What follows are my notes from my interview with Paul Clarke; the director from Uninvited Guests, who are performing Make Better Please and Love Letters Straight from the Heart at this year’s festival before the Pilot Event at the MAC.
Anna: What was the original stimulus for Love Letters? s
Paul: We attended many weddings, even some members of the company have been married recently and looked at the way people reacted at weddings and how there are huge, releases of emotion; especially in the speeches, that are not shown ordinarily in day to day life. We wanted to provide people with a space where they felt safe to show emotions and talk about relationships that are or were important to them. The intimate environment that the show is held in is part of the way that we try and make people feel safe and create a sense of a social atmosphere, like a wedding, by sitting people round banquet tables and presenting Cava upon their arrival.
What was the initial stimulus for Make Better Please?
LOVE LETTERS MAKE BETTER PLEASE BOTH
Why have you chosen to perform the show in such an intimate environment when weddings, the original stimulus for the play are such public displays of affection? What was the initial stimulus for Make Better Please? In your performances you are very focused on audience interaction. Why do you think it’s more effective to allow the audience to influence the work and what challenges does this present?
Love letters has toured nationally and been incredibly successful, huge congratulations on that by the way, why do you think it has spoken to so many people? In a review in the Guardian it was reported, ‘, Make Better Please is a leap into the unknown: they don’t know if audiences will share their sense of injustice or inequality in the world. Clarke even wonders if fights might break out.’ Has anything like this ever happened in a performance? What is it about Fierce Festival that appeals to you as a performance group?