Performer and theatre maker Faith Jones is an Associate Artist with celebrated theatre company Pan Pan - below, she introduces Exit, Pursued By A Bear, their eagerly anticipated production for this year's Dublin Theatre Festival.
Exit, Pursued by a Bear is one of the most famous stage directions – thank you William Shakespeare – and that is the starting point for Pan Pan's 2024 Dublin Theatre Festival show.
A sloth of actors - I mean bears - began developing this piece with Co-Artistic Director Gavin Quinn in March of this year. This development led to an early draft incorporating text and initial suggestions of theatrical mood; something that I have always loved about Pan Pan’s work is the intense atmosphere and tone that blends with design by Co-Artistic Director Aedín Cosgrove.
This early development script contained original text taken from Shakespeare's The Winter’s Tale, as well as the plot and general characterisation. This was combined with an improvisation technique often used by Pan Pan to create their work, where performers use their knowledge from the rehearsal process and personal experiences as content in recorded discussions.
During development, the cast also attempted to improvise their own versions of The Winter's Tale, giving their own spin on the melodramatic source text. This improvised Shakespeare was configured into modern day English versions of the text — other improvisations included conversations around themes involved in the play, such as jealousy, legacy and love.
Not all of this content is used in the final piece, but it feeds into the general atmosphere of the work — personally, this aspect of the process is so useful as a performer because it is a holistic way of understanding the feeling and intention.
Exit, Pursued by a Bear turns one of Shakespeare's problem plays – a tragic comedy about loss, jealousy and impulse – into a meditation on the comedy that can come with being an intense and deeply emotional person.
Throughout rehearsals, we combed through this initial plot and script structure, making changes to text and discussing simultaneous action that could take place. One of my favourite aspects of Pan Pan’s work is their ability to create such strong stage imagery that allow audiences to interpret their own meaning. Ultimately, the question is; what will be interesting and engaging for an audience to watch?
There is a sense when you watch a Pan Pan play that you are looking at a Renaissance painting, or peoplewatching, of being given a glimpse through someone’s window. Exit, Pursued by a Bear is no different, and the combination of actors, singers and dancers creates an interdisciplinary performance space. The theatrical shapes that we create on stage, and the choices made, interweave our different backgrounds and skills.
The plot of The Winter’s Tale, put simply, is a royal family dissolving, and then attempting to be put back together, all of this dictated by one person in a delusional, impulsive and jealous headspace. It explores how long it can take for guilt to overpower someone and how irresolvable mistakes can be.
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In the original text, the playwright brings us into the story not at the beginning, but the middle, meaning we see characters taking strong stances before we’ve even been given the chance to get our ear around the Elizabethan language. Exit, Pursued by a Bear turns one of Shakespeare’s problem plays – a tragic comedy about loss, jealousy and impulse – into a meditation on the comedy that can come with being an intense and deeply emotional person. It's for audiences who like being entertained, being enticed, being interested and being confused.
Exit, Pursued By A Bear by Pan Pan will be at Whyte Recital Hall at the Royal Irish Academy of Music from October 3rd-13th, as part of this year's Dublin Theatre Festival - find out more here.
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