LEO DOULTON

3. Use of space: I really like productions that use space to help them build the world. Sometimes this is ensuring the production moves from setpiece to setpiece, though more usually it's looking at a venue and thinking 'how can we bring the audience into this world?'

 

4. It has to be live. It's really easy to film stuff nowadays, and usually cheaper - so one of my core rules is that anything onstage has to be a truly live experience. That might be due to interactivity, use of space, or any number of other things. But it should feel 'live', and be impossible or near-impossible to film in a way to convey the experience of being there.
 

But the subtext to the question 'what sort of productions do you do' is always ‘do you do, y’know, those weird productions?’

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To which I have to answer ‘sometimes’. This is because of strand 5:

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5. It has to do something for the audience.

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I always want the work to work for my audience today, not the composer’s centuries ago. Sometimes that does mean modernising and reworking a well-known piece, or doing abstract, conceptual work that will move them, even if they don’t understand why. But it can also mean doing a period production on a tight budget, or a slapstick comedy about a camel.

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If I'm using a strange language for the production, I'll be sure to teach it to the audience in the first few scenes. But it will always be in a language that they can understand, or learn quickly. Because if only I can understand it, why would I go to all the effort of sharing a piece of work with them?

 

Every show's different, so my work’s always going to be different. Take a look at the productions below, and see what you think.

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If you're interested in my approach, I wrote a few blogs about it here.