The Marlowe Sessions immersive audio experience comes to Canterbury
International actors join cast of The Marlowe Sessions at The Malthouse Theatre in Canterbury, writes Marijke Hall
“Actors of this ilk don’t normally stray this far from The Barbican”.
Indeed, when you look at the casting for The Marlowe Sessions, taking place at The Malthouse Theatre (@themalthousetheatre) in Canterbury, you’ll see a vast number of exceptional actors.
You’ve got Misfits’ Eleanor Wylde and Adrian Schiller of The Last Kingdom and Dr Who.
There are up-and-coming theatrical talents alongside some of the biggest names in British theatre as well as national treasures and expert Elizabethan actors.
All have come together for a once-in-a-lifetime celebration of the works of poet, playwright, and provocateur Christopher Marlowe - the godfather of English blank verse.
The Marlowe Sessions, due to run next month, is a reimagining of Elizabethan Theatre’s enfant terrible and each performance will be captured using the latest immersive audio technologies.
The sessions will be a recreation of the raucous, febrile atmosphere in which Marlowe’s works were originally performed.
“..the goal is to recreate the sonic footprint of the theatre of Elizabethan England..”
Actors will do ‘script-in-hand’, deconstructed performances of Marlowe’s attributed works, and interact within the audience, whipping up a response to make the crowd an integral part of the experience.
It will all be recorded using immersive audio technologies and then streamed across multiple platforms next year,
Immersive audio director Ray Mia is executive producer, co-producer is Iain S Bruce, and there is a team of creative heavyweight performance directors working alongside them.
Mia says the goal is to recreate the sonic footprint of the theatre of Elizabethan England, with the live performances and production of immersive audio recordings transporting listeners to a space and time when the plays were performed.
“It is really unique,” he explains.
“We’ll be putting lots of microphones in a space so we can capture from a sonic perspective a whole performance in front of a live audience.
“That will allow us to mix a dynamic product which will play back in more than just stereo. It will go into cinematic theatrics, VR, binaural.
“It will be a live production in front of an audience and the script-in-hand is because it’s all about the voice and movement.”
He says they are trying to break down the barriers between the audience and the stage by using script-in-hand - when actors perform reading from the script with minimalist set and wardrobe - something which has been used a lot in New York and LA.
“Marlowe is an extraordinarily visceral experience; it’s not for the faint-hearted, from a performance perspective as well as an audience perspective,” he says.
“It’s not this sort of academic, chin-stroking experience.
“Back then it was raucous, heavily political, heavily contemporary, really cutting the bone of politics, philosophy, religion, comedy - it was really quite rude.
“The modern day equivalent surely has to be pantomime.
“What we’re trying to do is bring that engaged, immersive, audience experience back into being and see if we can capture it with all of our microphones and technology.
“All of this is about getting the audience going, capturing it in a way that the audience can see behind the curtain - it’s almost like a live rehearsal.
“All of this is about getting the audience going, capturing it in a way that the audience can see behind the curtain”
“We’re not trying to hide anything from the audience; they don’t have to sit there and understand Elizabethan blank verse thinking otherwise they won’t understand the story.”
He says the casting is phenomenal and they’ve got a cherry-pick of some of the greatest living practising actors.
It’s difficult to name them all as the talent is vast. Among them are the Olivier Award-nominated Jack Holden, Royal Shakespeare Company’s Micheal Maloney, RSC and National Theatre veteran Christopher Staines and Peaky Blinders’ Elliot Cowan.
The Marlowe Theatre’s pantomime dame Ben Roddy has also joined the ensemble cast.
“The casting really is incredible,” explains Mia. “Actors of this ilk don’t normally stray this far from The Barbican.
“That’s not because they are being sniffy. It’s just no-one has encountered anything like this before.
“We’re being very original, very innovative and we’re showing a lot of courage.
“I, as an audience member, want to see the looks on people’s faces when they go through lines.
“I want to be looking at actors who are not on stage, who are sitting with me, standing in the aisles as they go through the texts.
“We can capture all that with microphones and paint a picture with sound. Ultimately this will be a product that we’re going to release in 2023 once we’ve mixed it, across all different streaming platforms, so the whole world will be able to hear what we’ve captured.”
Limited tickets have been released on sale for audiences to experience the significant project first hand with just two performances of each Marlowe play running throughout June.
Mia says the Marlowe Sessions come 450 years after the bloody wave of sectarian violence that inspired what is considered one of the playwright’s final works - The Massacre At Paris.
“It’s only fitting that we do it in Canterbury where he’s from and at The Malthouse Theatre which is at the school he went to,” says Mia.
He adds that on June 18 an announcement will be made about a donation which will be made from the proceeds of ticket sales.
The Marlowe Sessions run from June 2 - June 27 at The Malthouse Theatre.
