Initial ideas:
Dir: Paranoia and isolation in a small community. Madness and the distortion of truth. Loss and survival. Dependence on others. Quite bleak, as apposed to black, comedy. The sea as an independent force. Outsiders vs insiders. McCarthyism, in a way.
Design team: The sea as an external force suggests a large performance space, elements washing-up as the play goes on. It needs to be a flexible space to deal with many different settings, but we’d rather create staging that allows for a greater flexibility of light and sound than simply shunting scenery about – I don’t want to get too stuck into the specific elements of the scenic design.
It can perhaps be treated slightly fantastically, at least around the edges.
We’re mostly interested in creating a large, surrounding expanse, lit at times very intimately as separate scenes require. We’re already tempted by quite a high-concept idea, perhaps to do with water.
Dir: We should build a very immersive environment for the audience and performers, to magnify the themes that we feel are important from the text using scenic/lighting/sound design.
