Barrel Organ interview: “Communities and people coming together”
The Barrel Organ Theatre Company is rather remarkable. Home grown from the University of Warwick, these graduates had roaring success with their first show ‘Nothing’ in 2013 and 2014. It received critical acclaim – plus a healthy round up of awards. The Financial Times reviewed that ‘Not since 2010 – Anya Reiss’s Spur of the Moment – has a first time play felt so certain in both voice and intent’. Since then, Barrel Organ created the show ‘Some People Talk About Violence’, which premiered in 2015 at the Summerhall Old Lab, Edinburgh, then for two weeks at the Camden People’s Theatre the following winter. It tours nationally this autumn, starting next week.
Barrel Organ describes itself as a company who works collaboratively to create pieces that ‘engage with the audience and ask them to interrogate various aspects of twenty-first century culture’. Their work is fiercely present, as demanding as it is moving, and truly unique.
Barrel Organ engage with the audience and ask them to interrogate various aspects of twenty-first century culture.
So, what are this bright bunch doing back at Warwick? They’re the first graduate company to be curating the Emerge Festival. I met with Barrel Organ members Ali Pidsley, Kieran Lucas and Joe Boylan to discuss the upcoming ‘Emerge Festival’ that will run in the Warwick Arts Centre from Tuesday the 1st November to Thursday 3rd, with two shows a night.
This is the third year the Emerge Festival will run. Ali explains that initially it ‘came out of a collaboration between IATL and the Warwick Arts.’ Joe comments that it was started ‘with a view to crossing that bridge between student and professional work… that further step into the beyond.’
In terms of the show, Barrel Organ describe themselves as facilators, not generators.
Now the power is in their hands, and they’re using it as a platform for other theatre makers. ‘The festival that we’ve made is broadly themed on the ideas of community and people coming together’ says Kieran, ‘what we’re really keen on doing is creating a new kind of community around this festival, introducing people to other people… there’s panels, talks and discussions…hopefully it’ll all come together and speak for itself.’
Barrel Organ have been working with current Warwick students to create their piece ‘The Community Project’. Kieran stresses that in terms of the show ‘we’ve facilitated it, we haven’t generated it.’ Barrel Organ have certainly found the collaborative experience invigorating; for Joe, the highlight has been ‘meeting the next generation of people… so refreshing and exciting, the students feed back on your ideas and you go, wow, I never even thought of that’. He nods, ‘it’s a very active show.’
For Barrel Organ, it’s also about changing the narrative that is emerging that you make work as students, you take it to the National Student Drama Festival, and then automatically you’re in the professional sphere. It doesn’t always work like that.
Barrel Organ aren’t just serving up the goods for an audience; supporting current student theatre makers is at the epicenter of their work. Ali emphasized that for Barrel Organ, it’s also about changing ‘the narrative that is emerging that you make work as students, you take it to NSDF (The National Student Drama Festival), or you take it to Edinburgh, and that automatically means that you are in the professional sphere. And it doesn’t always work like that.’ Barrel Organ are certainly mixing it up. They are changing the idea of instant linear success that can be such an inhibiting pressure to Warwick students nearing graduation. The company are also bringing in people who are part of their broader network as well, from the Camden People’s Theatre with which they are associated with, to inject a fresh and valuable perspective from those who haven’t had ‘the Warwick theatre experience’. As Kieran say, ‘we’ve expanded the remit quite a lot!’
Barrel Organ have shown through their approach to the Emerge Festival that they have a message for young theatre makers; Ali encourages students to not ‘try and bow to what you think you should be.’ ‘We’re showing different narratives’, he says. For him, ‘realizing that there isn’t a certain way of doing things is what made me go, right, I can do that, you can make up your own way, and that’s ok!’
Emerge says, look at how many brilliant and really different people there are out there making work!
The Emerge Festival therefore serves an important promotional purpose. Ali remarks that ‘we enjoyed success at a very young age for the company. That was brilliant… but there are a lot of theatre makers out there that do not have those opportunities and do not have the same platform all the time for their work. Emerge says, ‘look at how many brilliant and really different people there are out there making work!’
I asked the guys what an audience might expect from the shows this week, the fruits of widespread networking and collaboration from students and professionals. They exchange glances and smiles. Joe takes the question: ‘Six very very different unique shows that tackle questions about the European Union, about mental health, communities, race, identity politics, Western expansionism, dolphins.’ The others nod. I, for one, am intrigued.
Tickets for the Emerge Festival can be bought at the Warwick Arts Centre, or on the Warwick Arts Centre website: http://www.warwickartscentre.co.uk/whats-on/list/theatre
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