Grappling with the Dramaturge.

CHARLOTTE ASKED ME TO MUSE ON WORKING WITH A DRAMATURGE, HERE ARE THE MUSINGS.

Be Proud Of Me was commissioned by Mousonturm in Frankfurt. It wasn’t a great deal of money but it wasn’t an expensive show and they made it possible. The devising process was tough, we were working with slides in a blacked out section of our bitterly cold rehearsal space on New Canal Street. Work on this show was dropped in, a week here, a week there, between a host of other projects and touring commitments.

Mousonturm were basically hands-off in their engagement but when they heard that a first sketch version of the show was to be presented in Birmingham, Thomas Frank, our mild-mannered commissioner was straight on a plane.

We had always been a bit twitchy about showing things before they are finished but it seemed worth getting a bit of a steer on this one. After the showing Thomas asked if we could talk together about what he had seen. We sat in a cafe and having noted a few things he thought interesting about what he had seen he then started, in a very delicate but direct way, to take the show apart. Initially it was shocking, in Britain no one ever seems brave enough to actually discuss what they’ve seen in the theatre. I was shaken, he seemed so down on the show I started to worry that we was going to withdraw his commission. Then, eventually the penny dropped. I asked him “are you doing that dramaturge thing?” I had read about this continental figure, the director’s critical friend, now I was experiencing.

Thomas kindly explained how the typical relationship works. “After a rehearsal the Director and Dramaturge will sit down together. The Dramaturge will say ‘that scene did not work, it was far too long, you must cut it in half’, the Director will then reply ‘I agree, that scene doesn’t work, but this not that it is too long, but that it is not nearly long enough, it should be twice the length’” Reassured by this story I continued to listen to the critique before giving a tentative response.

Back in the rehearsal room I ran a selected range of the dramaturge’s thoughts past the devising team and, bearing them in mind, we carried on devising. Ultimately Thomas’ contribution was valuable in the way he had hinted it might be. He posed questions the answers to which informed our understanding of what it was we were trying to make. Things he identified as weaknesses in the show became key elements, which, when fully developed, he was very keen on. This didn’t matter, he forced us to have a strong opinion about them and to commit to them more strongly.

My suspicion is that Dramaturge-Director relationships are unique to the combination of personalities involved and the circumstances in which they are working. Certainly my only other experience of working with a dramaturge, Wouter van Ransbeek, who helped develop Of All The People In All The World for Theater Der Welt 2005, was radically different. Wouter and I were much more relaxed, we met much more, shared ideas and enthusiasms readily and extensively. He took a healthy possession of the show and we laughed together a great deal.

Speculating with next to no knowledge I suggest that the Dramaturge role holds a greater role in theatrical cultures where the Director would otherwise be an isolated figure of great authority. In a devising company working as collaboratively as Stan’s Cafe the role of Directors critical friend feels inappropriate. Maybe within the dynamic of Stan’s Cafe Amanda Hadingue has probably taken a similar position within the devising team and in other circumstance Craig Stephens has been that alternative questioning, prompting voice and council.

James Yarker 9/2/7