Tell us a bit about you as a company and this show?
Original Impact formed in 2014 and toured Megan Jenkins’ first play A Working Title in 2016. We spent 2017 focussing on our actor-muso interpretations of classics (Twelfth Night at The Blue Elephant, Man of Mode at Upstairs at The Gatehouse) but, at the start of this year, went back to Megan in the hope of creating something from scratch again. After several R&Ds Gone was eventually formed.
Was there a particular moment of inspiration that spurred you to write this play?
Megan wanted initially wanted to explore storytelling, violence and lying. She had us tell each other stories from day one, made up and remembered, and one of them was about a little girl who walked into a forest and never walked out. It caught our attention immediately and Gone grew around it.
What have you enjoyed the most about this project?
Working with an ensemble who support each other entirely in telling a strong story everyone is passionate about and feels genuinely invested in.
What do you think people will like most about the show?
Not completely knowing how to feel about particular narratives and characters. Nothing in the show is black and white and the text consistently jumps from humour to horror, shock to huge distress. The audience should still be unpicking the plot days later.
The show looks like it has some very intense themes (superstition, loss and violence), what challenges did you come across addressing these?
We had to make sure everything was thoroughly researched. The team spend most of our R&Ds researching and feeding back, to make sure that the human elements of the show were and genuine and understood as possible
Are you hoping to develop the piece? If so, how?
Megan would like to R&D again with the text to streamline and we would like to spend longer on the ensemble work and the music in the show. We hope to put it on again, in it’s final form, in the near future.
Favourite line from the play?
“A woman on the bus looked at me funny so I leant over and whispered, ‘fuck off’ and a bit of blood and spit fell out from the hole where my tooth was. Shat herself.
Three words to describe the play?
Visceral. Intricate. Dark.
Tell us a funny story from rehearsals?
We had a lot of long rehearsal days and one day on a dinner break we were looking through rehearsal photos and decided to have a caption competition within the team all related to the show. People really got creative and we were on the floor laughing.
Anything else people should know before coming to the show?
We love feedback! Especially face to face, do find us in the bar after or send us an email with your thoughts!
Audiences should also be aware the show contains strong language and references to sexual assault.