Hugh speaks... Brighton Festival

Posted by Hugh Hughes

The Brighton Festival. Glorious sunshine, sea and art. It’s a cultural paradise. Playing Story of a Rabbit here is a big pleasure.

Audiences are incredibly polite, well-behaved and friendly. Their concentration is outstanding. They are significantly different from the audiences we found in Liverpool and Cambridge. Aled and I have become increasingly interested in audiences and how they differ from place to place and night to night.

Looking back on our performances in Bogota, we were moved by the warmth and generosity of the audience, their openness and involvement was breath-taking. Next week I go to Moscow with Sioned to present Floating. I’m very curious to see how we communicate the story over there.

We are becoming more interested in this relationship between the stage and spectator and beginning to wonder how it might be worth much further investigation. We are asking, “Why do people come into the theatre?”

We are always amazed when we see people walking into the space. It’s as if each night we don’t expect anyone to come and therefore we are surprised to see people come in. It’s the moment they walk in that gets me. As they enter one by one theatre begins.

It’s wonderful.

ps. I'm trying out some new technology that Hoipolloi have helped me buy and here's me being interviewed on the radio!