The Red Room

How did your collaboration come about?

David Hughes: During our mutual Partnership at The Byre theatre, St Andrews, I walked into a filming of his show The Factory and was blown away by his performance, intrigued by his discipline! I’d heard of Al’s work prior to seeing this, but was amazed by the dynamism of what I saw in him. I’d reached a stage when what I was doing was beginning to feel a bit stale and the idea of cross collaboration struck me as a really exciting possibility for my own company – to break out of the pure contemporary dance genre.

Al Seed: Through David's generosity basically: after seeing my solo piece The Factory he offered me a commission to direct a show for his company on a subject that interested me with him taking charge of the choreography. It was a great statement of trust; to give me the chance to unleash an idea, and my working methods, upon his team. How could I say no? Although I'm most identified with Physical Theatre, I'm very aware that working in just one area rarely produces the best over-all theatrical experience for an audience. The work that I most enjoy watching (and trying to make) blends elements in such a way that definitions such as 'text-based', 'dance', 'movement' and 'physical theatre' become dull in the face of watching a performance that is just plain thrilling. I think that we are trying to move towards work of that kind with The Red Room. The calibre and daring of the dancers performing in the show has provided an incredible opportunity to explore how plastic the boundaries between such terms are.

What made you decide on The Red Room as a basis for a dance piece?

DH: I approached Al, initially meeting up in Glasgow where Al spoke about his desire to create something around Poe’s macabre tale The Masque of The Red Death. The initial concepts were born as much from the idea as the company’s financial restrictions, which meant that the show was developed with very minimalist set, and stark costuming with the main emphasis on the movement to carry the themes. We put our world in a parallel dimension of unreality, that way it was possible to manipulate and subvert the movement. I was interested in exploring the courtly baroque dances to represent the period as well as integrating the movement disciplines of the dancers in company: classical ballet, break dance, bharatnatyam and physical theatre.

AS: The show is a visual interpretation of Poe's Masque of the Red Death, which seemed perfect for the kind of work we wanted to do. The story isn't so much a narrative as a series of extremely potent images that together provide a very visceral sensation of horror: a giant black clock whose chime is a death-knell; a labyrinth of different coloured rooms peopled by phantasms; the figure of death gliding through an orgy... The story has this wonderful hallucinogenic quality that felt perfect for a visual (and musical) re-working. Because the events of the plot itself are so simple, it left many unanswered questions about the personalities of the story that we could explore in a playful way without being unfaithful to its premise.

What other companies, choreographers and artists do you feel an affinity with?

DH: I am interested in the work of maverick theatre makers like Jan Fabre, Michael Keegan Dolan (Fabulous Beast), Lloyd Newson (DV8 Physical Theatre) and of course the pure dance makers and my personal mentors Siobhan Davies, Christopher Bruce and Robert Cohan. Their attention to detail and the continual questioning of themselves and their own practices inspires me to look at my own work and shift the benchmark for how I create work with my company.

AS: Top inspirations are probably certain shows I've seen by Wim Vandekeybus, Song of the Goat, Blackskywhite and Slava Polunin (the version of Snow Show I saw in 1997 was a very important experience). What these shows had in common for me was an incredible workload from the performers; a sense of them pushing what they were able to offer physically to the limit, an appreciation of 'economy', in the sense of using limited tools to the fullest extent, and a feeling of being invited into a world that was both wildly fantastical but also absolutely grounded in a sense of integrity.