Big Telly’s Zoe on Zadok, The Americans and Alice

Artistic Director of Big Telly Theatre Company Zoe Seaton hasn’t allowed the restrictions of lockdown to curtail her group’s creativity.
By Community Reporter
Published 24th Jul 2020, 05:20 BST
Zoe with the team who made The Worst Café in the World, their last show before lockdownZoe with the team who made The Worst Café in the World, their last show before lockdown
Zoe with the team who made The Worst Café in the World, their last show before lockdown

The Portstewart woman is currently working on a digital production of Lewis Carrol’s Alice in Wonderland which will be available to audiences from August 1.

Site-responsive and immersive theatre-makers Big Telly Theatre Company and Creation Theatre are teaming up with Charisma.ai, ground-breakers in interactive and immersive storytelling technology, for this digitally advanced production, which blends live acting and the latest in AI and online video techniques.

Here Zoe answers our questions...

Zoe Seaton on Big TellyZoe Seaton on Big Telly
Zoe Seaton on Big Telly

Q. What is your favourite song/album and why?

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A. If we only have love by Jack L because it moves me every time I hear it, it makes me sad and happy all at once.

Q. What is your favourite film and why?

A. The Truman Show. I find it endlessly inspirational – the relationship between illusion and reality, how much we all pretend in our everyday lives, the way we construct our own version of reality and star in our own stories...

Q. What is your favourite piece of classical music and why?

A. Zadok the Priest. The drama!

Q. Who is your favourite artist and why?

A. I’m going to say Royal de Luxe, the giant puppet company from Nantes who stage huge events which manage to amplify and communicate the smallest moments of humanity to vast numbers of people.

Q. What is your favourite play and why?

A. Macbeth. Such brilliant storytelling – humanity, ambition, devastating consequences and the supernatural – what’s not to like?

Q. What is your favourite musical and why?

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A. Not really a fan of musicals, but I saw Come From Away recently in London and absolutely loved it. Again, beautiful story-telling.

Q. What is your most special moment in the arts and why?

A. When someone says ‘now I don’t usually like theatre, but I liked that...about one of our shows.

Q. What ‘classic’ just doesn’t do it for you?

A. Romeo and Juliet. Major snore!

Q. What have you been reading/watching/listening to/revisiting during the Coronavirus period?

A. A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The Americans on Netflix. Alice In Wonderland Lewis Carrol – we’re working on a digital production of it so I’ve been reading it, watching films of it, playing video games based on it, and looking at art inspired by it. It’s an amazing piece of literature – full of ideas and concepts and the most extraordinary characters.

* Alice - a Virtual Theme Park

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Adapted and directed by Big Telly’s Zoe Seaton, featuring award-winning writer Charlotte Keatley, audiences will be invited to dive down the rabbit hole for a magical theatrical experience, meeting their favourite characters from this much-loved classic along the way.

While venues remain in lockdown, the show bridges the worlds of theatre, art and technology and reunites the successful creative team behind The Tempest Live. Alice will be performed live each time across four weeks from August 1 - 30.

Director Zoe said: “We wanted to be wildly ambitious and imaginative with this show and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is really freeing as a story. It’s so playful and already so surreal, mixing reality with illusion, a perfect combination for digital. The idea of setting the play in a theme park is also an ingenious, unconventional way to unlocking Alice’s adventures with the audience, and plays upon the skill of the actors, storytelling and drama.”

The creative team also includes playwright Charlotte Keatley, best known for her award-winning play My Mother Said I Never Should, described as one of the significant plays of the 20th century. Keatley has been part of the devising process and has guest written a scene from the Mad Hatter’s tea party.

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Charisma.ai, whose work on ground-breaking creative technology includes creating narrative gaming experiences for Sky, BBC and other networks, are incorporating their artificial intelligence platform and trailblazing online video techniques to bring a new level of immersion to the Zoom platform.

Founder Guy Gadney said: “The past few months have seen digital platforms emerge as storytelling media in their own right. This production of Alice interweaves real-life and virtual environments to make a brilliantly immersive and playful version of Carroll’s magical story.

“This combination of theatre and technology presents a new and exciting opportunity for Charisma.ai, building off our previous experience in television and publishing to help bring to life a new form of theatre.”

Ticket price: £20 per device. Times: 4pm and 7pm

Running Time: Approximately 90 minutes.

Box Office 01865 766266 or online at www.creationtheatre.co.uk