Preview: Trip the Light Fantastic, BOV

Theatre West’s ever-excellent annual new writing season concludes with Miriam Battye’s play, which centres on three key themes: male friendship, loneliness and dancing.

Once a week, in the back room of the Rec Centre, two men meet and dance. As they fumble their way through practice, Jack and Freddie share their solitude, and the contents of their heads. They swear, they sweat, and find a strange sort of intimacy they didn’t know they were missing.

Here’s Miriam to tell us more.

So, men and dancing… where did this play come from?
As a writer, I am interested in the idea of self-destruction. Drama is about conflict between people, but also the conflicts that happen within a person. The miniature explosions that we undergo on a daily basis are fascinating to me. In Trip the Light Fantastic there are two characters coming at the world from completely different places: and dancing is the one tiny, strange part of their life that causes them to come into contact with each other, and opens them up to another kind of life experience.
I wonder whether it is ever possible to really understand the way someone else sees the world, without actually getting inside their head. But I like treading this line in my writing, and seeing how much characters can pull out of each other. It is one of the real joys of a two-hander. As a writer I often tend towards the open and exposed, and I wanted to write an open-hearted play where two characters really challenged each other.

Why did you choose dance, in particular, as the medium which would open these two men up (to each other)?
Dancing is a situation where people are forced to be physically dexterous, emotionally engaged, alluring, confident, commanding, elegant and, God forbid, sexy. For some, that particular cocktail is an absolute nightmare. I can’t really think of a more apt setting to have some fun with two characters.
I suppose I was drawn to a situation where two people would be forced to become fairly vulnerable and intimate with each other from the get-go, without the trappings of a romantic relationship. I was drawn to dance because people often describe it as an expressive or emotional medium, but actually it is quite a technical exercise (particularly ballroom dancing), and also a source of embarrassment and anxiety for many people. It’s fundamentally weird, and possibly pointless, like a lot of great and worthwhile things.

Did you enjoy portraying the discomfort these two characters feel?
Characters being forced to do things so far removed from their normal is something that really appeals to me as a dramatist. The play is not big or bombastic at all – in fact I was keen to keep it small and intimate. Sometimes when I’m writing I feel an onus to ply plays with big twists and gasp moments, and whereas I know these have their place in great drama, I enjoy finding other ways to tell compelling stories. There is no form-bending or bells and whistles: it’s just two people challenging each other for an hour on stage.
I also enjoy writing two-handers: there is something wonderful about watching two actors working really hard on stage, and really plugging away at a character. Whatever I may feel about the play I’ve written, I feel Jack and Freddie are achievements. They are real and they exist, I know them and I feel that what happens to them is true.

Is it a classic odd-couple comedy? Or ‘bromance’? Or something quite other?
I don’t know. As a coupling they are definitely…odd. They don’t make sense to each other. There’s romance in there too, in all shades.
I hope that people find the warmth and humour I’ve tried to embed into the play. The humour comes from all kinds of moments – people are funny, whether intentionally or not – and Freddie and Jack each have their moments. The wonderful actors, Adam and Roland who are bringing Freddie and Jack to life have certainly brought out the light with the shade.

What would you like to send audiences away thinking and feeling?
I can only ever hope that an audience member might connect with something or someone in the play, even if fleetingly. I hope that audience members relax, have a chuckle maybe and go away feeling like they spent some time with two compelling people.

Trip the Light Fantastic will be staged in the Bristol Old Vic Basement from Tue, November 17 to Saturday November 28. For more info and to book tickets, visit http://www.bristololdvic.org.uk/lightfantastic.html