ARCHES THEATRE FESTIVAL
soundSTGE
As the carnivalesque riot of the Arches Theatre Festival rolls around again, Kirstin Innes previews some of the genre-defying acts on offer, including David Leddy's new work Pater Noster
‘ ell. it's kind of hard to describe. I‘m sorry. I just have to meet the person whose party this is . . .
Hello! I'm back. There are two dressing rooms which are used for musicians. and there's a room next to it with washing machines in it. and then there‘s that tiny room between the two. And we‘re in that tiny room. It’s going to be completely blacked out . . .’
David Leddy' is in Delhi. at a garden party for the ‘frighteningly'. crazily rich.‘ struggling to think himself back to Glasgow to explain exactly which part of the Arches his new work. Pater Noster. will take place in. Typically. for a festival which tries to cram as much into one labyrinthine building and a week-and-a-half as possible. the venue is essentially a glorified
cupboard. However. this is exactly the sort of
effect the playwright. currently best known for
24 THI LIST 2? Mar—10 Apr 2OC8
2007's intensely inov'ing Home llfllt/l'tlllt‘t'. was looking for.
l’uler ,V'ovrer is the latest in the playwright's interconnected sfurrculu Series. a chain of site— specific. short and brilliantly crafted audio works listened to on headphones. which l.eddy describes as ‘part radio play. part avant-garde
sonic art. The glorified cupboard is working for
him becatise l’uler .Vuvlt'r is set in an elevator Arches Theatre l-‘estiv'al audiences will only be able to go in one at a time.
‘The thing that really set this one going was the sound of the lift in my building its quite a musical lift? The sound rumbles and rises as you get higher. so that was my starting point. really. that I wanted to make something with the sound of a lift in the background..
A 'paternoster' is actually a kind of door-less lift. often Used in liastern liurope. but l.eddy has chosen a loaded term for his title. ‘l’ater Noster” is also the Latin translation of ‘()ur liather‘. it can also refer to a rosary. a string of glacial lakes. a town in South Africa and a type of pasta. The piece may prove equally hard to categorise. Once in the 'lift‘. the single audience member will experience a text which. f.eddy say s. is best described as 'like David Lynch w him becatise of that strange sense of abstraction you get in his work — whispering in one car and Bob Dylan in the other. I thought of Dylan because of the way that his lyrics will move you from one place to another. from one line to
I thought of
another. very rapidly. changing ideas.
"The text itself. which moves around between lots of different locations. is much more abstract than a lot of the other works that I‘ve made. so I wanted to ruake it something that you experience very swiftly and intensely. which is one of the reasons why it’s in the dark. l'.acli audience member is going to be totally immersed in the sound and text. in that tiny blacked out roomf
l.eddy is in India on a w riter's retreat. putting the finishing touches to his next play. .S'u/i Rom. which opens it] January. The site specific piece also fcl't'cls out odd spaces around a theatre. this one will take the audience around the warren of disused corridors and liars til lllc ( ‘ill.
"Sir/i lv’ovu is set in Victorian times. and it’s very strange to be writing it here: there are lots of parallels between Victorian Britain and contemporary Delhi. the huge wealth and huge poverty. This garden party I‘m at is frankly obscene them all terribly. his all feeding into the next play. Strange to think that I‘ll be sitting in the heat. itching and writing it. while people live and half hour‘s time difference away are listening to my
cyci'yone has servants and they treat
experiencing l’tllt‘l' NIH/(7‘ voice vv hispering in their ears in a dank basement in (ilasgow 7'
Pater Noster runs from Thu 10—Sat 19 Apr, every 15 minutes between 6pm and 10.15pm.