Win dinner and swashbuckle at the West Yorkshire Playhouse

We are pretty excited by a rather ambitious treatment of The Count of Monte Cristo at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, and have managed to grab two pairs of tickets and pre theatre dinner (in the newly done up restaurant)  for our lucky readers. Before you decide whether you wish to have a stab at this, we collared director Alan Lane to whet your appetites.

If you decide you would like to win the prize  (tickets available for 19th April), then use the comments box to name a play or film (other than the Count of Monte Cristo) with it’s central premise being about exacting revenge. Winners will be picked at random! Terms and Conditions apply.  Closing date 5th April.

You seem to wear many hats/masks? Alan, tell us a bit about who you are and what you are up to!
Oh I don’t know about masks. I think the fact that I pop up in many places is a natural result of just being incredibly interested in things. Obviously I’m directing The Count of Monte Cristo at the moment at the West Yorkshire Playhouse which is a wonderfully exciting project, an epic story and a show full of dance, music and puppets.

I’m also Artistic Director of Slung Low– a new work company based in Leeds that makes site specific work and theatre installations.

Alongside this I am also a producer for Development Lab based at Theatre in the Mill (Bradford) an organisation that commissions progressive new performance work.

To my mind these things, and the other jobs I have (I am in residence at the University of Huddersfield, a selector for the National Student Drama Festival, an artistic assessor for the Arts Council), are part of the portfolio that theatre directors need to have these days. Obviously part of this is driven by the need to earn a living but more interestingly each of these things feed and benefit each other. The writer and some of the creative team and cast from the Count of Monte Cristo worked with me on Slung Low’s Beyond the Frontline a large outdoor installation about the army with a chorus of 250. You couldn’t get a more different pair of shows but all these projects feed in to one another- hopefully making each more exciting for an audience than the last.

What inspired you to get involved with the production of The Count of Monte Cristo?
A number of years ago I was Ian Brown’s (WYP’s Artistic Director) assistant director. During one of the shows I was always carrying around this huge copy of The Count of Monte Cristo. It was a great story- so theatrical in its structure and themes. I talked to Ian about how I thought it would make a really exciting play. I’ve been a big fan of Joel Horwood’s writing since I saw his first play Mikey the Pikey. He has a wonderfully energetic and irreverent writing style, and excels at writing epic stories very clearly. It was really clear to me that the book would suit a new adaptation and Joel was the perfect person to write it. We started with workshops 4 years ago and now here we are in rehearsals so it’s a very satisfying feeling to be started in a room with actors on it all.

What’s it like to be back at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, do you get a better quality of biscuit these days?
I think it’s always a strange feeling to be back in a building where you trained- whatever your job. It’s particularly strange if you are a theatre director because inherently your job is one of leadership and the last time I worked with the guys at the WYP I was the young lad who followed Ian around making him tea! But I’ve done some things since I left so hopefully I earned my stripes.

Not for nothing the biscuits are much better- the food has come on leaps and bound at the Playhouse- I heartily recommend getting down for some dinner. I see the prize for the competition is dinner as well as tickets– the salmon fishcakes were really good this lunchtime- give them a go!

There are so many characters in The Count of Monte Cristo how on earth do you manage with a cast of just six?
There’s a great trend in recent years at the WYP of shows that embrace the theatricality of their story- companies like Knee High who show you both the story and how they tell it. Leeds’ audiences seem to really take those shows to their heart. Right from the start of development the idea was to do the epic, swash buckling story with a small cast of six. The solution lies (or so I hope!) in a mix of costume changes, clever plotting but crucially being open and honest with an audience. Here we are, there’s six of us, we’re going to try and tell you the story contained within this huge novel- here we go, buckle up!

Have you ever been driven by the desire for revenge, and if so how far did you go to exact it?
I think this is one of the reasons why the book has held a fascination with the public for so long. We have all been wronged in the past and its human nature to think about revenge. I’m afraid I’m more Mossad than US Marine corps when it come to things like this- I tend to wait quietly in the long grass for those who have crossed me- telling you might tip them off so I’ll keep this one to myself.

What message does this have for young people?
What message does the desire for revenge have for young people? Don’t know. I think The Count of Monte Cristo has been designed to be a cracking night out at the theatre- full of story and rip roaring. I would hope it appeals to all ages. I think if there is anything about COMC that will appeal to young people is the speed with which the story moves along- in that sense (and perhaps only in that sense) it shares something with contemporary film.

Do YOU think Directors all have multiple personalites?
No.

To book tickets 16th April -15th May click here for the box office details