Branching Out: Featherweight's 'The Red Tree.'

emilylouisehardy
Jun 10, 2014
4 min read

By Laura Darrall

Adapted from the award-winning picture book by Shaun Tan, devised theatre company Featherweight present The Red Tree. Following an acclaimed run at the Edinburgh Fringe, PostScript Journal’s Laura Darrall was lucky enough to witness their London debut of the show and have a chat with one of the creators, George Wigzell, about their process.

The book is an incredibly haunting and beautiful exploration of childhood depression, a little discussed yet very real subject, what inspired you to choose The Red Tree for your adaptation? I was looking for a children's book to adapt and came across The Red Tree. I hadn't heard of Shaun Tan's work before, but his style of illustration is so unique and wonderfully strange that I knew I wanted to use it as a starting point for a devising process. Because The Red Tree is so heavily based in visual metaphor it seemed that it would allow us to reinterpret those metaphors in our own theatrical style.

And Featherweight very much do have their own specific theatrical style. With an amalgamation of fluid, focussed choreography, intricate lighting and rustic fantastical props they bring the story to life with a vivid intensity, beautifully complimenting the book and launching the audience in to a world devoid of hope bar the recurrent appearance of a single red leaf. The Red Tree follows a girl’s journey from despair to hope as she travels through a fantastical world that’s startlingly strange yet agonisingly familiar. So, why this story in particular? Well, it's been said about The Red Tree that it's 'a book without a story', and in many ways that's true. Again this lack of concrete story was a great starting point for creating something that we hoped would be bold and push the boundaries of what children's theatre could be. In many ways it's the illustrations that were the inspiration. But we were also interested in exploring the difficult feelings and childhood depression in the book. We felt it was something not often explored. Featherweight draw the audience into the drowning feelings of depression without creating a claustrophobic atmosphere and insisting we FEEL those things symbiotically but rather by allowing the audience to be an honest observer, a witness rather than a critic to the ever ambiguous nature of depression.

Their adaptation uses an original score by experimental composer Robert Hart to bring the story to life; the rich tapestry of sound weaves in and out, cushioning the journey and giving the audience a musical insight into the book’s soul. What's your ultimate vision for the piece, were budget not an object? In some ways the DIY, 'poor-theatre' aesthetic of the piece is a large part of its charm. But ultimately we'd love more of a 'set', and we'd love to do more with the ending, to make that final positive moment bigger and bolder. We've also had some exciting ideas to use 'tron' suits, and do other exciting things with light. The ending that Wigzell refers to is a symbol of hope. In the book it is the final image of the red tree, 2D on the page; whereas, in Featherweight’s production it is brought to life with the clever use of red umbrellas and torches, an unforgettable final image that has been indelibly imprinted on my mind’s eye ever since. It must have been a fascinating journey from page to stage; what difficulties have you had to overcome in the development process so far? One of the biggest questions we've been asking is whether we should have a voice-over. For our run at the Edinburgh Fringe we didn't have one - instead all the text appeared on subtitles that emerged in a range of clever ways. But we were worried that younger kids and maybe those that had problems reading were missing quite a lot. Most parents read along out loud anyway, which we really encourage, but we have decided to use a voiceover now (provided by a lovely actor in my agency called Greg Page) for our tour dates, and I think it's working really well. It adds a bit of familiarity and reassurance to the piece. I concur; the voice-over gives it the element of a bed time story and is the hand that holds the audience through the dark and difficult journey of the book. The audience come to expect the voice over and in turn miss it when it does not appear. What contemporary relevance do you take from the Red Tree? It's very much about the stress and the pressure put upon young people (and, of course, adults) by modern society: by work, by school, by their peers. Whilst it's about childhood depression, something very much under-discussed, and a genuine problem, it's also about the difficult feelings and bad days that we all have, and that's something that's really important to explore in relation to the modern world. Featherweight’s production resonates with children and adults alike, giving an accessible entrance into the grey indefinite world of depression and leaving the audience with the sense of having seen something important. A sensitive and innovative theatre company with an undoubtedly bright future: one to watch out for.