Waiting

Today we return to the Jamaa - it is a very different place in the day time. We meet a man who works with monkeys, a cousin of Lahcen's who says he can set us up with some story-tellers. We wait and wait. Glass after glass of mint tea, and our first tagine. Noah is less patient than us (though the tagine occupies him for a time) and would rather wander off or play with a snake but as our patience is running out they arrive. Only to tell us to return tomorrow when they will then tell us a story and talk about the traditions of the halqa. Our interest piqued we promise to return tomorrow and head back to the hotel (in a horse-drawn carriage, as you do). Waiting around are things I suspect we may have to get used to in Morocco.

Lahcen is more philosophical about it all and says the square recognised that we were tired and should come back tomorrow. 'You're not able to listen yet.' There is a strong vein of the fatalistic running through the fabric of Morocco which is something I'll need to come to terms with given my love of efficiency and punctuality. So when it happens will be the right time. And now to bed.

Jamaa El Fna

After a remarkably stress free journey - heeding the advice of other mums I breastfed Noah through take off and landing and he slept for pretty much the entire three hour flight - we arrive in Marrakech in the early evening. After some haggling over a car with an entirely unofficial car-hire 'guy' we drive into the new town of Marrakech to a hotel where the Moroccan actor (and major star) Said Bey is staying, who manages to negotiate a 50% discount. Said is an old friend of Lahcen's and can hopefully facilitate several connections and conversations with other artists in Morocco. Serendipitously he is also fascinated by the story-tellers and the oral storytelling traditions of Morocco and we start exploring with him what this show might eventually be, over a pot of mint tea in a local cafe. We had known before we flew that whatever HALQA becomes there will be mint tea involved, in the show itself, not simply its creation - and it feels apt that our first exchange takes place over a glass of the super sweet, super hot concoction.

After discussing the meaning of the word 'Halqa' used to described the circle of audience that forms around a storyteller (and also snake-charmer, musician, acrobat etc) we headed off to the Jemaa El Fna - one of Morocco's most well-known landmarks and now a world heritage site - to see the Halqa in action. It's an intense experience, a cacophany of drums, hawkers, orange juice sellers and street food vendors, a mass of humanity crammed together in this huge public square where for hundreds of years story-tellers have spun their tales alongside acrobats and snake charmers. Noah has a field day, of course. I think Morocco suits him.

We don't expect to meet a master storyteller on our first night in Morocco - the rise of TV and radio, coupled with the rising sound levels in the Jemaa - have led to a huge decline in oral storytelling - and if we are to find some genuine story-tellers while we are here we will have to hunt them out. But after our evening in the Jemaa we now at least have a little understanding of the circle, of the halqa, as well as a new-found friend in Morocco's answer to Brad Pitt - Said Bey.

Debrief Dinner

Last night our costume Designer Kate Lane cooked us an amazing vegan feast and we had a debrief of the R&D showing and process so far. Kate also has a (not so) little one and we had Noah with us so what with kids and getting stuck into the feast itself we didn't get down to the de-brief part til 10pm-ish. Lots of exciting ideas for moving forwards - Filipe the Sound Designer has got some brilliant ideas about putting wireless contact speakers inside the copper pots that (as predicted) have become a huge feature of the show, essentially turning each one into its own resonating generator of sound. And so when the mouths of the pots were turned towards the audience the sounds would be louder. Really exciting and something to explore next month when we hope to have another R&D day. The big debate of the day was how to incorporate the scientific content in voiceover form as to be clear and convey the science 'story' of the piece without becoming either a lecture or a distraction from the complexity and richness of the visual narrative. Tricky. I don't think we've solved it yet but now I have to go away and write up an updated narrative and sound-script structure, and I'm sure that will throw up a whole load more questions. But what with the business part of the evening starting so late, before we knew it the clock was almost striking 12 and so we had to dash for last buses and tubes.

Showing

So after an all too brief six days of play on the floor and in the air we showed around 30 minutes of material to a very friendly audience of venues, programmers and some of our scientific collaborators today. I can't believe we made so much in such a short time - of course not all of it will be kept for the future but the finished show is only going to be 60 minutes. Very encouraging. As was the great response we had to the work - I think it was a bit abstract for some people, but we didn't have our sound designer - the wonderful Filipe Gomes - around to really establish the narrative through the soundscape (which will be a big part of the finished piece) and we really focused on finding the physical vocabularies rather than exploring the narrative and the characters (which again will be crucial to the show but lets not run before we can walk). And our amazing photographer Richard Davenport came in and took some shots of it - which with the help of literally two expertly placed lights (thanks Will) and Kate's gorgeous (and very finished looking) costumes will look rather lovely I think. And in true Metta style baby Noah joined us for the post-show discussion which meant that somewhat without thinking I spent most of it fielding complex scientific questions whilst breastfeeding. Classic.

Research & Development Week

Today we started our process of R&D for the show and I'm really excited already about what we're generating. I say we - I mostly just sit there in awe of the three performers who manage to perform the most amazing physical feats with such grace and poise. I think it is helpful though to have me there as an outside eye, as Shreya the choreographer, is also performing. But I feel exhausted and I'm not the one leaping and lunging and lifting and all the rest, so god knows how they're all feeling! They're working so hard to genuinely respond to the interview material which we have playing on a loop (so after a while we all got a bit mad hearing the same clips) and it's amazing the detail and the beauty of what's being created, though probably by the time it's in front of an audience the scientific content won't be so transparent. We shall have to see how much people read into the visual and gestural language at the showing next week. Can't wait to carry on again tomorrow though - and start playing with our lovely copper pots - and even early bits of costume (what a luxury). And from Sunday we're in Circus Space so we can begin to explore the silks and translate more of the very specific gestural Indian classical dance vocabulary onto the aerial equipment. I have this idea of turning a red silk (which for us represents the arsenic contaminated well water) into a wedding sari and the protagonist of the piece Asha performing a wedding dance while it still being attached to the ceiling. Let's see whether it works...

Workshop Audition

Just got home from a very exciting morning at English Touring Theatre - who in their loveliness as our mentors provide us with free rehearsal and audition space when they can. So we've just been auditioning around a dozen of the country's top aerialists/dancers for the forthcoming Research & Development week for WELL. The session was mostly led by Shreya Kumar, our Choreographer for the show, who taught everyone a short sequence of fusion contemporary and Indian Classical dance. Stunning as that was we then got some of them to translate that onto an aerial hoop. We also got them to try and balance a copper pot (sourced from Southall only yesterday, thank you Will) on their heads - which I think may well become a recurring motif of the show. It was so exciting to see the beginnings of what we might make for the piece and also to meet so many amazing performers. Plus this is our first collaboration with Shreya so a great opportunity to see how we might work together over the months to come. And I'd like to think the addition of a 10 month old baby toddling around the rehearsal room also gave the auditionees both an insight into the way we we work at Metta (i.e. in a very open-door fashion) and also made for a more relaxing environment.

Our First Interview

Today we started the interview process for WELL. We're talking to a whole range of scientists, development economists and specialists in arsenic and the contamination of groundwater. Our main scientific collaborator and partner on the project is the eminent and lovely Professor Stuart Reynolds who is in fact Will's dad, and has been teaching students at Bath Uni about the problems of arsenic poisoning in Bangladesh for the last 10 years. What a coincidence! In fact it was Stuart who sparked our interest in the project in the first place. So we whipped out our fancy new microphone and began - sat round the kitchen table - exploiting nap time to avoid additional comments from our 9 month old baby. As a seasoned lecturer of over 35 years Stuart is wonderfully eloquent - and dare I say it - poetic speaker and I'm really excited about incorporating the recordings into the eventual soundscape and musical score for the full production. And baby Noah stayed asleep for the duration!