. In our production Monro sets out to tell what he considers to be the ‘true story’ of Burke and Hare. We set our story in the lecture theatre of Alexander Monro and from here our story is born and we travel through the streets of 19th century Edinburgh using a few medical implements and the operating table to create the world.
It hąs been touring since Spring, have you made any changes during the run?
We had a six-month hiatus between finishing the tour and remounting the show for Jermyn Street, it was great to return to the piece with fresh eyes with time affording us the opportunity to pull things out of the text that we had perhaps not found in our first rehearsal period, which was an intense and fast process of initially developing the show for the stage. And, the audience are the fourth actor in this show so the more time spent with them the more we keep learning about the show. However, the main change that had to take place was restaging for Jermyn Street as this space and The Watermill’s space are very different, both intimate spaces but one a square and one a rectangle.
How does it feel to be directing the final production in Jermyn Street Theater’s Rebel season?
What a great joy it is to be a part of the terrific Rebel season at Jermyn Street. The team at Jermyn Street have put together an immensely varied and exciting season with such a fantastic array of stories. I adored the brilliantly told Billy Bishop Goes to War which played in the space prior to us and now it is a treat for us to be finishing the season off with a spot of rather macabre Christmas silliness.
What would you say to anyone thinking of coming to see Burke and Hare?
I will leave you with the words of our Dr Monro “what a tale it is! A very dark tale of villainy, treachery and medical corruption. But they were not grave robbers as some would have you believe, simply cold blooded murderers.” Come and find out the truth (or at least our version of it!) and share in some laughs at the same time!
