CallumBerridge

This was the first piece I directed with Lancaster University Theatre Group and is still my favourite production to have been involved in. During the pre-production stage I made the decision that rather than two actors, as required, we'd cast a 6 person ensemble - 3 males, 3 females - to play the characters of Steve, Helen, Les and Sybil. Over a 4 week period I went through the script scene by scene and dissected the dialogue. It completely transformed the script in a really surprising way. Thus we had Steve 1, 2 & 3, Helen 1, 2 & 3, Les 1, 2 & 3, and Sybil 1, 2 & 3, speaking what once were large monologues spoken by a single character as, instead, incredibly revealing dialogues. I liked to think of it as fragments of the same character interacting with one another, which really lent itelf well to the Berkoffian stylised performance and l'enfants terribles nature of the play. It made them feel more unstable and highlighted the polarisation of class - the anger - that I think drives this play. The costumes were an amalgamation of the two characters together (in the males case, Steve and Les...

This was an original production created with the Lancaster Offshoots for our 2014 Edinburgh Fringe performance. It was a devised physical theatre piece for which I started by giving the entire ensemble a questionnaire to fill in asking about their dreams, nightmares and their childhood. Throughout the process I experimented with a range of devising techniques, particularly several physical ones created by Frantic Assembly. From the questionnaires, found objects, images and music I created a series of monologues all connected by a recurring image in each one, taking greater significance as the piece progresses. Through the physical exercises I choreographed a series of sequences including bed duets - which was a striking section in which a table was stood up onto its end, covered with a sheet and pillows and made to look like a bed, as the ensemble performed a series of duets to an instrumental piece of music, leaning against it - and an ensemble chair sequence, created by asking the cast to come up with a number of gestures that represent anxiety, waiting and movments suggesting a stressful commute, and playing with how they can repeated and changed to form an interesting sequence. This was eventually...