A MAJOR revival of Samuel Beckett’s Cascando will open in London next month - bringing audience participation to a whole new level.
The piece, first created as a radio play by the Irish playwright in 1961, will run at the Jermyn Street Theatre from September 2 to 13.
Directed by Pan Pan’s award-winning Artistic Director Gavin Quinn, it will require the audience to dress in black cloaks, listen on headphones and take a 30-minute walk through the capital.
The 56-year-old Dubliner, who has worked in the industry for more than three decades, first studied theatre at the Samuel Beckett Centre for Drama studies at Trinity College Dublin.
He admits he was was "inspired to work in theatre" by the head and founder of the drama department, Dr John McCormack, who "emphasised the importance of theatre art above theatre as a craft".
Pan Pan's Artistic Director Gavin QuinnThis week Quinn told the Irish Post what we can expect from his production of Cascando...
What first attracted you to this play and how would you describe the story?
What intrigued me about Cascando is its perfect weight between the use of words and music to tell a story.
The play explores the difficulties and desperation inherent in the creative process, particularly the struggle to finish a story.
The play centers around a character named Woburn who is in flight, a narrative fragmented and presented through the alternating voices of an Opener and a Voice, accompanied by music.
The Opener initiates and closes the segments, while the Voice narrates, and the music provides an atmospheric backdrop.
Is your production true to Samuel Beckett’s original text?
Yes, painstakingly so, we have endeavoured to assemble the most extant text possible by comparing different publications along with the first broadcasts of the play.
How would you describe your production?
This is an installation of Samuel Beckett’s 1963 piece for radio, Cascando, where the audience move together as one image, a line of cloaked beings, moving at the same pace through in an outdoor environment. Its a new recording featuring the actors, Andrew Bennett and Daniel Riordain, with original music by Jimmy Eadie.
What is most challenging about taking on this piece of work?
For an audience it is not seated so they have to be up for a thirty-minute walk.
The audience are all costumed in black cloaks and are led on a choreographical experience through streets near the theatre while listening to a new recording of Samuel Beckett’ 1963, piece for radio, Cascando.
What have been the highlights of working on this piece?
All the different environments in which we have performed the play from rivers banks and forests in Enniskillen to the cities of New York and Xichang, China.
The production is described as audience immersive; what does that mean in practice?
How challenging is it to create an immersive piece of this nature in London’s West End?
It is a discrete self contained performance that arrives and quickly disappears on the streets of London’s West End, so not challenging at all.
It has been performed in many locations from Washington Square Park in New York to the city centre of Dusseldorf.
What can audiences expect from the experience?
The audiences get to perform in a Beckett play to the backdrop of St James.
Your Beckett productions are critically acclaimed. What draws you back to Beckett’s work and where do you draw your directorial vision/inspiration from?
What draws me to Beckett’s work is mostly the tone which is simultaneously humorous, forlorn and hopeful.
The directorial inspiration comes from reading the material many times and finding a personal way in.
You founded Pan Pan in 1993, what was your vision for the company?
The vision in 1993 was to make experimental work. Over the years the nature of that experimentation has evolved to include dance, conceptual and installation work.
The current ethos of the company is to move the artform of theatre forward and to engage theatre audiences in new and interesting ways.
What’s next for Pan Pan?
We are producing three shows at the Dublin Fringe Festival under our Pan Pan Platform at Fringe initiative. We will also be premiering a new piece called YFEL in association with Melbourne based company APHIDS at Project Arts Centre, Dublin in December.
Cascando runs at the Jermyn Street Theatre from September 2-13. Click here for tickets.
