Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/542972
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 19 JULY 2015 This Week 31 TEODOR RELJIC speaks to Steve McNicholas, co-creator and co-director of Stomp – the percussion-based show that has taken the world by storm, and that will be making its way to Valletta to form part of the Malta International Arts Festival this year damage Pinter and co. So what you will see on the night is, perhaps, the fourth version of the script that I worked after lengthy meetings with producers and the produc- tion team. It's very challenging to try to meet the demands of the producers (who of course make their own calculations and requirements), the director and also the actors while, at the same time, respecting your au- thorial persona. So authors who are ready to work within such a set up should go for it, I think. On the other hand playwrights who are extremely touchy about their work that they won't even let an actor change a comma – they should better forget it. Being both a writer of fiction, poet and now a playwright, how would you describe the local literary and theatri- cal scenes? What would you change about them? I keep thinking that the liter- ary scene is heading towards interesting times. As for thea- tre, well, I worked for years in what was considered to be the alternative, experimental scene, which had contrasting ethos and aesthetics to this mainstream theatre. While a couple of mainstream thea- tre companies are working at putting the foreign as close as possible (sadly not the contra- ry), the alternative scene, the theatre of the periphery is ex- tremely silent, dormant if not altogether absent. Even though certain circumstances have forced me to distance myself from the periphery I still long for it and still hold on to my theory that the mainstream will suffer if the periphery is poor or nonexistent. As for local televi- sion drama productions... well, I really dislike being very open about what I think of it: basical- ly many of the stuff has horrible scripting, appalling production and editing and horrendous acting. There: I told you what I didn't really want to say. What's next for you? I never decide to concentrate on one thing because I may get very easily bored. I have a com- plete poetry collection and I'm waiting to find some time to go over the manuscript again and do some necessary revisions. I'm also translating a couple of plays for a local producer and have some other commis- sioned work. But on top of this I'm working on my next novel which is inspired by a true se- ries of (local) events; it's not WW2 and just in case you're already wondering, it's not set in the 80s. "On accepting to take the assignment I also wanted to make sure there is some Mifsud effect in it" 'Rhythm is a universal language' When did the Stomp! crew first form, and what was your initial set-up like? We tried out the idea in the sum- mer of 1990, it was very rough and ready, and only had a few members of what would become the original cast. When we did it for real, the following year, for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, we had a clearer idea of the kind of mix of people we would want to be involved. We were incredibly lucky with those first seven performers (becoming eight early the following year), in that we had a real mix of percus- sionists, dancers and physical co- medians that set the tone for the future. And we were lucky to have a great group of people that were on the same wavelength, in that they saw the power and energy of the idea, but also saw the ab- surdity and eccentricity in it. The first three years of the show were with the same cast, including Luke Cresswell, with myself as "outside eye". What would you say is the driv- ing principle of the Stomp! show? That rhythm is a universal lan- guage everyone can understand, and that music can be made by anyone with anything! Did you ever expect the show to be such a success? Why do you think it resonates so much with people? No, we never expected anything like the global success we had: in fact, we expected it to be less suc- cessful than our previous work, which we saw as being more com- mercial. What we didn't allow for was the way we removed things that can divide audience response, such as dialogue, or clear musical styles. What we kept was rhythm, which everyone appreciates whether they are into jazz, clas- sical, reggae or house music, and humour… but it's a knockabout, physical humour, almost like the humour in silent movies, that eve- ryone can appreciate... Part of the show's appeal is just how visceral and effortless it seems. But could you tell us a bit about the musical techniques you employ? It's really about layering rhythms. Each performer has a different skill set, but they all make an equal, however simple, contribution, so that many interlocking individual rhythms create a more complex whole. There is a lot of count- ing in the show, and we often talk about bell-ringing, as every piece involves numeric cascades… each performer has a different set of numbers in their heads. We ex- plore rhythm, but we avoid getting stuck in grooves: it's all about dy- namics, and change, not necessar- ily a repetitive beat. Are you looking forward to per- forming in Malta? What kind of vibe are you expecting? We are really looking forward to Malta, we have personally enjoyed scuba diving in Malta and Gozo on several occasions, so have long wanted to bring the show here. The venue looks amazing: we have per- formed in amphitheatres in Sicily and Athens, so we know the show can work really well in that kind of setting, and it makes for really special experiences for everyone involved – we're very excited! Stomp will be performed at Pjaz- za Teatru Rjal, Valletta on July 23- 25 at 21:00. Tickets are at €30. For more information log on to http:// maltaartsfestival.org