Jack Bentinck is a devisor and performer in Temper Theatre’s latest highly-acclaimed production, HOME, which returns home to Cambridgeshire following a run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe where it won Theatre Weekly’s Best Physical Theatre Production.
HOME was inspired by the marshlands of The Fens, looking at our relationships with lost lands, and drawing from the personal experiences of company Artistic Director and Ely born theatre maker Finn Morrell.
This exhilarating show presents a heart-warming exploration of memory, parenthood and climate change using Temper Theatre’s signature combination of physical movement and innovative staging.
HOME is at Jackson’s Lane 17th – 18th January, Babylon Arts on 23rd January and The Robinson Theatre on 25th January.
You’re completing your homecoming tour of HOME this month, what can you tell us about the show?
As a company, Temper have always made work that is high-energy, dreamy and visually captivating and this show does all of that and more. Great performances, puppetry, spell-binding music, dance – I’m going be bold and say that it’s our most entertaining show yet. It’s about a young woman reconnecting with her past. It’s about trauma and memory, flooding, connecting with people and the past. It’s also an insane sound and light show and I could happily just listen to the show and watch the lights fire.
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What inspired this story?
I think it’s more a question for Finn but if I’m going to wear his shoes quickly, I’d say it was going back home in the pandemic to his family who live in a flood-risk area and thinking about the future of his whole family and also his childhood in the flat-levelled out landscape of the Fens.
Also the beauty of the Fens and the folklore of the Fens has been an inspiration for the show. I did get to wear stilts in one version of the show and play a giant – very fun.
And what did the process of devising the show look like?
The show has lots of choreographed sequences that combine theatre, dance, puppetry and even some illusion. One sequence in particular is a montage of the main character growing up in an almost Pixar kind of way but with an alcoholic father. It’s very detailed, very precise with specific localised lighting changes. It takes time and effort to build let alone remember!
I think audiences will really enjoy the kind of cinematic beauty of the show. The lighting design is stunning – it’s amazing what they’re doing in a theatre space. It’s really big budget kind work but compact and streamlined into small spaces.
The show was critically acclaimed at Edinburgh Fringe, were you surprised by the reaction?
Yes! Always! and especially in Edinburgh. It’s amazing to have anyone in the audience there, we are really happy with that and that people liked the show. Thanks so much for coming.
It’s fast-paced and cinematic what’s the biggest challenge in performing this show?
Yeah – it’s a very technical show to perform, there’s a lot of emotional gear shifts, props and set to move, sequences to carry out. You can go from puppeting an Eel to being a teenage love interest just like that. You’re very likely to make a mistake at some point so I think adapting to that and staying in the show, in the moment and in the ensemble is the hardest thing.
Tell us a little more about Temper Theatre and what we can expect from the company in the future?
Expect the shows to be more and more ambitious. Finn is an awesome director, creator, facilitator and an overall powerhouse of a human so I’d expect something nuts. If Finn tells me an idea for a new show or project, I normally laugh, raise my eyebrows and think – surely that’s not quite possible but somehow it always is.
What would you say to anyone thinking about booking to see HOME?
We will do our best to rock your world and give you a memorable night out. Genuinely – we’d love to perform for you, to have a blast with you and I guarantee that we will sweat our asses off to make it worth your while. Also we’re not performing again the UK for a while so it might be your only chance…
