HOW do words on a page become a play on a stage?

It’s a huge team effort, but the director is key. It’s he or she who creates and realises a unified vision for the production, who understands and interprets each character and their motivation through the action. It’s a heady mixture of interpretation, vision, and a great deal of sweat and elbow grease.

The director’s involved with pre-production meetings on everything from costume to lighting design and sound effects. Perhaps the bulk of the work is with the actors: instructing, encouraging, motivating them through rehearsals, checking sight lines and positions... it’s an endless task. Throughout all this, the director is also drawing that thread of a theme – their own vision and style – through every aspect of the production, avoiding any jarring contradictions that might distract from the play’s action and emotion.

When it comes to a contemporary take on a well-known and much-loved story, this vision is critical in convincing audience and actors alike. The director of the Ilkley Playhouse’s current production of Romeo and Juliet, Miranda Armitage, has fulfilled this exacting brief with a production that that enfolds you in the tale: visually, aurally, orally and emotionally. Gestures, tone and timbre, movement, music: these all combine to convince the audience that the tale of Romeo and Juliet is being played out now, in 2017. It is as strong and relevant today as it has ever been.

How is this concept imagined and realised? How much toil and trouble – and let’s not forget fun; everyone involved does it for the love of the theatre – is involved? You have the chance to ask Miranda and the cast of Romeo and Juliet on Friday, March 17. This presents a wonderful opportunity for current students of the text and, doubtless, an interesting insight for all disciples of the Bard. Romeo and Juliet itself runs until March 18, so there’s still time to get a ticket.

Our second production at Ilkley Playhouse this month is a Fringe production of the black comedy God of Carnage by French author Yazmina Reza, who’s internationally famous for her satirical take on social hypocrisy. The Guardian described this translation (by Christopher Hampton) as “a brutally comic dissection of bourgeois values”. It was a hit both in the West End and on Broadway, where it won a Tony award in 2009. Despite a cast of just four it attracted remarkably high-profile actors: Tamsin Grieg, Janet McTeer, Ken Stott and Ralph Fiennes performed in the West End production.

The play opens with a meeting between two sets of parents to discuss a playground incident involving their young sons. Social niceties prevail... to begin with! However, as tensions increase, the veneer of civilised respectability starts to slip...

God of Carnage is deftly directed by Yvette Huddleston. As a black comedy, timing is critical, and Yvette’s expert direction teases it out perfectly. As an extra treat, audiences on Friday, March 27 will have an opportunity to talk to the cast and director after the performance. This is a wonderful opportunity to once again slip behind what you see, to find out where the play evolved from and how it was created.

A chance to question the Director and cast is a must for theatre followers and very a tempting prospect for a book club outing. If you are already a member of a book club come along as a group or, if not this production is perfect for a group night out. God of Carnage presents plenty of talking points to mull over in the bar afterwards. Book club devotees might find it loosely comparable to Christos Tsiolkas’ notorious novel The Slap for the possibilities for debate. Tickets are just £6, and with a running time of just 90 minutes there’s plenty of time for a sociable drink and a healthy debate in the Playhouse bar before or after – or both!

To book tickets for any of our productions, please visit www.ilkleyplayhouse.co.uk or phone the Box Office on 01943 609539. You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for all the latest news and backstage gossip!

by Claire Emmott