Walk the Plank producer Liz Pugh is about to embark – literally – on a theatrical tour around the UK aboard the company’s so-called ‘theatre ship.’ Which is, in fact, an old Norwegian ferry the company acquired in 1991, renamed the Fitzcarraldo, splashed the outside with bright blue nautical charts and transformed into a unique theatre space that sails around the British Isles showing live performances.
Walk the Plank is currently preparing to present their latest show, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, a reworking of Jules Verne’s classic story of Captain Nemo and the Nautilus. Although the company’s other productions, including Moby Dick and Gulliver’s Travels, have made use of the unique performance space the vessel offers, Pugh says the latest production reveals the ship’s own fabric and machinery to create the atmosphere of a submarine.
‘What we’ve got with this show, is a fantastic opportunity to use all the things that the ship has anyway, like big watertight doors, things that a company like the National [Theatre] would need to pay a lot of money for,’ Pugh comments. ‘Our ability to create the atmosphere that you get onboard a submarine, like a steel box with a generator humming, big doors that have to be closed using special handles – we’ve got all that. And so,’ she concedes, ‘it means that we can make a small budget go further.’
Pugh adds the performance also makes use of the environment outside the ship, where the show begins. Audiences initially gather at the quayside, to meet the Professor and his team who are about to set off on a quest to find a sea monster which has been terrorising the oceans. But at the point the group is captured by Captain Nemo and taken inside the submarine, the audience is taken inside the auditorium on the ship.
The idea of playing with the environment in and around the ship is a concept which has been at the heart of the company’s productions since the Fitzcarraldo first set sail on Walk the Plank’s inaugural national tour in 1992. But, more than ten years later, it’s just as much a part of the latest production. When the crowd gathers at Salford Quays for the opening of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea next week, Pugh says the idea is to take the audience on a journey – although the ship won’t leave the harbour.
‘I think the whole experience for people coming on board the ship has a lot of impact,’ Pugh says emphatically. ‘You walk down a quayside, or in some places it might be a little harbour in West Somerset, or in Scotland it might be a big working port. They [audiences] want to go on a voyage – they’ve climbed a gang plank, it smells of diesel, the ship is moving from passing vessels or the wind. The fact we don’t actually leave the quayside doesn’t matter,’ she adds, ‘in terms of telling a story we can in fact take them [audiences] on a journey.’
The main challenge for this production, she points out, was to successfully adapt the 19th century novel to make it relevant to contemporary audiences. Pugh wanted to introduce a sense of ‘theatrical magic’ in order to ‘bedazzle audiences with the story.’ The company therefore employed the musical talents of composer Jules Bushell to create a soundtrack for the show, while video artist Matt Mawford was charged with producing abstract and ambient video images to give the impression of an underwater world.
Pugh, who is one of the company’s two producers, founded Walk the Plank in 1991 along with John Wassell. The pair held a number of shared interests – in boats (Pugh’s father taught her to sail when she was eight years old; Wassell previously worked building narrow boats for use on canals) and in staging theatre in unconventional locations. Wassell held a particular interest in large-scale outdoor productions, and began to explore the use of the ship as a centrepiece for firework displays. The company can now count Paul McCartney among its clients, after creating the fireworks show for the ex-Beatles’ New Year’s Eve celebrations, but is also the organisation behind the spectacular lanterns which formed part of the closing ceremony for last year’s Commonwealth Games.
Pugh attributes the company’s success to a niche market it identified, and filled. Since the 1980s, the redevelopment of docks and wharves – from London’s Docklands, to Liverpool, Newcastle, Salford, Cardiff and Glasgow – meant the cultural industries needed to respond to a demand for artistic centres and activities.
‘Part of what we looked at and what created the climate in which the ship could survive, was that whole waterfront regeneration,’ Pugh recalls. ‘Now, there are a lot of maritime festivals in places which previously never had them,’ she notes. ‘Now, people think, “ooh, let’s have a Maritime Festival, and oh, let’s book Walk the Plank and their theatre ship.”‘
Although, Pugh adds, financially keeping the ship afloat is a nightmare, the inclusion of the company’s activities into waterfront regeneration projects has meant it has been able to tap into sources of funding outside the arts.
‘Of course arts budgets are always tiny, but the people who are responsible for economic development have a much more sizeable budget,’ Pugh observes. ‘It’s [Walk the Plank’s work] about finding new audiences, but also, it’s about finding new promoters and new pots of money.’
With the finishing touches being placed on the soundtrack and video compositions, and rehearsals winding up in readiness for the opening of next week’s production, Pugh admits all she is worried about now is the cast surviving on board a moving ship for six months. ‘The actors need to find their sea legs,’ she laughs. ‘They’ve got to have a spirit of adventure!’
‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea’ opens at The Quays in Salford/Trafford on May 1 until May 10 before embarking on a national tour. Tickets for the Salford season can be obtained from The Lowry box office, 0870 787 5780. For further tour locations and box office details visit Walk the Plank’s website.
