NINA IN PERU
image: Juan Pablo Murrugarra
I have just finished an incredible and exhilarating month of work on a project with my company In Transit Theatre, devising and developing our new production titled They Call Me Nina.
We started the process with a concept. I wanted to explore the phenomenon El Nino as a starting point. A fierce weather pattern with global effects, that are curiously in direct opposition. For example when it floods in Lima, there is a severe drought caused in Australia. From this diving board we dove into creating two characters who are complete opposites, and together explore their emotional landscape.
This time, for the first time In Transit (myself, Valeria Escandon and Claire Thill) has worked with a writer. Catriona Kerridge came on board as playwright and it was such a fruitful experience. We started the process with only snippets of her writing, including one monologue (part of below) which gave birth to the title.
My name is Nina. Me llamo Nina. My name is Nina and I was born, I was born in an El Nino so my parents thought I would be a boy, their little Jesus, their little boy. But I was the opposite, so they called me Nina.
Cat was in the room with us for the entire process, writing based on Valeria and Claire’s improvisations and feeding it back into the rehearsals. Together our job then became very much about editing this growing tapestry of images, scenes and ideas into a structured story.
Image: Paola Vera
It was really important for me to keep this a personal journey between the two characters, while it was set within a rich bed of imagery and symbolism relating the the greater universe.
Here is a prologue Cat wrote that our musician/composer Lucia Vivanco turned into a song that begins the piece. I love the swift jumps in focus from the birds eye to the individual.
She looks down from the sky and can see hundreds of tiny tapestry fields, winding roads and tiny streets. Rivers, silver slithers and puddles that make lakes; and the tiny-tiny cars, the tiny-tiny trees. And the tiny tiny human beings. Here it is: the train set city. The lights are starting to come on and off, darkness is setting in. Rush hour is about to kick in. Some people will be going home to eat, drink and sleep. The bars will open. Prepare for landing. The landing lights go on. She fastens her seat belt. And watches the tiny city grow. Nina takes a deep breath. Ali closes her window. She can feel the storm setting in.
It was such an honour to be able to share our work with an audience in Lima. We spent three full time weeks working from scratch and what we presented was a patchwork of ideas stitched together over the raw bones of a structure. And what a privilege to be able to create this piece whilst physically immersed in Peruvian culture!
This whirlwind experience felt like it ended so abruptly as I am now back in London planning our next moves to mount a full length production of the piece and sifting through feedback, with space and time to add perspective.
We had great audience feedback. Here is also a fantastic write up we had:
Image: Paola Vera
Thoughts I would like to explore further in the next phase:
-Pulling apart their character differences more to find the similarities, and what each character takes from the other. Nina obviously brings the storm and Ali’s life is flooded. But how does Nina dry out?
-What parts of your landscape can and can’t you control. How you let your surroundings effect you.
-Many people commented that they would like to see more of each character individually.
-Ali’s grandmother storyline in terms of the things we inherit and what it is our choice to inherit.
- This leads into exploring how our histories bleed into our personal mythology, and what stories we choose to take forward.
-On a bigger level, the necessity of destruction to make way for rebirth and creation.
Image: Paola Vera
I am truly grateful to Escena Contemporanea and Teatro Britanico in Lima for all of their support and for taking a leap of faith in helping to make this work happen. Sometimes you just have to jump.
And finally I am truly thankful to my gorgeous co-creators Valeria, Claire, Cat and Lucia. It was a wonderful ride together, that has only just begun.