A production of The Dance of Death will take to the stage at Hampton Hill Theatre in Hampton from 18-22 March.
The Dance of Death was written by August Strindberg in 10 days in 1900 but was adapted by leading Irish playwright Conor McPherson in 2012.
The play features Edgar, a 70-ish army captain, and Alice, a former actress, living in a love-hate marriage just before their silver wedding anniversary. However, cousin Kurt’s arrival brings intensity and dark banter.
Rhinoceros Theatre Company managing director Nigel Andrews said: “It’s a very modern play with a classical structure, it’s a well-told story about a dysfunctional husband and wife.”
Within the play, Strindberg throws hints about the character’s pasts to explain their present, as well as their fears, failures, and hopes for the future.
The play is described as a terrific black comedy but also as a pathology due to being the surgical exposure of the bones, tissues and organs of a relationship.
The theatre is owned and operated by the Teddington Theatre Club. However, this production is being put on by the Rhinoceros Theatre Company, which was founded in 2021 by Nigel Andres and Robert Legard.
They have produced three plays so far, but their aim was to put on plays which are timeless and with their productions being popular, tickets can be bought for The Dance of The Dead for a starting price of £20.
Although the theatre has two production spaces, this play will take place in the Noel Coward studio which has a capacity of 50 seats.
This production of The Dance of Death is directed by Harry Medawar and the cast comprises award-winning actors Nigel Andrews as Edgar, Fiona Smith as Alice, and Steve Taylor as Kurt.
The cast are all volunteers and there were no auditions, with Medawar instead contacting people who he thought would be great for the role.
With this method, Medawar and the actors are all aware of each other’s strengths and weaknesses so can work together in harmony to make this play dazzle to the audience.
Rehearsals consist of a couple of hours of dissecting and reworking the script.
Smith said: “At this stage in rehearsals it gets really tricky, you’re putting down your books and you’re starting to really play with the emotions and timings of it all and the pleasure of seeing it start to almost fall in place.”
Taylor added: “I have to be that person. I’m not very good at being me on stage, I have to be the character behind it.”
For most actors, the biggest challenge is line learning but particularly in The Dance of Death, the speech is colloquial which, according to Smith, is harder to learn than Shakespeare because it involves lines which are realistic to modern speech.
Medawar said: “It’s teamwork because at the end of the day we are all working together and we end up with a product that we are proud to have shaped, and hopefully the audience will enjoy.”
Andrews is the former film critic for the Financial Times, where he spent nearly 50 years in the stalls at films and plays.
This job benefited his acting and directing career, as he spent lots of time analysing what was done well and how it was done.
He got to see the magic of acting which has shone through his work for the Rhinoceros Theatre Company.
The company is a non-profit organisation, but it is expensive to put on a play and often the money is not reimbursed.
Andrews said: “We suffer and sacrifice for art.”
For this play, the sets have been made by Junis Olmscheid and the lighting is being controlled by Patrick Troughton.
Picture credit: Rhinoceros Theatre Company
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