Making Theatre Inspired By Geology, Joan Littlewood and Lizzo
Gobbledegook Theatre Make Surprising and Fascinating Work
I first met Lorna Rees, Artistic Director of Gobbledegook Theatre at a two day networking event for Creatives at Lighthouse, Poole. She spoke passionately about her practise, about her creativity and her desire to bring Disruption and Joy to the world. She then said something which made absolutely perfect sense when I first heard it but when I thought about it on the way home I couldn't unravel. Lorna said that much of her work is inspired by earth sciences and the dynamism of geological forces - especially on the Dorset Coast of Southern England which is also known as the Jurassic Coast. I went to see her and Gobbledegook perform a piece called Geophonic which took place in locations around Bournemouth. We followed the company from the pier, looking down at the sea and out to The Needles. We promenaded through the Victorian gardens where wild rocks occasionally burst out of the tamed landscaping, and we finished in the loading bay of a shopping centre where all sign of nature had been erased. We carried large metal ear trumpets which gave the experience a detached and eerie quality, bringing unexpected sounds to us. Halfway through the piece I understood what Lorna had said back in Poole about being inspired by geology - sometimes you just have to feel it to believe it!
Later in the same year (2022) I was engaged to provide a new festive celebration for a local historic town, Christchurch. My concept involved a Saxon Yuletide celebration and I turned to Lorna and Gobbledegook Theatre to deliver the event. They created a piece of outdoor community theatre with dancers, singers, musicians and even the local rugby clubs parading from the 11th Century Priory to the Victorian town hall singing songs of Yuletide and welcoming the Holly King and Ivy Queen to launch the season. Thousands turned out to enjoy the spectacle which brought together the town’s Saxon, Christian and Modern stories in a unique live theatrical event.
Lorna and Gobbledegook continue to create multi-disciplinary outdoor theatre work in the UK and Internationally.
This interview was carried out in the summer of 2022.
What inspires your best creative ideas?Â
Gobbledegook Theatre makes live performance work primarily about Earth Sciences. I’m hugely inspired by our incredible geology and landscape here in Dorset. Much of our county is incredibly beautiful and I’m lucky enough to collaborate with exceptional scientists, landscape partners and arts organisations to create work inspired by where I live. We make that work locally for the outdoors, and then take it out nationally and internationally.
Why are arts and culture important to everyone?
That’s a huge question! Culture is about who we are, what we do and how we live. It is in every aspect of our lives. Our culture forms our future and art is a huge part of visioning that for us – showing us how we can live brilliantly, or think differently or treat others with empathy. I also think art and culture has a huge role to play in getting people to think about the Climate Emergency and how we need to change our ways of living – especially our politics.
What advice would you give to a business to help them become more
creative?
Don’t think of creativity as something you do once a week. You have to keep practicing it. Creativity doesn’t need to be compartmentalised, but you can spend time thinking differently, letting your mind wander, and collaborating with others to find solutions to things together. We have a show all about cloud-gazing called Cloudscapes, and it encourages you to lay down and let your mind drift. It’s a really good exercise for creativity.
Who is your creative hero?
There are so, so many! I often consider friends, collaborators and colleagues to be my creative heroes – we inspire each other. I do however work really closely with the absolutely brilliant Earth Scientist Dr Anjana Khatwa, who is an exceptionally creative person as well as being a scientist. She has inspired SO much of my work, and so she’s also an absolute creative hero to me. In terms of people I don’t know, I particularly love the work of Joan Littlewood, who was radical and uncompromising and hugely creative. And then, of course, Lizzo.
What piece of creative work are you most proud of?
That’s such a hard question to answer. It’s like asking which one of my children is my favourite! The first big touring show I directed was Ear Trumpet, a piece which is inspired by The Bincombe Bumps which are a series of 6 Bronze Age burial mounds near Weymouth which are said to emit fairy music at midday. To hear the subterranean music, my character (Dr Stella Barrows) has created an entirely new branch of science called sonicgeology which requires you to use Ear Trumpets fashioned from old gramophone horns, tubas and other assorted brass instruments to literally listen to the earth.
We’ve performed the piece from Morecambe Bay to Hadrian’s Wall to Seoul. We were performing in Coventry for the City of Culture last month and I worked out that we’ve been touring the piece for eight years now, but we change the work in each location. It’s really exciting to make something site specific for the history and heritage of each place we play. I also love performing in it with a wonderful team of collaborators (onstage and off) who make the piece happen.
What are you working on right now?
We continue to tour our existing work (Ear Trumpet, Cloudscapes and Geophonic) and I’m developing a new piece called Canopy which is inspired by forests and tree bathing. I’m creating 20-24 four poster beds which are bespoke audio environments for woodland and forests. I think it’ll be beautiful
If you want to see how differently ‘theatre’ can be defined then get out to see a Gobbledegook production. To find out where they are next go their website:
@thegobbledegook
Work with Gobbledegook; gobbledegooktheatre@gmail.com