An exciting new site-specific commission is taking place at The Old Waiting Room in Peckham Rye from 2-14 Jul.
Still Life, a play by Noel Coward, has been adapted and created especially for the historic space, which sits between two working platforms, with trains and passengers visible beyond its windows.
Where: The Old Waiting Room, Peckham Rye Station
When: 2- 14 Jul
Ticket link: https://www.losttextfoundspace.com/makingconnectionsowr
Director Rebecca McCutcheon tells us more about the production and Making Connections, the wider community arts festival, which includes Still Lives.
Still Life, or Brief Encounter as most know it now, is such an iconic piece. What drew you to it?
The thing I love most about Still Life, which yes, as you know is the original of the iconic love film, Brief Encounter, is that it is such a rich, compact play.
It takes this single setting, a train station, across the course of a year, and in 5 snapshots shows us 3 different, beautifully drawn love stories, 6 characters from different backgrounds, different situations, who fall in love with one another in the station cafe.
It is as funny, and heart-breaking, now as it ever was, and we’re working to expand and create this whole world of relationships in the comings and goings of the station.
I think its so relatable, and really life-affirming – it explores how all of our lives are determined by the choices we make, we can never really know how other choices would have turned out, and there is something so human in that.
Tell me about The Old Waiting Room at Peckham Rye! Does it have a similar vibe to Carnforth (where the film was set) or are you bringing a new spin to the location?
I know Carnforth! It’s a beautiful space which our production would be wonderful in, but yes, the Old Waiting Room is very different from that – it is on a whole different scale, almost like a cathedral space perched on top of Peckham Rye station, and its been disused for over 50 years.
So it is stripped back, it has this ghostly atmosphere, and in our production feels almost like a kind of dreamscape.
So we have the play, with all the crazy love stories, people leaving each other, finding each other, and then between the scenes we use the atmosphere to explore Laura’s (the central character – played in the film by Celia Johnson and for us by Grace Haydn) inner world – her desires, her regrets, her memories.
We have the very talented composer Lucy Harrison creating these eery arrangements of songs and sounds, it is all very atmospheric.
It’s an all-female cast, which sounds particularly interesting. What themes are you hoping to highlight with this casting?
It’s been great to explore this play with an all female cast. Coward writes his female characters so well – they are complex, they have their desires and failings just as the male ones do – and we’re really centring the strength of his women and especially the complexity of Laura.
Having an all-women cast playing male and female roles has allowed us to explore Coward’s writing of gender in fun and exciting ways.
It’s a perfect play to multi-role in too – so many perfectly drawn little cameos which are so much fun to play. It’s been fantastic having an all-female cast take those roles on, as well as all playing Laura at certain points in the piece.
Do you think Noel Coward wrote this play of forbidden and clandestine love with a queer lens on mind, however unconsciously?
Oh yes, I really get that feeling. We know so much about his life and the mores around sexuality when he was writing. It feels that really resonates very powerfully in the hidden nature of especially Laura and Alec’s relationship.
We explored various ways of portraying this aspect of Coward’s writing – changing the gender of some roles to introduce this, and it would be interesting to see some of those versions – but for us, we found it really started to make changes to the back stories of the characters.
By casting all women to play the male and female roles, I think we’re opening up some of those ideas through what is embodied on stage.
The actors may be playing the role as a man or a woman, but an audience member may choose to read the performance in a different way.
I think it holds that exploration open for a modern audience while retaining Coward’s particular voice.
Tell me more about the wider festival, Making Connections. What’s in store for audiences?
Making Connections is a really exciting new festival. I’ve been creative directing this year with a small and dedicated team.
We’ve collaborated with the Arch company now for the second time, with the aim of making free and low-cost arts activities for Peckham’s community.
In recent months, we’ve had all kinds of things happening, artist residencies, musical hall nights, community talks, and even yoga sessions.
Right now we are in the middle of installing an immersive projection dome into the space, for a series of mixed reality films called Over Exposed, with its opening on Wednesday 26 June, and a Gathering on Fri 28th June – these are going to be really special events, and we really hope that the Arch will go on to keep supporting this.
Still Lives will be the grand finale – it’s on for just 2 weeks, so we really encourage people to get in quick and book!
I saw your production of Vincent River a few years ago and enjoyed it. Do you have a preference for site-specific work over traditional venues, or do you value a bit of both?
Oh, that’s great you saw Vincent River – I loved that play. I love to work with new writing. It is always just a joy to work with writers, and I recently worked with the brilliant Caridad Svich and Lizzie Nunnery.
Site-specific work is always this kind of magical challenge – falling in love with a space, persuading the owners to share your vision and then bringing all the creatives together to make something absolutely unique, you can’t beat it.
On this one I’ve been super lucky and had both – its a stunning space to work in and I’ve also been really happy to work with Dan Rebellato who has created this new version of the play which interweaves Still Life with a less well known later play of Coward’s called Quadrille.
So, it is a completely unique production of a newly minted version of Coward. Hopefully, people will find plenty there to interest them!