Caro Meets Theatre Interview

Jamie Harper: Making Heaven In Berlin

By | Published on Tuesday 1 October 2013

jamieharper

Hobo Theatre’s latest production ‘Heaven In Berlin’ is staged at experimental arts space Testbed1 in Battersea this month.

The show, loosely based on ‘The Tempest’, is set in occupied East Berlin in the 1980s, against a backdrop of the culture that attracted musicians, artists and writers to the city during that period.

With its eclectic mixture of performance disciplines – music, choreography, promenade performance – and soundtrack featuring songs from the likes of Klaus Nomi, David Bowie and Iggy Pop, it sounds like this will be an atmospheric and emotional piece. We spoke to the director, Hobo Theatre founder Jamie Harper, to find out more.

CM: What is ‘Heaven In Berlin’ about?
JH: It’s always tough to answer this question but if I had to boil it down I would say this play is about how people find freedom. You can get freedom by running away from family responsibilities, you can find freedom in love and great music but can also find freedom in death, if you’re brave.

CM: Does the play have a political message?
JH: Well, I think every action we take is political in the sense that we’re constantly trying to re-shape our world. East Berlin was a place where many people were burdened by political pressures. In 1989 people found liberation by bringing down the Wall but in 1985 people found liberation in lots of other ways, through art, music, love – small revolutions.

CM: The show is being staged at Testbed 1 in Battersea, which isn’t particularly a theatre space, is it? Why did you choose this particular venue?
JH: We visited the space and thought it was stunning. Unlike theatre spaces which are usually pretty featureless, Testbed1 has lots of interesting details in its physical fabric and we’re excited by using these features and giving the audience a richer sensory experience than they would find in a conventional theatre.

CM: Can you tell us something about the playwright?
JH: The playwright is Ciaran McConville. I’ve known him for about eight years. He writes plays with a lot of lyricism, tenderness and heart. We worked together at the National Theatre Studio on a play called My Father the Angel and developed two new plays about East Germany in the 1980s with drama students at Arts Ed. This project is in some ways a follow on from these previous new works.

When we first visited Testbed1, the raw aesthetic of the space immediately made us think of Berlin in the 1980s, a city that was still bombed out from the events of 1945. People used to refer to West Berlin as the island city as it floated within the territory of the GDR so we started working on the ‘island’ idea by doing improvisations around the story of The Tempest. Themes of exile, fathers and children and slavery became the source material for our play.

CM: It’s a promenade performance which makes use of a number of different artistic disciplines. As a director, do think managing this kind of show is harder than a traditionally staged piece?
JH: Yes, it certainly is harder. Integrating the work of a variety of practitioners isn’t easy, but who wants to do something just because it’s easy?

CM: Your company was only formed in 2012 but seems to have put on a fair number of shows since then. Do you have a favourite?
JH: I’d have to say that ‘La Turista: Cafe Duende’, our Spanish Civil War piece at Morito was my favourite. Beautiful writing, great music, great food, and the Spanish Civil War is a piece of history I’m passionate about.

CM: What’s next for the play? Will it be staged anywhere else after Battersea?
JH: No, the show was designed for Testbed1 so you can only see it here!

CM: What’s next for the company? Do you have anything else in the pipeline?
JH: I’m going to the U.S. in November to do a research project on Serious Games, looking at the similarities between games and drama. I’ve done quite a few interactive projects in the last few years, and we hope to do a Hobo game drama project early next year.

‘Heaven In Berlin’ is on at Testbed1 in Battersea until 23 Oct. See the company website for more info, and go here to book tickets.

LINKS: www.hobotheatre.co.uk | www.testbed1.com | twitter.com/hobotheatre



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