All Aboard

Cargo is a rare beast: a production that crosses from Mela to
Fringe. What made the company decide to cross this boundary, and how
is it reflected in the piece?

Cargo is a typical Mela show: colourful, visually captivating and high in energy. But beyond its showings at the multi-cultural festival we wanted to extend its audience reach and give it a second life by jumping at the opportunity to present it at the Fringe a few days later.
It meant that we had to consider two types of audiences and two contexts of performance. This duality has been at core of our thinking right from the beginning. We hope we’ve managed to create a show that is attractive to both a wide, daytime family-based audience as well as a more grown-up, night-time audience seeking a “different” kind of theatre experience.

We are very interested in the audience development potential that Cargo represents crossing two festivals. The festivals in Edinburgh work collaboratively all the time on a number of areas and projects like this are starting to emerge more and more frequently and are an exciting manifestation of the energy and reach of Edinburgh's festivals.

The theme of "home" in a post-colonial, internet age is deeply resonant, but also one that is frequently covered in performance. What does Cargo bring to the discussion?

Cargo does not pretend to bring answers or open new avenues to a complex discussion and very individual concept. It is a poetic, humanistic and dramatic experience, lead by strange yet familiar characters. On a deeper level Cargo does look at human traffic, exile, immigration etc, but never tries to bring solutions, wanting to ask questions rather than give answers. Concentrating on human journeys, culture cohabitation and offering a story driven-performance rather than responding to current issues. Think Terry Gilliam rather than ITV news…

Iron Oxide has a reputation for the spectacular and site specific.
How do the Leith links influence this production?

There is a general confusion about outdoor theatre and what defines it. Although site-specific work is often presented outdoor the other way round is not always true, and Cargo was designed as an outdoor performance rather than a site-specific one. It was never our intention to be responding to our environment although we did consider the specifics of Leith Links in its creation such as drainage, wind direction, impact on the local community but then these are common preoccupations when presenting outdoor work.

As part of the Made in Scotland programme, is this work engaged
with Scottish identity in particular, or does it explore wider
identities?

Iron-Oxide had always been committed to exploring new ways of working collaboratively with Scotland based artists whilst the Edinburgh Mela thrives on multiculturalism. Working together means embracing a Scottish identity that goes way beyond the usual clichés of Tartans and bagpipes as well as the richly diverse place that Scotland is today. It means looking at the tiny similarities and the gigantic differences but also the huge resemblances and small variances. How they influence, blend and cohabitate with each other.

Being part of a project like this you are made fully aware of the diversity in Scotland and how much this enriches us. Looking at everyone’s roots within both the cast and crew we realized we were all either migrants or sons and daughters of migrants.

What mixture of art forms will Iron-Oxide be using this time – it seems
that there is always a wide variety in the work!

Crossing artforms and watching how they cohabitate has been one of the driving forces of the company since its beginning, and we are always exploring new combinations, blurring boundaries between genres and looking at the narrative potential of physical performance as opposed to an “eye-candy” illustration of a story. With Cargo expect to see dance, physical theatre, music, water and fire.

Cargo is obviously going to be one of the most discussed works this
August. What questions – both about performance and the content – has it  raised during its creation?

How do you create a strong, engaging and visually arresting story that has a multi-age, multi-cultural appeal? How do you talk about the themes of 'home', 'migration', 'quest' and 'exile' without being heavy and patronizing? How do you define space when there are no walls, no roof, no back-stage area? Name a question about the creative process and I am sure it has sprouted in one of our minds somewhere along the line since we first began germinating the idea about two years ago. It’s been a challenging yet exciting journey for us and we are confident that this excitement transpires into the show and to our audiences.