Rehearsing by the Sea in St Ives

Rain and a van that almost blocked the whole road whilst unloading the set this morning was not the best start to our week, however we don’t let the weather get us down. It has been brilliant to be rehearsing with a sea view, not just because it is pretty but also because we see the fishing boats come in and out of the harbour. For me it keeps things in perspective as we are creating our narrative, I try to remind myself how it all started, why we as a company wanted to make this show, and particularly why I wanted to make this show.

I never wanted to push my opinion on anyone, but I did come into this project with quite a strong view on trawler fishing and was excited to work on something in order to raise awareness of the possible problems that it creates. However when we first came to Newlyn I felt like I had read only one chapter in a ten-volume epic in regards to my knowledge of how it all really works. Our initial idea was to find the human side to the debate and show trawler fishing from a different perspective to the highly negative one, which the media tends to provide. I remember saying, “I can’t see how I will see their side because it just seems so wrong”… I was wrong. There is so much more to the trawling issue than scraping up the sea bed, that is certainly a part of it, bottom line trawlers (as I understand it) do sit their nets on the very bottom of the sea and pull up everything. However not all trawler boats are bottom line trawlers, and nets are being refined and developed to pick up less of the stuff they don’t want and more of the fish they do. Then of course, there are time restrictions on how long they can fish in a certain area before moving on and allowing that part of the sea to regrow. As one fisherman pointed out to us, they do not want to get rid of all the fish because that would put them out of business.

So I have exposed my limited understanding of the compromise between fishing too much and fishing not enough, but this is not the only thing to worry about. There is also the politics of the situation, parties with their own agenda, companies with another set of agendas, charities, supermarkets etc etc. In Our Hands is trying to highlight the complexity and depth of the conversations that need to be had in order to move forward with this long used and much relied upon method of fishing. So when we were rehearsing today by the sea, with real seagulls replying to our own seagull noises and seeing the fishing boats come into harbour, I found myself even more excited by the subject matter and creating the show. Tomorrow night, we will be performing at the St Ives Arts Club for some of the people that helped us with our initial research in Newlyn, and to people who have seen the fishing industry develop and influence their town over the years. I am looking forward to hearing their thoughts, and a little nervous about it too.

Hattie