Oli Higginson stars alongside his wife, Meaghan Martin, in the London première of Smoke by Kim Davies at Southwark Playhouse.
Co-directed by Júlia Levai and Polina Kalinina, Oli plays John and Meaghan plays Julie in this modern adaptation of Miss Julie, set in a pre-‘Me Too’ New York and at a BDSM party.
Oli returns to Southwark Playhouse where he was last seen starring in The Last Five Years, which went on to transfer to the West End. Since then, Oli has appeared in A Christmas Carol at the Old Vic and Lava at Soho Theatre and on tour. He’s recently been filming the second series of HBO’s Julia in the South of France.
“That was one of those pinch yourself kind of jobs,” laughs Oli, “I auditioned on the Monday and by the Friday I was in the South of France working with people like Sarah Lancashire, Stockard Channing, David Hyde Pierce and Isabella Rossellini.”
Oli says he promised himself he’d learn from working with these actors, “I felt incredibly out of my depth, but also just ready to be as much of a sponge as possible for all this talent.”
Oli is looking forward to returning to the stage, “I think I love being part of new writing, and new things that feel fresh and on the cutting edge of what people are doing, and I guess with this play, it feels so dangerously new.”
It was during the pandemic the idea of staging Smoke came about, “it was the middle of 2020 and we’re all sat at home, not really knowing what to do,” explains Oli, “my wife and I were bubbled together, and we decided to start reading plays.”
Around the same time, the industry was starting to talk about the necessity for bubbling when doing a play, and it was the only way work could be staged, “someone said ‘you and Meghan are in a bubble, you should do a play together’. That planted a seed in our heads.”
The couple discovered Kim Davies’ Smoke, “Meghan started reading it first and she got about twenty pages in, called over to me, and was like Oli, you have to read this play. We both read it in real time, gasping audibly as this extraordinary piece of writing unfolded.”
“It’s a two-hander, a modern adaptation of Miss Julie that transposes two characters into 2012 New York City where a BDSM party is taking place in this trendy apartment. The two characters meet each other for the first time in the kitchen and the whole play, from start to finish, is seventy minutes of real time storytelling and human interaction.”
“It kind of goes from zero to one hundred in that short time, and it’s really an exploration of gender dynamics, sexual dynamics, power control and consent.”
When Oli and Meaghan first read Smoke the country was still in lockdown, and so their options were limited, “the answer really, was to go and do an R&D, and we ended up with two fabulous practitioners; Júlia Levai and Polina Kalinina for the workshop.”
Oli says that the creative team initially had concerns about a married couple performing a play with such intense themes, “I think we were worried too,” admits Oli, “potentially it could be really difficult, in not a nice way, but actually the R&D assured all of us that we could create a safe space for this to be done.”
“I actually keep forgetting that I’m working with my wife, because we’ve set quite clear boundaries as professionals in the way that we approach it as actors.”
The couple are working with intimacy director, Asha Jennings-Grant, who Oli says has been a tremendous help, “I think anyone who’s in a couple knows that when you start to work, if you work together in any way, or have an overlap in that sense, it’s difficult.”
“But Asha has taken us through lots of exercises that have helped, for example, we did something at the start of rehearsals about seeing each other’s bodies and each other as totally new entities, trying to not bring our own history of our relationship into the work space.”
There’s also an upside to working with your partner, “it’s been really nice as well just to have the freedom, or an excuse, to spend lots of time together, because as anyone in relationship knows, when you’re trying to juggle your work schedules, often you miss each other, and you become ships in the night. Even more so when you’re both actors.”
Oli and Meaghan have spent a considerable amount of time researching the subject, “You have to, and want to, be respectful, on a fundamental level, together we’ve all done a lot of research to explore the world of BDSM, and the community. We understand that it is a sexual identity, and not just a sort of frivolous hobby that might have been portrayed in 50 Shades of Grey. It means something more than that to people who practice it, and who practice it safely.”
The characters in Smoke perhaps don’t practice BDSM safely, “that’s certainly what we’ve learned from the research, but ultimately, it isn’t a play about BDSM, that’s just the context, really, it is a play about sexual assault, and about consent.”
“Kim’s writing is so extraordinary that she’s presented two very complex human beings that are so human, that it’s very hard to pinpoint where one element begins and the other ends in terms of consent, and the way that they use their sexuality to have power over the other.”
Oli is no stranger to Southwark Playhouse, but this will be Meaghan’s first time performing at the venue, “I’m showing her the ropes,” he laughs, “within BDSM, there is something known as aftercare, when the ‘scene’ (the term for a BDSM encounter) ends, and it really does what it says on the tin, it’s about ensuring that someone feels safe.”
“So, I feel Southwark Playhouse is the ideal venue because they are so good at aftercare, I’ve always felt it has a wonderful warm energy, it has a passion and love for theatre that can’t be denied, I think that they will give us the aftercare we need as performers.”
Oli says that even though the play itself deals with these really intense themes, it’s quite grounding and special, “it’s funny, and it’s a really exciting, intriguing, mysterious play, it has a thriller-like quality to it. It’s fast paced and it’s physical.”
“Kim Davis is the most one of the most brilliant writers that I’ve ever come across. I’m so excited to be working with her, and she’s been really involved in this production, this London premiere is being done in a totally different way than it’s ever been done before. It’s much more physical, and has a non-naturalistic quality to it in the design.”
“I think for me, the main thing it should do is open a conversation, rather than educate. The beauty of the play is that it opens a conversation that you maybe wouldn’t have if you hadn’t seen the play, and I really encourage people to open themselves up to that conversation and see where it takes them.”
Smoke, starring Oli Higginson and Meaghan Martin opens on 3 February until 25 February with previews from 1 February.
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