Preview: Lorraine and Alan, Brewery Theatre

Bucket Club are a collective of artists from Bristol and the south, and Lorraine and Alan is their witty, poignant retelling of a Scottish myth, using song, electronic sound design – and hundreds of plastic bottles.

Norfolk lad Alan is a Marine Biology graduate, bedroom dweller and seal tour guide extraordinaire. When Alan discovers a mysterious young woman lying amongst the seals, the duo’s lives become irreversibly entwined. But who is Lorraine? Where does she come from? And why does she take so long in the bath?

So, Bucket Club… without giving too much away, can you tell us any more about the mysterious Lorraine? Is she a modern imagining of that mythical Gaelic figure, the half-human, half-seal Selkie? “Lorraine is a woman who is out of her skin,” explains Bucket Club’s director Nel Crouch. “She can’t stop eating salty peanuts and tins of tuna. She stares at the sea for hours on end. There’s something a bit funny about her. She could be a modern imagining of a Selkie, or she could just be a bit fishy…”

Tell us about the roles played by song, electronic sound design and, indeed, the hundreds of plastic bottles. “Our musicians, David Ridley and Becky Ripley, are a bit clever. They build up layers of electronic sound using only their voices, creating the sounds of a seal colony, daytime TV, a motorboat and the great David Attenborough. Songs grow out of these soundscapes – there’s even a cheeky cover version (we won’t give too much away!)

“As an emerging theatre company we can’t cover the costs of a large cast, so bottles fill in as actors for several minor characters. They also provide most of the set and are used as low-tech filters for our lighting. The bottles for our tour come mostly from the on-street recycling at Arnos Vale.”

So, tell us a bit about Bucket Club’s formation – when, where, why, how? “We all met at Bristol University and worked together in various capacities as students. We formed Bucket Club after graduating when we were awarded a residency at the Lyric Hammersmith through IdeasTap [an arts charity for emerging young creatives], where we made the bulk of Lorraine & Alan. IdeasTap’s imminent closure is a massive blow to young artists – we would have struggled to get started without them, and we hope they can secure funding to continue their work.

“After scratching Lorraine & Alan at the Lyric, BAC and Bristol Old Vic for Ferment, we were taken on as an associate company at Farnham Maltings, who helped us get funding to take the show to Edinburgh. At the Fringe it won two awards and got some great reviews, enabling us to book our tour.

“We started as a group of graduates who just wanted to make something together. We’re now able to pay ourselves for our work and are currently developing two new projects. We’re particularly excited to be coming to the Tobacco Factory Theatres as many of us live in Bristol [Nel herself grew up in Easton and starts a BBC Performing Arts Fund Fellowship as resident director at Tobacco Factory Theatres in August].”

Bucket Club’s strapline reads: “We make work that is, above all, playful”. What does ‘playful’ mean to you? “For us, it’s about the audience, live-ness, and acknowledging theatre as make-believe. We love the way audiences and performers collaborate in making theatre. A mother can be a plastic bottle and talcum powder can be sea fog, but everyone in the room has to play together in order to complete the transformation. Of course, playfulness is also about fun. We make fun things.”

Lorraine and Alan is at the Brewery Theatre, Bristol from Monday, April 13 to Saturday, April 18. For more info and to book tickets, visit www.tobaccofactorytheatres.com/shows/detail/lorraine_and_alan

Pic: Paul Blakemore