Who: , director and co-creator of The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart from the National Theatre of Scotland, now playing at The Heath at the McKittrick Hotel
Outside: The McKittrick Hotel
The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart is a modern-day music-filled fable about a woman captured by the Devil. I know you鈥檝e been touring the show for a few years now鈥攖ell me a little bit about how it all began.
WW: The production started in a small pub in Scotland. It was made to tour in any space鈥攁ny bar鈥攕o that we could turn up and just use what鈥檚 there. After we鈥檇 done a tour of Scotland and we鈥檇 done the Edinburgh Festival, the show got picked up for more festivals. As part of NYC Tartan Week this year, we did the show at Lincoln Center. Jonathan Hoschwald [co-founder of Emursive, the company behind Sleep No More at the McKittrick Hotel] saw it and it all came together very quickly.
Did you have to change it for New York at all?
WW: No, and it has to do with the room here at The Heath. Because the production travels around the room, and there鈥檚 no divide between the performers and the audience鈥攖he layout of the room and the atmosphere of the room is incredibly important. In a way, it gives you what a set might give you. When we walked into The Heath, it was almost spooky it was so perfect. It鈥檚 got a cozy, convivial feel, like you could nurse a whiskey here and be told a story. It feels like you鈥檙e in a Scottish pub, but you鈥檙e in the middle of New York. So the strange thing is we didn鈥檛 really have to change it all.
The show takes place in and among the audience. How important is their presence and/or participation?
WW: It鈥檚 threaded through the play鈥攊t鈥檚 integral. Theatre only happens as a conversation with the audience, and the audience鈥檚 imagination makes the theatre along with the performers. Particularly here, where there鈥檚 limited lighting and sound, we鈥檙e making theatre with very simple props. We鈥檙e asking the audience to make the show with us, so it鈥檚 obvious that they should get involved.
The audience is given a whiskey on arrival. What happens if they get rowdy or too drunk during the show?
WW: We haven鈥檛 really had rowdy audiences. We get people who are enthusiastic and, very occasionally, someone who鈥檚 inappropriate, but it鈥檚 really rare. I think audiences are generally very clever and sensitive鈥攜ou have to trust them. We always wanted Prudencia Hart [which we tell as a folk tale] to have the feel of鈥攚hat you would call in Scotland鈥攁 folk session, or a Ceilidh. They鈥檙e usually at a pub, and people bring their instruments and play folk music and dance. The fact that people can drink is part of the experience itself.
A live performance, in essence, is always new but I feel like immersive theatre, which depends on audience participation, takes that principle one step further鈥攚ould you agree with that?
WW: As a company we say: 鈥淓very audience is the perfect audience.鈥� Sometimes they鈥檙e louder, other times they鈥檙e quieter, or more hesitant. It means each show is different. We鈥檝e been doing Prudencia Hart for a while now and we鈥檙e still learning things, and the show still has a freshness about it. It never settles because the relationship with the audience is always different.
Your bio says you鈥檝e created theatre on a Shetland ferry, a Berlin nightclub, in the woods, in cars moving and stationary, on the top floor of an office block, in a department store, in a deserted house in the town where you grew up, pubs, village halls, nightclubs, tents, and theatres too. As someone who鈥檚 been creating immersive theatre for some time now, how does it feel to have arrived at one of the most famous places for immersive theatre in the world?
WW: Its fantastic. It鈥檚 almost beyond expression. We made the show without any notion that it would travel the way that it has and have this kind of longevity. Also鈥擨 find it heartening that the show is set in a small town in Scotland but has this universal appeal. It means that we鈥檙e communicating as cultures through the power of simple storytelling.
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