Words and structure – Dramaturgy on the floor

It has been an intense but productive few days in rehearsals this week. It was time to take stock of the material so far, and make some decisions about how we plan for the narrative to play out, and how we communicate more complex information about trawler fishing to the audience. As dramaturg I helped facilitate the new structure, listening to the concerns, desires and ideas of the group, helping shape them into a more complex, deeper narrative.

We spent a full evening re-structuring the strong visual material that the company had created in previous scratch performances, focusing on Alf and his son Ben as characters. We need to see more of a development of their relationship and why it is strained. We need to take the audience on their journey more intimately and closely, whilst revealing factual information about issues surrounding trawler fishing in interesting non-didactic ways.

We are starting to portray more details about Alf in Cornwall and Ben, his son, in London. This has become part of a larger concept within the performance – micro and macro worlds, cause and effect and how what goes on in one part of the country affects another. This includes the impact of fishing and the impact that turbulent weather in 2014 (flooding), has had on various communities. London and Cornwall run in parallel but are inextricably linked within the show.

We also decided to focus on how we can communicate words to the audience through the use of recorded media, including radio reports (i.e. the shipping forecast) and voicemail messages left on Alf’s answer machine. This has allowed us to reveal situations and details, such as the incoming bad weather and threats to the community, and as a way to develop relationships on stage, including Ben’s strained phonecalls to Alf from London. The messages have been varied in tone, from funny moments that reveal what is going on in Alf’s life and world, to poignant emotional messages that show what is falling apart. These small snippets of conversations accompany the non-verbal puppetry as key indicators of the main narrative, making the story as a whole deeper and more engaging on an emotional level. In Our Hands is essentially a human story. The characters are affected by the environmental and social issues faced by people in the present day. One of the main discussions surrounding the show is how we try to negotiate the balance between protecting the ocean, whilst feeding the population and keeping the economy stable.