Where did this wall come from? – The Making of ‘Too Many Walls’ by Daryl & Co

Here at Daryl & Co we’re fascinated by symbolisms of barriers, mainly the most symbolic manifestation, a BIG WALL!

Our Blueprint research and development project ‘Too Many Walls’ allowed Daryl & Co to collaborate with Ria Ashcroft and Jonathon Van Beek. We’re all very aware of the continued barriers faced by people within our society and ‘Too Many Walls’ R&D enabled us to look for ways to creatively express these, and for our audiences to engage with this concept in imaginative ways. 

The initial Idea

Walls are everywhere, they divide us, protect us, some are physical whilst others are emotional. Walls impact upon our lives and can prevent us from being included depending which side of the wall you’re on.

What happened during the R&D?

We entered our R&D with three key areas to explore:

1) Audiences experience: Does where you sit influence your experience?

As Daryl & Co we see Disabled young people and artists as key elements to our creative processes, so we always have creative conversations with them before we enter the rehearsal room. 

So we started by delivering workshops with young people to explore their concepts of walls and barriers. What did the concept mean to them? What ideas were engaging and relevant to their lives?

We discovered that walls can be an object of fun, a place to meet and a place of secrets, but can be an object of danger, can keep you away from your friends or provide you with space for you to be alone.

We then brought together a small group of Disabled Artists to dig deeper into wider traits about walls and barriers. Walls can evoke feelings of fear, anxiety, and reinforce negative stereotypes. So how do we playfully and sensitively address this? 

This exploration of the psychological impact of walls on people is complex, but we discovered the best approach was to lean into the absurdity of it all, the situation, the characters and the wall itself.

Once we got into the rehearsal room we were able to play with the concept of the show being performed in the round. We soon discovered the joyfulness potential of where you watch it from, providing a different view point and a very different experience, all because of which side of the wall you are on, reinforcing the themes and concepts of the show.

2) Design: What materials, objects or items best support the concept?

Let’s be honest, we all know creating a free standing wall outdoors in the wind and rain will be a challenge, a nightmare even! So a major part of the research and development has been exploring this idea. What materials, objects or items best support the concept, meaning and touring logistics? 

During the R&D we used cardboard boxes as a place holder, we obviously won’t use them in reality, but they allowed us to explore what we wanted and needed our wall to do. As a result we now know the wall will be modular, moveable, reshapeable and provide gaps for characters and audiences to get a random glimpse of what is happening on the other side, just like a nosey neighbour. There is a joy of only seeing the top of someone’s head or a random leg fly by, without knowing the context.

We also played with foam module blocks and furniture which allowed us to create homes, spaces and separate identities for each side. Part of the concept is to allow audiences to interact with the wall between performances and become a “free play” area for families between shows to build and create their own walls, dens and spaces and the foam blocks provided a safe material to do so with.

3) Narrative/Dramaturge: An exploration of who these characters are?

We started from a point knowing the show would be predominantly non-verbal, absurd and playful and based around two characters on opposite sides of a wall. Immediately questions arouse, such as: Do the characters know each other? Where did this wall come from? And who built it?

Initially we had imagined that the wall was always there but we soon discovered that dramatically it was more interesting if the characters built the wall themselves at the start, placing each ‘brick’ when they discovered something different about each other. This then provided more opportunities around what happened next.

We were concerned that physical attributes (e.g. Disability, gender, race etc) could play into stereotypical traits about division, but the use of abstract physicality and finding the absurdity in difference soon eliminated these concerns.   

Finally once the characters recognised the BIG WALL was actually a line of negotiation, they could then create spaces that suited both their individual needs. 

Outcome:

This period of R&D has taught us that we can be ambitious in how our audiences experience the show, walls and barriers are a rich subject matter. Our wall will be used to separate a space physically but it also allows us to play with the emotional and ideological divide of each character where metaphor and symbolism reflects reality in this creative exploration and provide audiences with work they can relate to. 

Creative Team: Daryl Beeton, Ria Ashcroft, Jonathan Van Beek, Stasha Dukic, AK Golding.