Conquer

Those who have known us for a while will recognise that we normally work in a three when it comes to our devised shows. But, of course, in true Apple style, we have decided to throw ourselves in at the deep end (awkward pun, gah, GOT to stop doing that!).

You may have noticed that for this show, we are in a cast of five with the addition of George and Luke. Now, working with new people is not something we are strangers to and to be fair, unlike our last project, CELL, where we were collaborating with another company, we have worked with both George and Luke for a number of years but we have never devised a show with them.

Working collaboratively presents it’s own set of problems, as does working with a larger cast but for every difficulty, a thousand things are made that much easier. For example, we are no longer having to bind ourselves by our lack of numbers and in our sort of puppetry, this can only be a good thing. There are more opportunities, more thoughts, more bodies in the space and ultimately, more hands to animate with.

We’ve only been R&D’ing In Our Hands for two days now but already i’m finding myself asking, does a bigger cast make it harder or easier? I know that’s a stupid question to ask because the answer will always be, it makes it different. I’m certainly finding that in the rehearsal room, the ‘more’ of everything can be both hugely plentiful but also have destructive potential. The conversation sometimes splits with one half going on a tangent about one thing and the other half on another. The repetition because not everyone heard or not everyone understood. The constantly varying levels of energy, concentration and focus.

Devising as a collective, without a leader, isn’t easy at the best of times and we will have to work hard to maintain a forward motion within our newly founded five. The challenge for us now is to make sure that everyone pulls in a similar direction and we use our size to our advantage, physically, mentally and emotionally.

To be fair though, the challenge is why we chose to do it. The challenge is what keeps it exciting and interesting. The challenge is terrifying and will quite possibly not work. The challenge is what we want to conquer. The challenge is what we will conquer.

Molly Freeman

Golden Delicious Apple