The Other Place

On the 7th of November 2024, we were able to attend the National Theatre's Exploring The Other Place Live Review Student Conference at the Lyttelton Theatre. This conference entailed interactive sessions and talks surrounding the play's historical context as well as the creative process of the play itself, followed by a live performance of The Other Place. The play itself was written and directed by Alexander Zeldin in association with A Zeldin Company and is set in the roots of Antigone, however is also a very separate version of the Greek Tragedy.

For the start of the conference, we first had a lecture from Dr. Lucy Jackson on the historical context of the play seeing as she was a professor of Greek Theatre. She talked to us on the initial origins of Greek Theatre such as where and when it sprung up, as well as on the development and layout of the theatre spaces themselves. We learnt of the many features of a Greek theatre such as: The audience wrapped around the stage reminiscent of a thrust stage; An orchestra where the chorus (another prominent feature of Greek Theatre) would be based and perform songs and dance from; and the skene which would be situated behind the stage and was a tent that would represent the house where all actions offstage (mainly deaths or offstage dialogue) take place, as well as any costume/mask changes. The theatre itself was also quite limited in terms of when and what it could do, as due to a lack of technology performances could only happen due to daylight due to a lack of artificial lighting as well as there being limited sound effects.

Following this discussion, we then looked to the set of The Other Place, designed by Rosanna Vize, which quite clearly took inspiration from and was very reminiscent of the layout of a Greek theatre. The set was that of a house undergoing renovation and in of itself was very detailed and naturalistic. It featured both an indoor and outdoor space, separated by a large panel of reflective glass with a door panel to access the outside. This reflective panel allowed the audience not only to see the outside, but also in certain lighting conditions, allowed the audience to see themselves too, which was completely intentional as in Greek theatres due to the nature of the thrust stage and natural lighting audience members could very clearly see each other. This is not possible in the Lyttelton Theatre due to it being an end-on stage, so Vize instead came up with a clever workaround to help the audience place themselves in the tragedy. In the outside area, there was also the presence of a blue tent which was very clearly meant to emulate the skene of a Greek theatre layout with the mystery and also death taking place in and around it. The tent in this play is also a representative for Annie (Antigone)'s cave and thanks to the large glass panels is an unavoidable topic of discussion to the other family members. Having the skene be outside and the main stage being inside the house is also a clever reversal of how Greek theatres were laid out, where the skene would represent the house and the outside being represented by the main stage. The house itself has a raised section of wooden boards towards the back and a lower level of marble and unfinished flooring to the front of the stage where most of the action and choreographed music take place. This area then represents the orchestra. As well as resembling a Greek theatre, the set also reflects the current state of the family at the time we see them in the play; with exposed metal beams, bare plastered walls, mismatched furniture and plastic bin bags clearly representing the current transitional phase the family is in as they try to move on from what happened in the past yet also foreshadow the growing and oncoming conflict with Annie's arrival. The lighting design, courtesy of James Farncombe, is also very intricate and striking with how most of the lighting comes from a singular large light box over the main stage. This lightbox also has the ability to tilt and therefore highlight different aspects of the stage, such as Annie's tent when she is 'banished'. The movement of the light box is often accompanied with a low swooping sound effect which makes the light box feel imposing almost as if it symbolizes the gods and ties the play back to the Greek Tragedian roots of religion and the gods.

As well as this discussion, Dr. Jackson also talked on Greek Tragedy's basis and root in mythology, and how many plays used various characters from older tales to portray relevant messaging of human behaviour to the audience. Mythology works well for this as it puts its characters in extreme situations to test them of their true character, and for tragedies the hamartia or 'tragic flaw' serves as a warning against certain actions.

The lecture ended on the question of what makes Greek Theatre so popular as a type of theatre even today, which is evident even with the National Theatre with The Other Place being the 5th Greek Theatre play put on there in the past 15 years. Well apart from the student demand for Greek Theatre, these plays still have and continue to hold relevance in today's society as they focus on the timeless aspect of human behaviour. Theatre, both then and now, was wanting us to reflect and look back on what drives our decisions and why we are how we are. Greek Theatre addressed these issues directly, and so they remain ever powerful and timeless, and are perhaps even more powerful now due to the retrospective point of view we hold of the Greek society where we can see what has changed and what has remained the same in all that space of time.

After the end of the lecture, an education director at the National Theatre / former secondary school teacher who talked to us on the actual live theatre writing aspect of the A-level and how to write about plays from both a performance and design perspective. Some tips included:

- Watching interviews from the creative team to get an idea of objectives and what they wanted to achieve

- Using reviews, archives and any other external information to build a well rounded view of the play

- Summarising the play in terms of its dramatic intention and dramatic effects

-Focusing on what you as an audience member got out of the play and your reaction to it

- Practising description by writing it out, then handing it to a peer and seeing how successfully they can recreate based off of your instructions

- Delving deeper into the meaning and placement of everything,  such as the placement of dialogue, the use of specific props or costumes etc.

As the final part of the conference, there was a Q&A session with Alexander Zeldin who talked about his intentions and process regarding The Other Place.

- What made you write this play?

Because he did a workshop with actors, including Emma d'Arcy, on the play Antigone, and was drawn to her character - young, rebellious, an outsider who gets frustrated and goes against the rules. She is a character relevant to a modern day audience. The state of Thebes is turned into a family in the 21st century in this production. This is why the outsider is the focal point of the play and very important.

- What was your development process like?

It started from fragments of scenes and ideas in Zeldin's head about where the play may go. From there, he got the actors to improvise and get to understand their characters whilst developing and changing the script at the same time. His aim was also to start from a feeling so that the whole play is strongly based around an emotion. The script, the condensing, cutting and changing of scenes all came after.

- Why is Greek theatre relevant today?

Greek plays are taboo subject - extreme stories, violence, murder, rebellion, exile, forbidden love, incest. Tragedy in particular forces us to watch things we don't want to watch to learn more about human behaviour. The shock and disturbance is gripping and entertaining, it make it unforgettable. A theatron means a viewing place in Greek - it is a place to watch new stories and to have a mirror held up to our society. Theatre happens not on stage but in the space between the audience, the thoughts. In particular, Antigone and another play by Sophocles show us what the outlaws and exiles of our world have to tell us - it exposes the secrets we don't want to see.

- What are your rehearsals like?

They begin with a conversation with the actor - all rehearsals are a conversation, about character and themes. He also likes to play scenes out with only movement or dance. How do you condense the mood and actions and speech of the scene into only physical skills? Rehearsals should also be rooted in the feeling of the play so it pervades the whole production. Moreover you should transform your idea or script, change it completely, and not just simply adapt it.

- What inspirations did you take for the play, or which practitioner styles did you use?

He had many different inspirations for all the elements of the play. Firstly, as the assistant director to Peter Brook for one production, his style of performance was very influential, and he had directed other Greek tragedies at the National Theatre before. Brook was influenced himself greatly by Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty (aiming to make the audience as uncomfortable as possible through all of their senses), as well as other experimental directors of theatre such as Joan Littlewood and Bertolt Brecht. The set designer, Rosanna Vize, was inspired by photography and the film 'Zone of Interest,' about a Nazi concentration camp, lending itself to the potentially harsh control of Chris over the family. The music was composed by lead singer of the rock band Foals, Yannis Philippakis, in a different style to the usual indie rock. The whole image of the production was also inspired by Spanish romantic painter Francisco Goya, whose pieces often depicted disturbing religious motifs of death and evil as well as God and goodness. One piece of the heavens above a war scene was particularly important. In addition to the influences from Greek, Japanese, Elizabethan and Korean theatre, in which the actors often addressed different parts of the space depending on the subject of the speech (the floor being the underworld, the middle of the audience being our world, and the roof being the heaven or God/s, the light box above the set clearly represents this, possibly interpreted as the Gods watching the conflict and action on stage.

- Why did you choose this title?

It couldn't be called Antigone, so this title is more unexpected and enigmatic as there are many different interpretations, tangible and intangible at the same time. It shows the theme of being alienated from something, but may also represent another world, like the heavens.

"Theatre is strangely more real than reality as it is so concentrated."

- What was your dramatic intention?

It was to "forget about your phone," but more seriously, theatre should be intense, (an Artaud inspiration, theatre of cruelty). Engage the audience. The lights are half left on in the audience and in conjunction with the large windows acting as mirrors, the audience is able to see themselves reflected in the performance.

- What advice would you give to any aspiring directors?

"If you say a director, then you are a director." Express yourself. Peter Bausch said that theatre should feel the way that reality feels? Don't listen to institutions, what matters to you, you should have a freedom. You should also think about what the focal point of your play is so we see the right and chosen perspective.

In an interview with the FT, at https://www.ft.com/content/c09d7639-075f-4814-b99c-7e8ca53649fc, Zeldin expanded on the themes and ideas he wants to send to his audience (the total dramatic effect). The director has previously directed reworks of old stories, that also use 'painstaking naturalism,' and tough topics to comment on modern day society. His play, 'Love,' was performed at the National Theatre over the Christmas period and follows a Mary and Joseph couple in a temporary accommodation, a comment on recent austerity and poverty from a trilogy of similar plays. However, Zeldin has been adamant to emphasise that these plays are not updates to original plots, but total transformations.

' "Antigone is a play about the aftermath... it's about two forms of grief." ' I would argue that the play, unlike what he states, is about rebellion and resistance as well, from Antigone, but that The Other Place certainly focuses on how the characters deal with grief, and how it affects the domestic setting - Chris is not the cruelly stubborn Creon, but a man, truly affected by the death of his own brother as much as Annie.

' "The challenge of contemporary tragedy is really exciting for a playwright - Antigone takes place in less than a day, it's one action, one place. It's a real test to write something with that mechanism of inevitability." ' Zeldin also says that the script should produce humour in parts to keep the audience attentive. ' "The question that is central to it, to our time, is this; what to do in the face of suffering of others... It (theatre) can bring us into something that we don't normally see (suffering), and that's essential to live - to really live." ' Zeldin himself faced tragedy with the death of his father at 15. He said ' "When someone dies you want to live, so I lived hard... Theatre for me was a space where it was possible to say anything." '

The FT's review is just as insightful, linked here at https://www.ft.com/content/446591eb-2315-46cc-b3d0-0e6c47a20472 - the production is hailed as a 'blazing, shockingly frank take on Antigone,' and a 'Greek myth spun into modern psychodrama.' D'Arcy's portrayal of Annie shows a deep, heavy sadness not lifted since the death of her dad, hanging onto the past, whereas Menzies's Chris is tense and sharp, determined to bury the past and control the present. Zeldin's script dives from black comedy to horror.

We then got to watch the performance at the end of the play. The plot and themes are clearly modelled off of the Sophocles's original tragedy, Antigone. The production is deeply complex, unable to be summarised. The focal point is the grief of the family, and how their different reactions cause conflict, mainly between Annie and Chris. Their relationship extends beyond arguments, but to a strange incestuous bond formed through the processing of their trauma after Adam's suicide. The plot delves into abuse and sexual assault, mental illness, depression, and pretty much every taboo subject of our modern society. The character's faults are revealed through the brutally naturalistic acting and set. Terry, first seen as a relaxed and helpful family friend, tries to assault Issy, Erica ruthlessly builds tension through passive-aggression and her later eerily calm reaction to the actions of Chris and Annie, Issy finally breaks at Annie, demanding attention and care. Throughout the play we, the audience, are forced to watch what we, as citizens, would usually turn our head at. Our outsider, Annie, exposes these faults to the audience.

All this plays in parallel with the original themes of Antigone. References are made to the original script, and the production, despite it's modernity, still refers to the gods, divine law, and fate, how it might control us. Chris's final cry at the end of the piece is addressed to the audience. The music swells suddenly, shockingly - the light turns out towards the stalls, illuminating the audience - it is as if the character calls on them for judgement or counsel. However I do think it plays a distinctly less important role. The gods are present, and deliver fate and punishment. But Zeldin makes it clear the tragedy comes from the actions of all the characters, not just the one supposedly going against the Gods, that free will was involved. Yet the teleological story seems fated from early on. The series of horrific events leading up to Annie's suicide seem unavoidable and tragic, at catharsis is achieved at this shocking climax. However, because of the unrelenting previous sequence of disturbance, the suicide provides a strange relief that strengthens the guilt and sympathy of the audience. Leni's reaction to the blood on his hands is haunting as he sits down defeated on his dead step-uncle's chair. The only character who has truly tried to help and save Annie whilst being a good son for his family, he is young and hopeful, but this is shattered in the final moment.

One of the most powerful moments of the play is the action that follows the kiss between Chris and Annie. In this scene, Chris puts a red hand towel on his head and lifts it up tentatively, ducking down with his head and holding the towel by the side of his hands, inviting Annie to join him underneath. This plays on the imagery of a priest's confession box (often with these red curtains) as if Chris is nervously admitting his sins to a god. The kiss is quite rough and when Annie pulls away, Chris sinks to his knees, shaking and looking up with awe at Annie. Menzies opens his eyes wide and holds his mouth open with a strange shock. He then outstretches his hands towards Annie, searching for something from her. This tableau is horrifying and commands attention, and shows how this relationship has been sexual before this encounter. During the second kiss, Erica (played by Nina Sosanya) comes down the stairs - her body is on a low level of tension, shoulders relaxed and arms down by her side, her gait quite slow, clearly still half-asleep. When she sees the action, her eyes open wide, her posture becomes tense and she is bolted to the spot. After freezing she turns with an eerie level of control and calmness, and walks back up the stairs, her head now raised and attentive but fixed facing forward by her neck. The only way she deals with this shock initially is by pretending it never happened. The rest of the family all come down at different points, leaving the kitchen full with people, the tension crackling in the space between the actors. The mood is utter horror and disbelief. Zeldin achieves a total dramatic effect of pure discomfort in this moment, as we the audience are forced to look on the impacts of grief, suicide, and sexual abuse in a relatable and commonplace domestic scene. Menzies uses a stiff posture and has his hands held out in a begging-like position towards Erica, his pace of speech slow and volume low. Sosanya holds an indifferent physicality, only her facial expression of moving eyes and a slight waver in speech indicating her shock. Leni (played by Lee Braithwaite) walks down and stands awkwardly between his stepfather and mother, head flicking between the two. Issy (Alison Olivier) is on stage too and searching for answers from her sister. Annie searches for love from Chris, who remains in complete despair. Finally, as Annie exits the stage, we have reached the climax.

There are other brilliant moments throughout the play. The final moments of the play after Annie's suicide (Leni's hands covered in blood, eerily unphased, Chris unchanged, Issy unsure of what to do), the uneasy wait for Annie's arrival at the start of the play that shows the awkward tension within the family (Issy attacked by Erica's passive aggression, feeling like an outsider) and the whole sequence when Annie tries to take and hide Adam's ashes from Chris, and the display of power and desperation that follows are all incredibly powerful, building the relationships on stage, presenting the themes and dramatic intention, and showing the audience what we would turn our heads from in reality.