Man or machine

The Young Vic in London, the capital’s West End, a tour of Europe and Asia and, somehow, Harrogate.

That’s not to cast aspersions on the genteel spa town, the enclave of Yorkshire twinned with Shoreditch, but in a town more famous for haircuts and bars in which those haircuts show themselves off, how is it on a list including the Young Vic and London?

“It is absolutely the right thing to bring the show back to Harrogate, that’s where it all began,” says Suzanne Andrade.

She is the women behind Golem, a new show from Andrade’s theatre company 1927.

Golem, a fascinating piece of work that has been seen in China, Switzerland, Madrid, Australia and New York was seen first of all in Harrogate. That was back in July 2014 and the show was still in development. Andrade was looking for a theatre that would be a safe and supportive space to develop her show. She had met Kevin Jamieson, previously a programmer at Harrogate Theatre now a senior producer at Home theatre in Manchester, at the Edinburgh Festival.

“He was so passionate and energetic about our project and he seemed really open and giving, it felt like the right thing to do,” says Andrade. She did and Golem was born. In July three years ago audiences were treated to a work best described at the time as embryonic.

“It was crazy, we had points where I stood on stage and just said ‘and then I think something like this will happen next’, but we really were in a very early stage of development back then,” says writer, director, producer and sometimes performer Andrade.

The reason for the real roughness of the work in progress will become clear in a moment...

Golem, the fourth show from theatre company 1927, is loosely based on the fable of the golem, an anthropomorphic figure made of clay and animated by a master. Appearing first in Jewish texts, the golem has a long mythic history. In 1927’s show, the fable is reimagined as a contemporary dystopian tale which asks the question: who is in control – human or technology, man or machine. In the show an ordinary man’s life is disrupted irrevocably when he buys a golem.

“You look at the way we use technology and you realise this really is a very powerful and pertinent story for our time,” says Andrade. “It feels like it’s one of the big questions we face, our use of technology and how it defines us and what it means for us as humans. The play attempts to ask the question what happens when we maybe are not as in control of our technology as we think we are.” There is an irony in all of this. The reason that a 1927 work in progress show is so rough is because the company relies on – and blends beautifully – technology with theatre.

It means that animation and music and soundscapes are all as important as the elements that make it a live theatre show.

“It is quite a specific way of working,” says Andrade. “Actors have freedom on the stage, but at the same time their movements and actions have to be very particular and specific to sit alongside the other elements of the show.”

The finished show arrives on its latest tour next week – a chance to see world class theatre born in Harrogate, as it returns to Harrogate.

June 21 to 24. 01423 502116.