ROYAL WELSH COLLEGE OF MUSIC & DRAMA: IN CAMERA | FEATURE
Jonathan Munby, the new Director of Drama and Performance at Cardiff’s esteemed RWCMD, speaks to Buzz’s Keiron Self about students’ upcoming – streamable – programme.
In the age of Covid, theatre makers have had to get creative about delivering their work to an audience, and the Royal Welsh College Of Music & Drama is no exception. An ambitious few weeks of filmed productions by students of the RWCMD’s Richard Burton Theatre Company is about to launch, with a trio of diverse interesting plays.
A premiere of The Moors, a Bronte-esque dark comedy drama tackling gender directed by Patricia Logue; Statements After An Arrest Under The Immorality Act [pictured], Athol Fugard’s suffocating, near-50-year-old and enduringly relevant play about race and oppression, directed by Nicholai La Barrie; and Twelfth Night Remembered, a spin on Shakespeare’s comedy, will be available to stream at different times until the end of January.
Twelfth Night Remembered is directed by Jonathan Munby – the new Director of Drama and Performance at RWCMD, adapting to his new role and his new home town. He quips that since moving here, he has grown to know his flat very well, and as such is desperate to get back into the theatre. Nevertheless, the challenge of creating work in different mediums has proved exhilarating, with many lessons learned amidst the crisis.
A respected theatre director, Munby guided Ian McKellen to acclaim in 2019’s King Lear and remounted Bryony Lavery’s play Frozen to shattering effect, as well as having worked globally with various projects in South Africa and an approaching job in Japan. I spoke to him as the season was about to launch and asked how Twelfth Night translated into film.
“I’ve really enjoyed the challenge to be honest,” Munby says, “delivering work in a socially distanced way and out to the public.” He’s keen to make sure that the graduating class of 2021 has a chance to have their work seen by people both in and out of the industry, as they emerge into the world outside of college and seek their elusive breakthrough; the filmed plays offer a wider potential audience, as the shows can be downloaded by prospective agents and casting directors.
Different methods have been used for each of the plays, using the NT Live model of several cameras filming at once on stage in the Richard Burton and Sherman Theatres, but Munby decided to take a more novel approach for Twelfth Night Remembered – embedding a director of photography, Charlie Cowper, within the action itself. Inspired by Lars Von Trier’s Dogville and its simplistic recreation of community within chalk lines on a stage, the camera moves through that community to tell the story. This led to several long takes of scenes within Twelfth Night, rather than a heavily edited patchwork – leading to a more immersive onstage experience, akin to recent war movie 1917 with more laughs, mistaken identities and yellow garters.
These unbroken long scenes require theatre stamina for students, married with camera technique. Says Munby: “It holds on to the integrity of a piece of theatre, maintaining theatricality and sustained performance. It has been hard work to reinvent but the skills it has taught are incredibly valuable.” It’s a fertile learning ground for students and staff alike, one which Munby thinks will have currency when the world returns to some sort of normality; production values were high, collaborating with professional film companies to deliver the digital work.
The director is looking forward to creating more work with Welsh theatres and companies – forging links throughout the country, strengthening ties and sharing scripts and commissions in a bid to get RWCMD projects seen all over Wales, with bilingual plays hopefully on the agenda for the future. Industry professionals providing teaching and feedback, guiding fresh talent into the future, is another goal, along with an increased diversity of plays and material from a broad spectrum of writers old and new.
For now, though, it’s another season of plays and performances created for an online audience, showcasing the bright new talent that Jonathan Munby and all at the Royal Welsh College Of Music & Drama are nurturing. If music be the food of love, play on – in whatever media format.
The Moors: available until Sun 24 Jan. Tickets: £5
Statements After An Arrest Under The Immorality Act: online premiere Thurs 21 Jan, 7.30pm; available until Tue 26 Jan. Tickets: £5
Twelfth Night Remembered: online premiere Sat 23 Jan, 7.30pm; available until Sun 31 Jan. Tickets: £5
Tickets and info: www.rwcmd.ac.uk/whatson
words KEIRON SELF photos KIRSTEN MCTERNAN