INTERVIEW with Director PHIL BARTLETT on
THE MOORS at The Hope Theatre 11 October – 5 November 2022
By Heather Jeffery
THE PLAY
Any play with the tag line, ‘The ravenous crows are circling’ is going to get my attention and if my imagination needs any further provocation then, ‘gripping Gothic story’ has me hooked. So, I grasped at the opportunity to chat with experienced director Phil Bartlett. He is also the newish Artistic Director of The Hope Theatre and this is his directorial debut at this venue.
To begin, I ask him to put the show into one sentence and am delighted by his response: “The story concerns a young governess who arrives at a mansion on the bleak moors but when she gets there is no sign of the child she is assigned to look after ….”
Bartlett has cast six “pandemic graduates” in the roles. The brief for the call- out on Spotlight, specified that actors should have graduated since March 2020. Bartlett was clearly shocked that more than 1,900 responded, giving him a lot of show reels to get through with some people being ruled out because they did not fit the criteria. The first round of the audition was whittled down to 120, and with a recall of 30, six really brilliant actors have been chosen. “Imogen Mackenzie graduated in 2020 and Peter Hadfield literally finished back end of summer” adds Bartlett with a flourish.
Images (top row left to right)
IMOGEN MACKENZIE, MEREDITH LEWIS, KENIA FENTON
(bottom row left to right) TAMARA FAIRBAIRN, PETER HADFIELD, MATILDA CHILDS
He could have chosen the cast three times over, the standard was so high, but some of them worked particularly well together and Bartlett also trusted his own directorial instincts: “As a person who makes things, you have to trust your gut for what you think is right; the version of the story that’s kind of in me.”
Bartlett first came across Jen Silverman’s script a few years ago and immediately knew he wanted to stage it. “It’s a brilliant script and it’s not been done in the UK” he says. “I knew a bit about Jen Silverman, her very sharp talent, and I knew this piece was inspired by Bronte sisters, their lives and stories.” (Bartlett’s first essay for his English degree was about Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre.) “It isn’t a traditional period drama, it has one foot in the present” explains Bartlett, “there’s a great stage direction: ‘Set in the 1840s...ish’”
Whilst it’s set in a version of the nineteenth century, it’s a play about now; the jokes and the rhythms show how people think and talk today” says Bartlett. However, Bronte’s moors are at the heart of the play. “There’s isolation and ambition about these women who, in their own ways, are being ruthless, to survive and get ahead” explains Bartlett. “It’s a gripping drama and it’s a very funny play, with an almost surreal comic thread running through it.” Anyone familiar with Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights is likely to pick up some of the references, however, “you don’t need that to enjoy the play” says Bartlett. “It’s a story about ambition and desires, and whether the characters are able to achieve fulfilment”.
Two actors have the delightful roles of a dog and a moorhen. The script specifies that the dog is male and the moorhen is female because the way their relationship works is important. “Jen (the playwright) has given them a really gripping and quite moving story thread of their own” add Bartlett.
Bartlett enthusiasm is contagious, and he is delightful company. There’s a kind of fire burning behind his eyes when he talks about theatre, a joyful shining light.
THE VENUE
The Hope’s slogan is ‘The little theatre with the big ideas’ and this has given Bartlett particular inspiration. “What exited me about the play was partly about people feeling trapped, that the environment might swallow them up,” he says. “Six characters with scenes in different rooms, in a mansion and out on the moors as well, fitting all of that into an intimate space excited me, it will be a slightly claustrophobic atmosphere but in good way.” The staging is like an installation, with the audience seated inside the performance space, so that the whole room is included. Bartlett is trapping the audience with these slightly strange characters. “It shouldn’t be a play you’d fall asleep in” he says with a grin. “Compressing everything into this room is in some ways a good fit for a crumbling mansion on the moors” he adds.
Bartlett has already had a fun, but fruitless day “running around a garden centre looking for gorse for the poster”, fortunately created with “graphic design magic”. The folly of trying to conjure the moors on Upper Street in Islington in a slightly noisy theatre space is not lost on Bartlett, but he’s finding it a “fun challenge to transport the audience there”. This is in the hands of set designer Sophia Pardon and atmosphere will be created with songs composed by Daniel Kluger, further composition and sound designed by Julien Starr with lighting designed by Jonathan Simpson.
“I’ve got a clear image of how the show will look and feel” says Bartlett “but I’m aware that quite a few of those will change through the process”. Part of the fun of staging the moors, is “like having to play a game of chess, always thinking four moves ahead, sending the rook over there; so where does the bishop and the king go,” laughs Bartlett.
UPCOMING SHOWS AT THE HOPE
By his own admission, Bartlett’s first year as Artistic Director has “flown by”. His first season of plays is underway and he’s working on the Winter Season which goes on sale in October. “I think it’s difficult times” he says sadly, “we want to support audiences to experience theatre, and companies to make theatre.” He’s figuring out how this can be achieved, and hopes to offer help with funding. Future plans also include stepping up to producing two in-house shows each year. In the meantime, the current programme includes a show which is returning to the venue due to popular demand and a new writing play which was short listed for the Paines Plough women’s prize for writing.
When looking at work Bartlett is always interested in “quality writing and finding pieces that have something original or a new angle”. It’s got to be rooted in great story telling, whether it’s drama, comedy or even stand-up, “if it’s somehow surprising it’s worth considering”.
Over the last year Bartlett has got to grips with the systems of how things work here, he’s rebranded, and rebuilt the website. “The building has such a strong identity, there’s an energy here with its punk rock history (there are still gigs in the basement)” says Bartlett, “it felt like the branding might connect with that.”
Bartlett has to dash off to catch a train to his home town, Plymouth. He’s off to see his nan whom he hasn’t seen for six months, and he’s clearly eager to see her again. I like his priorities.
THE MOORS by JEN SILVERMAN is at The Hope Theatre
11 October – 5 November
The full programme of shows at The Hope Theatre can be viewed here
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A ONEOFF Special Award has been awarded to London Pub Theatres Magazine and Editor Heather Jeffery for providing a vital forum for highlighting the excellent work that happens in rooms in pubs, with sensitive editing, and an acute sense of the importance of tiny fringe venues to the health and development of British Theatre