Brilliant Adventures interview: “A gaggle of glorious males” with a hidden message

The latest play to be staged at the Goose Nest promises “a gaggle of glorious males”, assembled to perform Brilliant Adventures by Alistair McDowall.

The play, presented by WUDS, follows the adventures of a band of brothers on a Middlesbrough housing estate after one of them builds a time machine.

McDowell is director Grace Lovegrove’s favourite playwright. Unlike many modern playwrights, Grace says, McDowall is not pretentious: he is interested “in writing a fab story with really good characters”. Joe Matty, playing science nerd Luke, concurs: “There are fantastic scenes of comedy, then some dark moments, then some really beautiful moments of sincerity – it’s just got everything”.

There are fantastic scenes of comedy, then some dark moments, then some really beautiful moments of sincerity – it’s just got everything

The play indirectly promotes the benefits to men of achieving gender equality, something which Grace believes needs to be talked about. “Without sacrificing the fun of the play, McDowall explores how gender stops us being able to communicate with each other and puts us in certain roles”. This focus makes Brilliant Adventures the perfect partner to the week 9 Goose Nest show, Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. While the former explores gender from the male perspective, the latter does so from the female.

In this play, unexpressed sentiment haunts all that is said. Grace considers that “the connection between the brothers is implicit – they never say they love each other but they all love each other.” Joe agrees: “The difficulty is that you really get the sense that all the characters are performing in some way. The tragedy lies not in what they say to each other, but what they don’t say to each other and what they can’t say to each other”.

McDowall explores how gender stops us being able to communicate with each other and puts us in certain roles

Exploring this dynamic of emotional silence has been one of the main features of the process. Joe outlines how drawing out the subtleties of the characters was a key part of rehearsals: “We’ll be working with a scene that’s particularly comedic and then we’ll try to find the subtext running throughout. We’re having fun with it but always trying to be aware of each other and what the characters are really trying to say to each other”.

The quality of the writing shines through the play. The dialogue is so natural, Grace explains, that she’ll ask the actors to put the scene straight on its feet without any direction. That way they can find out “where the natural beats fall” and then start “talking about it and unpicking it, noticing your immediate idea of something and then exploring what’s beneath it”.

This process has been aided by the rapport of the cast. The structure of the recalls, Grace divulges, was “very much based on chemistry”, and though notes that “it was hard at first to get that casual vibe in the group”, they have become increasingly relaxed as rehearsals have progressed.

The tragedy lies not in what they say to each other, but what they don’t and can’t say to each other

In fact, the cast have identified so strongly with the characters that now even “the banter we have is the same sort of dynamic as between the characters.” Grace interjects, laughing: “I don’t want to stop them because it’s actually great character-building!”

The main challenge for the team – besides perfecting the Middlesbrough accent, for which they called in the help of a professional vocal coach – is the time frame in which to put the show together. They have had a mere four weeks to rehearse.

Grace argues, however, that this could be a good thing: “Your head is in it and can’t really leave it, and that suits this play because it has so much momentum.” In that spirit, let that momentum (or a time machine, if you can find one) carry you into the Goose Nest in Week 6.

Brilliant Adventures is playing at The Goose Nest, Thursday 15th – Saturday 17th February.

https://www.warwickartscentre.co.uk/whats-on/2018/wuds-present-brilliant-adventures/