The Visions of the Lovers of Adonis opens Sunday 18th October at the Bread & Roses Theatre, bringing this play to life against the backdrop of Roman Mythology. Learn more about what you can expect:
1: What inspired you to create this production?
In 2019 I had a friend who was a producer in LA who said that she’d love to see Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis adapted for the stage. I began developing the project to work on with her, and then with Covid, everything slowed to a halt. I began redeveloping the piece to potentially be done as a Zoom production, with breakout rooms where audience members could follow each character separately. As Covid lifted, and I made the move to London, I was reminded of this piece on I’d put on the back-burner. I started developing it again for the London stage, incorporating more relevant themes, and taking additional classical works to weave in a more cohesive story that really addresses gender, power, and desire. This will be the first time this piece gets to live on its feet for an audience.
2. How has the rehearsal process been?
I picked up a last minute slot for the Lambeth Fringe from a colleague who’d dropped. So everything from casting to opening night has taken place in under 3 weeks. It’s been a very tight turn-around. But the cast has been so great, and poured in hours of work in the rehearsal room and on their own to dig their teeth into these characters and this story. What’s fun is we’ve really tried to create a lot of freedom in the room for the actors to discover their characters. And everyone’s been so generous, as we have cast members who have brought instruments they play, and costumes they own. It’s been collaborative in so many ways that’s been fun! It’s not often as smooth as it’s been for this rehearsal process so it’s made my job easy in a sense to work with such talent.
3. What are you most excited for the audience to see?
This show is written in-verse, so it will be fun to see how that lands for the audience. It’s a heavy play, with heavy themes, and a lot of tragedy, which we’ve tried to juxtapose with the comedy of characters like Cupid, and Bacchus and even Adonis at moments. It’s exciting to take the audience through that journey. I’m hoping this show can have a profound emotional effect on the audience, that connects with them in a deep way. We analyze some very modern themes, so I’m curious to see how that’s interpreted by the audience and how this tragedy can actually provide hope.
4. What has been the most enjoyable about creating The Visions of the Lovers of Adonis?
I love digging into history, and the classics, and twisting, changing, and molding them into something new. I’ve enjoyed picking up these mythologies and finding a way to blend all these stories together. There’s a lot in this story, and it’s fun to plant easter eggs to lesser known material, that perhaps only a few audience member will catch. Now that’s it’s on its feet, it has been so cool to see the actors bring these characters and this story to life, and share the same passion I have for the content and the source material. It will be interesting to see how this piece might further develop and grow after this run.
The Visions of the Lovers of Adonis opens Sunday 18th October at the Bread & Roses Theatre. Many thanks to Pepper Jensen for answering our questions. Book your tickets here!
Max
Leave a Reply