Preview: Touching the Void, Bristol Old Vic

What happens when you look death squarely in the face – and how do you find the strength to crawl back towards life? Joe Simpson’s memoir Touching the Void – international bestseller, BAFTA-winning film sensation – charts his struggle for survival on the perilous Siula Grande mountain in the Peruvian Andes in 1985.

The heart of the story is Joe’s mental battle as he teeters on the very brink of death and despair in a crevasse from which he can’t possibly climb to safety.

Also unforgettable in the story is the appalling dilemma of Simon Yates, perched on an unstable snow-cliff, battered by freezing winds and desperate to rescue the injured Simpson, who hangs from a rope below him. Knowing that they will both ultimately fall into the void, he makes the critical decision to cut the rope, forever changing the lives of both of them.

Inside the rehearsal room for ‘Touching The Void’. Pics: Geraint Lewis

Now, at Bristol Old Vic, the theatre’s artistic director Tom Morris (The Grinning Man, War Horse, Swallows & Amazons) is directing the first stage adaptation of this nail-biting adventure, bringing award-winning writer David Greig back to Bristol for the first time since his college days. The production also marks the moment when the theatre reopens its front of house, on September 24, after its major redevelopment project.

So, Tom: how did this adaptation come about? “This project really started when Mike Shepherd, of Kneehigh, told me that he had seen a film which had prevented him from sleeping. I went to see it too, and at that point, everyone was talking about Touching the Void. It was one of those films that made people sweat, made people shiver.

“I then read the book, which had the same visceral effect on me and at that point – over ten years ago – I thought it would be great to make a piece of theatre which gave an audience that feeling. Much later, I was on the phone to David Greig, talking about possible collaborations. I mentioned a stage version of Touching The Void and he said, ‘If you do that, I’m writing it.’” He was obsessed too…”

Touching the Void director Tom Morris

BOV’s version is very clear about where the story’s dramatic centre lies. “When you’re reminding people of the story of Touching the Void, you eventually have to say, ‘It’s the one about the guy cutting the rope in the mountains.’ That moment is what makes this story stick in people’s minds, even though the book has all sorts of other fantastic climaxes.

“We’re starting somewhere near the middle of that story and then opening out from that. If we’re going to succeed in making a theatrical adaptation of Touching the Void, it has to work as a riveting story of suspense. Is this guy going to survive? Even if audiences know the historical outcome, that question is the central driving force. It’s got to be as visceral, as powerful and simple a story as it is in the film or the book.”

And how much of the hostile landscape of mountains, glaciers and crevasses can they evoke on stage? “The film’s amazing photography makes it incredibly atmospheric. We, however, are in a theatre. The most powerful storytelling tool in theatre is the audience’s imagination. Writing, acting and scenery are there to stimulate the audience’s imagination and what they remember of their own visceral experiences. That’s why we cry in a theatre – because we remember aspects of our own lives, moments we’ve lived and moments we’ve failed to live.

“Our designer Ti Green has created something absolutely extraordinary for people to look at. We don’t want to give the audience the experience of looking at this mountain in the Andes, we want to give the experience of being on it.”

Andean experiences aside, what is the key to the story’s immense and enduring power? “I asked Joe Simpson why he thinks his book has endured. His reply was that, in some ways, this is like a soldier returning from war. There’s something about stories of impossible resilience that are both magnetic from a tragic point of view and incredibly inspiring from an aspirational point of view. A story about humanity on the very limits of its endurance, and the things we might be capable of, seems like a fantastic story with which to reopen the front doors of our theatre.”

Touching the Void is at Bristol Old Vic from September 8 to October 6. For more information, visit www.bristololdvic.org.uk/whats-on/touching-the-void