Extra Light Boxes Shows
Matinees added to sell-out run
As news broke of four extra weekend matinees being added to the sell-out run of Grid Iron’s show Light Boxes, we took the chance to speak to the show’s director, Finn den Hertog.
Light Boxes is certainly creating a buzz. It was described by Æ’s reviewer Susan Lowes as “a fringe experience like no other” in her four star review. She said: “It has all the ingredients of a masterpiece, executed impeccably by Grid Iron.”
Melody Grove and Keith Macpherson. Photo: Richard Campbell
The four extra dates are all at 2.30pm, on the next two weekends: Saturday 22/Sunday 23 and Saturday 29/Sunday 30 August 2015. Tickets are available through the fringe website or the Summerhall box office.
Speaking exclusively to Æ, Finn den Hertog, the play’s director spoke of how working with Grid Iron allowed him to develop his interest in directing and he came to adapt and Shane Jones’ original novel.
He originally worked with the company in 2010, and was quickly talking to the company’s director Ben Harrison and producer Jude Docherty about his then fledgling interest in directing. Which led him to assistant directing on The Authorised Kate Bane at the Traverse.
At the same time, Docherty asked if he had anything I might like to bring to the company to potentially make with them.
He said: “I had read Light Boxes and the idea of turning it in to a piece of theatre had been buzzing around my head for a while so I gave the book to Jude, who was just as excited by it as I was.
waiting nearly five years
“I think it was the images that really stuck with me. There are some incredible pieces of imagery in the book and as a theatre maker that’s the stuff I try to look out for, things that your brain can’t turn away from.
“There are some of the passages in this book that I’ve been waiting nearly five years to share with an audience. It was always clear that it wasn’t going to be an easy book to adapt either, so the challenge was another exciting aspect.”
Keith Macpherson. Photo: Richard Campbell
The young director has managed to assemble a stirling team around himself. Karen Tennent’s name is constantly coming up when people talk about great design in Scottish theatre, while lighting designer Simon Wilkinson’s work on Bondagers won a CATS award this year, and Lewis den Hertog is sought after for his video work.
As you might expect, the whole company were involved in the final creation of what appears on the stage, in what den Hertog describes as “more like a devising process than a standard rehearsal one.”
“While I brought a script to rehearsals on the first day, the show we’ve made has evolved so much from that document,” he says. “Really it was just a series of scenes form the book that I wanted to keep but once we got in the room, everyone brought their own take on the book to the process, the actors as well as the design team.”
But it is not just the imaging of how a book will look on the stage which happens in the rehearsal room, which has framed the production.
“I don’t think you can underestimate the dramaturgical impact of a design or lighting decision,” he continues. “When we saw the space dressed for the first time, that made certain things that we had been thinking and talking about in the rehearsal room click in to place; that was Karen’s design making exciting choices for us.”
Listing
Light Boxes
Summerhall (Venue 26), 1 Summerhall, EH9 1PL
Friday 7 – Sun 30 August 2015
Daily, not Tuesday: 7.15pm; Sat/Sun, 22/23 and 29/30: 2.30pm.
Book tickets from Edfringe website: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/light-boxes
Grid Iron website: http://www.gridiron.org.uk/
ENDS
