You have had a varied career with experience ranging across choreography, composing, stage management and acting. How does your experience in these roles influence your approach to directing?
I love mixing. I love shows that mix styles, which use music, choreography and visuals. I love theatre that’s not classifiable. You could go, ‘is it a dance piece? Is it an opera? Is it music? What is it?’ Well, it’s all those things. And people used to say to me, ‘so what are you? Are you a composer or a musical director or an actor?’ And I say, yes. Yes. I do all that. I’m a theatre person. I make theatre.
Was there an interest in opera at an early stage of your career?
I’ve always thought opera was fantastic because it is simultaneously music, theatre, acting and utterly visual. It is a complete spectacle, so I was drawn to that. I suppose the jump to working in opera was when I got an offer to go up to Opera North in 1991 for a fantastic gig, a double-bill of L’heure espagnole by Ravel and Gianni Schicchi by Puccini. The cast were fantastic acting singers, I was so lucky and it ended up being a bit of a hit. I’ve done 13 productions now for Opera North, they’ve been so good to me over the years since 1991.
What drew you to A Christmas Carol?
I had worked on Will Todd’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, which was such a marvellous piece, and it was such a joy to work on with Will. When James Clutton came along and said Will had written a version of A Christmas Carol with David Simpatico, I thought, “Wow, really? This is interesting.” We managed to get together for a worksop, experimenting with the eight singers playing the handbells, the three instrumentalists and the actor, Kit Benjamin, playing the narrator.
Will’s music is so touching. It’s very beautiful and very moving at times. This new version of A Christmas Carol has a very clever way of touching on classic carols that come and go alongside his original music, and each of the chorus steps forward to play various characters across the course of the piece. It’s sort of unquantifiable. Is it a cantata, or an oratorio, or a choral piece?
Why do you think A Christmas Carol continues to resonate as a must-see story?
It’s full of the energy of Christmas in the old days, and at its core it is a story about redemption. It’s surreal, scary and dreamlike, with ghosts coming and taking you to the future and the past, reminding you each year of what Christmas is meant to be about.
From what you’ve been saying, this version sounds different?
Yes, if you’re expecting to see a regular version of A Christmas Carol, it isn’t that. It’s a soundworld which is very, very extraordinary.
You have a history in telling iconic Christmas stories, having also co-written the scenario for Matthew Bourne’s Nutcracker! in 1992. Could you share your process in reimagining classic Christmas tales for a new audience?
When my nephews were very young, I used to read them stories and occasionally change the odd word into something new, nonsensical and stupid, and they’d be shocked and roar with laughter. At Stratford East, we came up with a version of Cinderella called The Amusing Spectacle of Cinderella and Her Naughty, Naughty Sisters, which subverted the original Cinderella story, much like how I’d been telling my nephews stories. We just kept changing little bits and something new came out. With Matthew, I’d always wanted to do something in ballet. My dad used to take me to the ballet and I loved it because it’s so visual. There are no words, just extremely skillful athletic movement. The idea of The Nutcracker came up, and so together we redefined the scenario in a very particular way, setting it in this orphanage. I worked with the dancers just like you would with actors, creating character and backstory.
You have worked with a plethora of renowned opera houses, from the Royal Opera House in London to The Bavarian State Opera in Munich. How do you navigate the expectations of traditional versus innovative staging when attached to such historic organisations?
I think I’m actually quite retro in some respects. The thing about opera is a lot of people go in knowing it already, with a fixed idea of what it is. I do feel a responsibility to remember that there may be someone in the audience who has never seen it before and doesn’t know what the story is. So I always say: go from the story. If you don’t trust it, don’t do the opera. You’ve got to tell the story and make it interesting as you do.
What’s a piece of advice, musical or otherwise, that has stayed with you?
I know I’ve said it already but: just tell the story. Be true to the story, and then you have the basis of a good thing. Try to be true to the author, or composer, or librettist.
A Christmas Carol runs from 17-18 December at Sinfonia Smith Square in London, and opens in Guildford at Holy Trinity Church on 16 December.
Interview by Holly Bancroft
