Welcome to the next instalment of chats with creatives bringing work to Vault:.Vaulty Chattles!
Yuval Brigg directs new theatre company Nomadomedy’s devised theatre show Labour’s Lost Love, which is showing at this year’s A Pinch of Vault festival.
“In the forest, labour is survival, and survival is joy. In the rehearsal room, productivity is creativity, and creativity is chaos.”
Where: The Glitch, Lower Marsh
When: 20 Feb, 8pm
Ticket link: https://www.theglitch.london/events/labours-lost-love
Tell us a bit about Labour’s Lost Love – what should audiences expect from it?
With the risk of sounding slightly cringey, Labour’s Lost Love is quite literally a labour of love and joy.
The show follows a human who is forced to take their first vacation in a decade.
They were hoping to go glamping, but the forest they arrive at has other plans for them.
The Forest is its own character, and it performs as all the creatures that live within it, giving both the audience and the protagonist a one-of-a-kind show.
We tried to make it as weird and fun and camp as possible with puppets and different costume pieces and even some songs!
Audiences can expect a wild magical romp that gets up-close and personal with some very human habits most of us try to hide or deny.
Your show is included in A Pinch of Vault – what’s the best thing about being included in a festival like this?
A Pinch of Vault has been an incredible opportunity for us as a company that is just starting out.
Since it is marketed mainly as work-in-progress festival, it elevates some of the pressure of having to get it “right” and “perfect” the first time around while still allowing for a longer runtime and bigger reach than you would usually get from a scratch night.
We also got discounted rates on rehearsal spaces and a chance to meet other creatives who are part of the festival!
Your role is to direct and facilitate a devised production. What do you enjoy about working in this way, and do you have a preference for this or traditional direction?
The best and worst thing with devising is that you have no clue what is going to happen and that is both terrifying and exciting.
Rebeka, Goda, and I had some discussions before we started the process, so we had a vague idea of what the core elements and themes of the show were going to be but discovering the characters and moment by moment action has been such a fun experience!
I think the most important thing to me is to not stick to common hierarchies. A lot of the time when there is a written play, a director might come in with a clear vision of what they want and gear the process towards that.
In our devising process, we all came together to discover what this show is about, who the characters, and how they show up onstage.
This level of collaboration, where everyone is involved in the creation of both the process and the piece, is something that is important to me and that I really enjoy!
Your topics are migration, queerness and mental health, taking lived experience as inspiration. Do you think this is something theatre should do more often?
I think that drawing on lived experiences is something theatre can’t avoid, no matter how hard it tries.
As queer migrant artists, whatever we are making will have that perspective.In the case of Labour’s Lost Love, themes of migration and queerness are not discussed explicitly but elements that are inherent to these positionalities are very present in the style of the show and the way in which it engages with the theme of labour.
We explore it with queer and migrant joy while still asking questions that are deeply relatable to people in the UK.
What’s next for Nomadomedy as a company and this show in particular?
Nomadomedy is just starting out, so there are a lot of exciting things to look forward to!
After A Pinch of Vault, we will be taking on audience feedback and making Labour’s Lost Love bigger, louder, and camper before taking it to a 5 night run at the Lion & Unicorn at the end of April.
If you want to see some more of Nomadomedy’s work before then, come join us at the Drayton Arms on March 17 and 18 for the first showing of (Jewish Ethics of) The Perfect Breakup, a show that asks all the questions you wanted to ask your ex and (unlike your ex) answers them, too!
As the name suggests, it takes a Jewish look at relationships, particularly queer ones, while following the ever-deteriorating friendship between two relationship podcast hosts.
We hope it will give everyone who attends a glimpse into a worldview they might be less familiar with while discussing topics that we all know a bit too well.