Many a student from Liverpool has found their way up to Edinburgh for the Fringe at one point or another, whether to support a show, to support a friend or just natural curiosity at just how expansive and overwhelmingly complex the entire planning of going from one show to another on a daily basis can be.
The Fringe though is arguably the one event in the year which is truly seen as remarkable and it is no small wonder that any student involved in drama or who has a keen interest in comedy should make their way to Scotland’s capital in search of broadening their horizons.
One such former student of the University of Liverpool making their way once to Edinburgh and a member of its impressive Liverpool University Drama Society under the stewardship of its President Rio Matchett is Danny Partington. This year Mr. Partington is taking Mark Ravenhill’s Over There to the city alongside his company Lawrence Guntert, Corrine Parfitt-Starr and Danny Brown to perform a story of two twin identical boys from either side of the Berlin Wall who are reunited when the clash of cultures are reconciled.
Ahead of Danny Partington and his company heading beyond the border and delving into the nights of Edinburgh, I was able to catch up with the former University of Liverpool student and talk to him about the show and his thoughts on the Fringe.
As someone who has been around student theatre at the University of Liverpool, it should be noted that you like your Mark Ravenhill plays don’t you?
DP: “I didn’t really mean to use a play of his again; I was looking for a play with a small cast so I could take it up to Edinburgh. I wanted a two-man play and this came up so obviously knowing the author, I was intrigued, had a look and fell in love quite frankly. That’s how it happened.”
What do you think draws you to Mark Ravenhill’s work?
DP: “I like anything that isn’t regular and that has bit of an edge to it. Something not being too traditional or that’s been done a 100 time before, you want to play around and do things differently. Obviously unless you write your own play, you’ve always got one other version to contend with and you have to make yours try and stand out somehow. I think the way Mark Ravenhill writes, because it’s without limits, it allows you to play around with it, not necessarily improve it but to try and do things differently.”
You’re no stranger to the stage having done some marvellous work at the University of Liverpool, which I was very privileged to see you perform in there, how do think it transfers from the closeness of the Liverpool stage to the fearsome arena of the Edinburgh Fringe?
DP: “Nothing really changes in my approach to a play as such. I think it obviously requires a lot more bravery. It’s just different challenges, it’s a different stage, and they say all the world’s a stage. So, no, I’ve never had an issue with travelling or performing elsewhere. The main fear going up to Edinburgh is getting an audience through the door, so you have to work your backside off for that, you don’t think about much else but that. So I think that’s the main difference is pushing the advertising. As for approaching to a play, as I said, I think there’s not much difference, but you’ve got to fundamentally trust your cast more than anything else, that’s the one thing as a director I’ve had to push myself with.“
You say that you’re drawn to this work in many different ways, it’s quite a tough subject matter, it’s certainly a subject matter that you wouldn’t remember happening if you seen what I mean, you’re not old enough to remember the Berlin Wall coming down.
DP: “It’s not a history play as such, it’s set around significant historical events but the play itself is not historical, it’s a play about history through two people’s eyes and I think that’s a lot easier. I tend to bring things down to a personal level to explain these huge historical events, because there’s so many different ways of interpreting and viewing, celebrating, despairing. If you bring it down to one person, you can get a sense of what it’s like for them watching it and you can sort of relate it back to your own view of how the world changes, even if it’s not the very same events. Being theatre, it’s not about being honest; it’s not about creating a 100 per cent re-telling of history if you like, you get to play around with viewpoints here, which this play shows, in that there’s more than one way of telling history.”
No, I get that, what strikes me is that it’s not so much history but it’s the duality of the nature of the play because you do have the division of The Wall, East and West Germany, the duality of two different nations but sublimely underneath they are one in the same nation historically.
DP: “That’s one way of viewing it. Alternatively, the way the play looks at it as is it being just one big West Germany, because it’s the fall of the East rather than this celebrated marriage. So people can view it as this big reunification or it can be an invasion depending on which side of The Wall you were on when it came down, one way of way life literally bows to another. That’s a very different way of viewing this massive event.”
I must ask you, as I’ve known you for an awfully long time, possibly the best part of six or seven years I guess, your attitude to drama has always struck me as being very professional even from a very young age, is that still where you stand? Obviously time has moved on since you were part of the Liverpool University Drama Society (L.U.D.S.), is it still enthusing you?
DP: “I never lost it! It’s certainly something I started many years ago when I was only so high. I don’t think my attitude towards it has changed. I still believe you’ve got throw yourself into it completely as an actor, dancer, director, you’ve got to fully immerse yourself and believe and focus on “what is the way forward with this play”? I suppose the difference over the past few years in me hasn’t so much been a change of attitude towards it, more an increased strength of conviction and how to get a response from an audience. That’s the main thing you think about as a director, is not so much what’s happening onstage, it’s how an audience is going to respond to what’s happening onstage. There’s a great quote from Steven Berkoff: ‘The audience either are suddenly convinced it’s the best thing they’ve ever seen or they feel like fleeing the building!’ You don’t people just to walk out and say “it was okay”, you really have to make the audience respond to you – be it laughter, tears or shock. So I think if my attitude has changed or adapted it’s been in pursuit of that audience response, trying to change the world through one play at a time!”
What draws you to Edinburgh?
DP: “World’s biggest arts festival, what could be bigger than that? That’s the Holy Grail quite frankly. It’s the hardest work and least rewarding work that I’ll ever do. I’m not doing it for glory or riches really but I’ve been up before as a spectator and it just doesn’t do it justice. You have to be there in it to fully appreciate it and to have success as a director at the Fringe would be something to cross of the bucket list!
Marauder’s Theatre Company will be presenting Mark Ravenhill’s Over There at the Paradise In Augustines at 41 George IV Bridge between the 17th and 22nd August.
Ian D. Hall