A tempestuous tale of love, betrayal and greed...

SussexWorld

Worthing’s Dionysus Theatre is on the road for its second-ever tour, this time with a stage adaptation of the classic Victorian thriller The Woman in White, a tempestuous tale of love, betrayal and greed.

Transcript

00:00Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspaper. It's lovely

00:06to speak to Robert Tremayne this morning. Robert, your company Dionysus Theatre is on

00:11the road with The Woman in White, and you're playing various states, including Hearst Pierpoint

00:15and Southwick. And why The Woman in White? It's such a classic novel, isn't it? Why are

00:22you doing this?

00:23Yeah, I mean, it's a novel that just lends itself to the stage. You know, it'd be criminal

00:28not to do it, quite frankly. And it's been performed since 1860, I think, was the first

00:33production. And just to know that, you know, audiences have been enjoying it for that long,

00:38it was kind of like a no-brainer. It's got so much to it, there's so much complexity.

00:45And as an adaptor, when I was adapting it, the challenge of going from 60 characters,

00:51cutting them down as much as I could and keeping the core story to be performed by just seven

00:56actors is a challenge that I really enjoy. And it was something that I had in the back

01:03of my mind for so long, you know, since I ever first saw the production years ago, and

01:09read the book, I just thought in my head, at some point, I've got to do this. Because

01:12like I said, it lends itself to the stage.

01:15It's such an incredibly gripping, twisting story, isn't it? You read the novel, you just

01:20feel so invested in it, don't you?

01:23That's right. And I think that the style of writing that Collins had in the original,

01:30you know, it's all written from the character's perspective. You know, every chapter is from

01:34someone else's perspective. It's not all from a writer's, or if you like, a director's point

01:39of view, it's all written from their point of view. So as a director, you know, putting

01:44it onto the stage, you're given so much because you're like, well, I know exactly how all

01:48these people feel. And then I can put it on onto a script and turn it into a narrative.

01:54And part of the reason it's so enjoyable and so gripping is that there's an incredibly

02:00compelling villain in the piece, isn't there? And tragically, that villain is you.

02:05I know, I know. Yeah, Count Fosco. I mean, he is, he's well known. He's absolutely terrible.

02:15He's completely charming and so suave and sophisticated that, you know, no one would

02:19ever think that there's anything, you know, amiss there. And that's kind of throughout

02:24the entire book, you're kind of on side. And when you come and see our production, I think

02:30not until quite late on, you're going, oh, hang on a minute. But that being said, there

02:34is something there, you know, the whole time. It's like when you meet someone, there's a

02:39line in the show, it's like when you see a picture that's, it looks perfect, but it's

02:43not quite. There's something there that isn't quite right with him. And then we obviously

02:50find out in quite a dramatic turn of events, I might say, but without giving away too much

02:54exactly who he is and what he wants.

02:56That's an exciting prospect for the company. But it's your second tour. That's significant.

03:01Our second tour. Yeah, yeah, it really is. I mean, last year we did, we went back to

03:07our roots. Our original production in 2021 was The Seagull by Chekhov. So we sort of

03:14re-looked at that because it was our first sort of step out on tour. And we took La Mouette

03:19out on tour, which was a very, it was quite an easy show in terms of technical side and

03:26the way it toured itself. This year is a big step up for us. This production is, it's,

03:32you know, it's got a lot more set, a lot more lighting. Its production value is much, much

03:38higher. And it is a big step up for us, which I'm really happy with. We're going in the

03:43right direction, you know.

03:44Absolutely. And it's brave too, because this is a post-pandemic company and this can't

03:48be an easy time to establish anything, but you've done that.

03:52We did that. And I think we set up originally in the pandemic, which I think, you know,

03:58it's still one of those things that's very core to us. We set up as a group of actors

04:02who just missed each other. We missed performing and we would organise Zoom meetings to have

04:08just read-throughs of random plays just because we missed each other. And I'll never forget

04:13that feeling when, you know, the lockdown was lifted and we could be in that room again

04:18together. That feeling of being together in that room and being back to what we, you know,

04:23what we love. And that's the core of us as a company. You know, it's all based on the

04:27love that we have for this more than anything else.

04:30Fantastic. Well, good luck with the production. Lovely to speak to you again.

04:34Thank you.

04:35You too. Take care.

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