The Assumption
A play by Douglas Maxwell, Directed by Jonathan Lloyd
Throughout 2020’s various COVID lockdowns, tiers, curfews and the likes, we somehow managed to make this theatre show.
A strange story about some odd official business in a remote house in Scotland during WWII socially distances itself across the huge stage of Tramway 1. Douglas Maxwell, the playwright, configured the play into a series of cascading monologues which were staged under Jon Lloyd’s direction across Ruth Darling’s expansive, fractured set design, under Lizzie Powell’s cool shafts of light.
The text demanded quite a lot of video design elements; a painting (that does things), a lot of chalk drawings, a puppet theatre animation, fiery nightmare scenes and, of course, captioning.
Claire Wetherall as Maria in The Assumption. Video projection of chalk drawings on Cellar walls, and painting shard.
Photo © Robert McFadzean
The play was performed in a mixture of BSL and English, and this is where creative captioning comes in.
Captions are first and foremost about accessibility, kept in check by captioning advisor Ciaran Stewart. But we also wanted to do something more dynamic with the captions, providing a more intuitive (and less descriptive) point of access. They should always be near the actor speaking or signing, so you don’t have to look far to see them. There is a clear divide in the play between characters who are more modern or progressive, and characters that are remote, rural, stuck in the past (barely aware the war is happening). This is reflected in the mixture of serif Garamonds and sans serif fonts chosen for each character. Captions move side to side, following one sign here and another there; they drift away with water or smoke; they blur and ripple with echoes of memory.
To create the video design elements I collaborated with Jon and Ruth, the director and the set designer, to ensure that what I was doing with video was consistent with their overall vision for the design of the set. I then worked in the theatre with Lizzie Powell, the lighting designer, to balance our colours and elements together.
Due to a second wave of COVID taking hold, restrictions stayed stubbornly strict and unfortunately we couldn’t show the play to a public audience. But we did film it, and the film version premiered on YouTube on 11th December 2020.
Written by Douglas Maxwell
Directed by Jonathan Lloyd
Set and Costume Designer Ruth Darling
Lighting Designer Lizzie Powell
Captioning Advisor Ciaran Stewart
Sound Designer David Graham
Photos by Robert McFadzean
A Solar Bear co-production with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, featuring the students of BA Performance in BSL and English.
