炎 Honō (Japanese for Flame) has evolved from Tricky Hat artistic team’s research trips to Japan in 2017 and 2018

Q&A with HONŌ Performers – 

In April 2020, a small group of Flames will collaborate with a group of older people based in Sendai, Japan to create a multi-media performance event. Tricky Hat Productions caught up with Tom, Jess and Pene, who are taking part in  the HONŌ performance, and chatted about how they became a Flame and their thoughts about taking The Flames to the other side of the world.

The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation is delighted to be supporting this trip to Japan with a Daiwa Foundation Award.

Could you tell me a little bit about yourself and how you became a Flame?

Jess: When I left school, I did ballet training and worked as a dancer for a few years and then kept up with classes and things. More recently, I performed with community casts in dance-based companies, but, as I got older, I discovered Tricky Hat. It was amazing, as it was more drama-based and you don’t have to be rolling about the floor or getting up from the floor at any point! It just suited me very well, and I did a diploma in physical theatre and I was 72 when I graduated. The Flames just absolutely fitted the bill, it fits with all my past experience. It’s great for stimulating your imagination and your energy, and it’s great being around like-minded people.

Pene: I went to drama school as a mature student, and so I am a professional actress, but haven’t really done very much for many years. I saw the very first Flames presentation at the CCA and went up to the members that were there and said: “I want a bit of this, please!” so I went along and auditioned for the second one. It was an eye opener, really, because what The Flames does is work from our own experience, our own thoughts, our own activities. So, we’re not imposing anything upon ourselves, except truth. And it doesn’t always have to be the truth, you can make things up if you want to. There’s a privacy area where if you don’t want to talk about something, you don’t have to. There are usually different areas that we’re working on for each session. I think I’ve done four, and each time I’ve definitely benefited from it. I’ve started writing little things, and I put on a piece last year for the West End Festival, which I never would have done if I hadn’t joined The Flames. I’ve met all sorts of different people, learned from them and getting a broader perspective on life, and I’ve been able to meet up with old friends, too!

Jess: Pene and I have known each other for years!

Pene: Yes! So that’s why I joined The Flames, and at the moment I am participating in the Edinburgh one.

Tom: As a youngster, I was involved in theatre in the Strathclyde Theatre Group, which was quite well known at the time. It’s still going, but it was in its heyday in the late seventies to eighties. A big part of their make-up was improvisation. We had a lot of time to rehearse, that was one of the great things, so we could improvise things and get into character. Of course, there was normally a script at the end of it, which we don’t have with The Flames. Also, I am a graphic designer, so I’ve been working a lot for theatre companies, opera companies, and have been producing graphics for them. I was one of the founding members of The Tron, so I’ve more or less been involved with theatre in Glasgow for a very long time. I hadn’t been for quite a while before a friend of mine told me about The Flames. I was on the board of Fable Vision, and a lady who used to work for them got in touch with me saying she was part of Tricky Hat. She told me that they were starting The Flames, said it was up my street and that I should give it a go. So that’s what I did, and I’ve never looked back! I’ve been in two of them so far.

Could you tell me about what it’s like, being a Flame?

Jess: It’s liberating. When I became a Flame, I felt like I had found a niche, a place where I could express myself that was fun and enjoyable. I mean, the sessions just fly by.

Pene: We always have an artist in residence who comes for half a day, who might be a movement artist, or a vocal artist, or a director of some sort. We had someone last week who was a storyteller, who taught us about building up stories. So, being a Flame gives me a slightly different perspective. Also, what we do from that session gets incorporated into the performance. Fiona has two or three different areas that she wants to work, she doesn’t necessarily tell us what they are, and we work on completely different things. Meanwhile, Fiona is completely absorbing it all and taking notes. Music is brought in, it might underlie what is all going on, and movement might be brought into it as well. It isn’t really until the day before the performance that it’s all brought together.

Tom: It’s really quite an amazing technical skill, yes. Because you go there, and you’ve got around a dozen people there, and there’s another dozen people coming on a different day. And you’re given a word, like ‘silence,’ and you’ve to see what you can do with the word. Fiona will set up scenarios, but in your head, you have to amalgamate all these ideas you’re getting. Also, you’re getting ideas from all these people you don’t know, ideas you never thought of before, and you have to think of what your concept of the topic is. I found it hard work, I have to say, because you’re constantly having to analyse yourself and, to a certain extent, bring out something in yourself because you’ve got all of these people with some amazing stories to tell. And then you find with some people that Fiona brings out their great stories. She’s fantastic people person and motivator.

Jess: It’s like putting bits of a jigsaw together. She has a theme in her head, and she’ll just piece it all together. What you have to be prepared to do as a performer, even if you think your particular contribution as a performer one a day is genius, it might not fit in with the story. So, you have to be prepared to let go of things that you really liked. At the end of the day, although it’s all your work, Fiona has to slot it all into a performance that is entertaining.

What would you say is your favourite thing about being a Flame and being a part of this community?

Jess: For me, it’s rehearsing.

Tom: I would say performing. Because, very often, you’re hearing things in the performance for the very first time. I remember when someone told a story during a performance, a monologue, which was fabulous. He had never told anyone else except from Fiona, and for the performance that was the story she wanted him to tell. It was spinetingling! Because you’re hearing it for the first time, as is the audience. You’re getting surprises all the time, so the performances for me are the thrill and the revelation, and everything wrapped up in one.

Jess: The thing that amazes me is that there’s people with serious things going on in their life, and they’re able to come up and tell their stories. It is a safe place to share personal stories, which are performed in the end.

Pene: I really like how we’re able to develop our strengths as well as look at some of our weaknesses.

Jess: Pene’s character was a French woman at one point.

Pene: Yes! We had to say three things about ourselves, and they could be true or false. I said that I was French, that I drove a red car, and I was a retired GP, which was not true at all. I did have French grandparents and I drove a red sports car. So, Fiona says: “Right Pene, if you’re French, you’re going to spend the whole session speaking French, I don’t care if it’s real French or cod French or not French.” And I managed it! I wrote a poem in French, which was a challenge, and part of it was relayed on a screen behind us on the stage. They bring in visuals, movement, a video, perhaps someone speaking directly to the audience up there.

Jess: Kim, the visual artist, will be coming with us to Japan, and I think it really enhances the performance, the fact that we have the back projection as well as us performing. I think it really lifts it. We sing, we move, we write!

Tom: It will be interesting working with Japanese people. That excites me, the idea that we’re taking a completely different world view and merging them.

Pene: I think, because with The Flames, it’s very distinctive and it’s fresh, and I have a feeling it might be different in Japan. I think both groups will find it very different.

How do you feel about being a part of the group of Flames going to Japan?

Tom: I think the journey will be tough! It’s about 27 hours overall.

Jess: I’m not really a traveller at all, usually if I travel anywhere it’s for a purpose. The furthest I’ve been is the States. So, in a way, this is another trip with a purpose. I think it’ll be interesting to work with the Japanese performers. Maybe to begin with, I might be a bit shy and making sure I’m respecting their culture.

Pene: I watched the Joanna Lumley programme and Tokyo seems like such an exciting, colourful place to be! Obviously, we won’t be in the city all of the time, but we will have a chance to move around and see something. I’m really looking forward to working with the Japanese performers. It will be really interesting to see a different side of life.

Tom: I think this is going to be a completely different culture, and it’s going to be a shock, and, like Pene said, I think it’ll be an exciting one.

Pene: In 1990, I worked with and lived with a group of Russian performers for two weeks, and we had translators with us. It was extraordinary because it was like we were having a dialogue. The person was translating what we were saying and what we were responding. It was like we were talking to each other, it was quite extraordinary! We’ll probably have professional interpreters there as well as people who speak English, so that will be interesting as well.

What are you most excited about for performing in Japan?

Tom: I’m very excited to go over there! Obviously there will be challenges with the cultural differences and the language differences, but the challenge I’m looking forward to is how we communicate all the ideas that we’ll explore in the HONŌ performance. I have a feeling that we might use more physical theatre than we do here in Scotland and less verbal, and I’m sure that’ll be a hurdle that we will overcome.

Jess: The great thing about this trip is that someone’s taking us there, and it’s the same with the performance. Fiona takes total responsibility, and sometimes she won’t tell you things until the very last day – you just go in and enjoy it. If I was to go to Japan and create choreography, I’d be terrified, but I trust Fiona and I trust the process. It’s going to be a fantastic experience. We had to write in an application for why we wanted to go, and I wrote: “This is totally out of my comfort zone!” If The Flames are about anything, it’s about lifting you out of your comfort zone.

Pene: I think I wrote on my application “This is totally for me!” I think it’ll be an amazing trip – I’m really excited for going. We all have different abilities, and we all have different interests, and Fiona works with our strengths and she never puts any pressure on us. So, it takes the fear of performance and the fear of showing yourself up away.

Do you have any advice for anyone who is thinking of getting back into performance or for people who would like to give performance a shot?

Pene: I think this is a good way in for a lot of people. You can take your time with exposing yourself, if you know what I mean. You can go as far as you want, and there’s no pressure on you to do anything. But gradually, like with all these things, you start to think “I’d like to do a bit more, I’d like to try that” and you have to throw yourself into it.

Tom: I think it’s a great shame actually that, in my experience, most of the people who do come to The Flames have been involved with theatre in some way or have a performance background. It absolutely would be a fantastic thing for people who have never performed before in their life, because it’s a great way of meeting people, bringing some ideas out, and bringing people out of their shell.

Jess: I agree, it’s a fantastic environment for challenging yourself, and learning more about both yourself and the people around you.