PUSHING THE
BOAT OUT
Innovative performance company Cryptic have teamed up with the Royal Navy for a Clyde-built musical. Gareth K Vile stretches
his sea legs in preparation
A lthough the precise details of Sound to Sea have been guarded with an almost military secrecy, Cryptic’s entry for Glasgow 2014’s cultural programme promises a stunning fusion of music (from opera to rock), spectacle (aerialists All or Nothing will be swinging from the Science Centre) and naval precision (the Royal Navy have provided the vessels). Appropriately for Cryptic’s 20th anniversary, artistic director Cathie Boyd has assembled a team of collaborators that will fulfill the company’s mission ‘to ravish the senses’.
‘Since moving here in 1990, I have always wanted to do something on the Clyde,’ says Boyd. ‘I was in the Science Centre having a meeting with chief executive Dr Stephen Breslen – I was thinking about how to combine music while embracing the history of Glasgow shipbuilding. And once my imagination starts . . .’
Boyd has deliberately invited performers from across the spectrum: from local beatboxing hero Bigg Taj and cellist Oliver Coates (a familiar Cryptic associate, and presenting an original composition) to soprano Marie Claire Breen and the Glasgow Phoenix Choir, the line- up represents the broad history of Glasgow’s musical scenes in a striking new context. Boyd was looking for an original approach: ‘There are so many events on water that have a fixed stage. I said: let’s have boats as a stage. Which I might be regretting . . .’ She laughs. ‘Most of the artists come in on boats from various angles. There is a huge range of boats in the same way there is a range of music – some acoustic, but most with sound engineers on board. And we’re even going to have some dancers with Tigerstyle [the Scottish bhangra group], which is lovely.’
The Royal Navy might appear an unlikely partner in such a grand aesthetic display. Captain Chris Smith, Naval Regional Commander for Scotland & Northern Ireland, agrees. ‘The Royal Navy is recognised as an agile, can-do organization, but it is not often we get asked to ravish the senses! This is a first in the way that we are engaging with Cryptic: it was an opportunity to expose the Royal Navy to a new audience.’
However, the alliance makes sense. Given the scale of the production, Boyd’s obsession with detail and the need for exact timings, the Royal Navy could deliver. ‘I am completely in my element,’ Boyd says. And Smith adds: ‘It’s the military mind. We love being precise.’ Sound to Sea is scheduled for two nights on the Clyde, and another partner, Inner Ear, is filming the event, which will then tour the country in
cinemas. Boyd is keen that her work for Festival 2014 will have a legacy, and with the rise of the cinema as a place where theatre can be seen, as in the National Theatre’s various broadcasts, Sound to Sea will have an extensive afterlife. Yet this detracts nothing from the live event itself. Boyd notes that they have already had 8000 requests for tickets (‘We’ll have to do a lucky dip,’ she muses) and it is unlikely that the Clyde will experience another performance on quite this scale. Boyd is co-directing with Josh Armstrong, whose The Little Match Girl Passion show is still touring the world, and has come back ‘from retirement’ to lead this project. Her enthusiasm – which Captain Smith suggests was an encouragement for the Royal Navy to get involved – extends from the overall structure to individual artists.
‘The music provides the narrative,’ she explains, before describing how the aerialists from All or Nothing will be taking to the skies and Walk The Plank will provide special effects. ‘There will be lots to look at! Josh’s attention to detail is superb, and Miaoux Miaoux’s electronic music is just glorious. That’s the point when I hope that everyone is dancing.’
While Boyd dismisses the suggestion that the Commonwealth Games were deliberately invited to Glasgow to celebrate Cryptic’s 20th anniversary, the Games have provided an opportunity for the company to remind the world how far they have come. Originally a vehicle for Boyd’s theatrical productions, they have steadily expanded their remit, conquering the Fringe with Orlando and regularly touring the world with productions that now grow in the fertile space between music, visual art and drama. Along the way, Boyd has engaged with science – both in using advanced technology on stage and in the content of shows – as well as with opera and contemporary composition. In 2010, she announced a new direction for the company – her ‘retirement’ from directing – and began developing the Sonica festival.
Sonica is now a bi-annual jamboree of composition that demands visual engagement, and Sound to Sea shares both its complex organisation and evocative aesthetic. From the touches of distinctive humour (‘One of the things I adore is that we have Bigg Taj who is physically huge on the wee spark,’ she giggles. ‘And we have opera on Scotland’s response to a Viking ship’) to the grandeur of the ambition, this is a show that matches the scale of the Games and the depth of Cryptic’s vision.
Glasgow Science Centre, Fri 1 & Sat 2 Aug, cryptic.org.uk/soundtosea
GLASGOW 2014 SOUND TO SEA
5 THINGS TO EXPECT AT CARGO, CAMERA… ACTION!
David Pollock finds out what’s in store at 85A’s all-day cinematic event playing out on the Clyde Embankment
1. A ghost ship filled with cannibal rats Inspired by the viral story of an abandoned Russian ship heading for Britain’s shores earlier this year, Glasgow’s mighty exponents of the all-in-one film screening / art installation / large- scale outdoor event the 85A Collective have devised a scenario that fuses the shipbuilding history of the Clyde with a nightmarish vision worthy of their hero Jan Svankmajer.
2. Some of Glasgow’s finest and most eclectic bands The specially created ghost ship will play host to five performances of the ‘Cargo, Camera… Action!’ show throughout the day. We only know vague details, but they’ll involve circus performers, freestyle football and a different band each time, including dub reggae from Mungo’s Hi-Fi and MC Diggy Dang, garage rock from Halfrican and disco-funk from Golden Teacher. 3. A daytime festival atmosphere Outside of the set, the area alongside the river will play host to an open-air selection of entertainments including DJs, games, performances (among them Eilidh McAskill’s Lady Cyclist), a ‘catering trailer’ featuring street food from the SCRAN Collective, and a ‘crew bar’ stocked by the Williams Bros brewery.
4. An evening of short films from Scotland and beyond After 10pm, the boat becomes a cinema, showing new commissions from Scots artists and filmmakers Chris Leslie, Torsten Lauschmann, Nick Millar and Minty Donald, and classic seafaring shorts including Seawards the Great Ships, the first Scottish-made film to win an Oscar.
5. A live film going on all around you Part of the performance will involve a roving fictional film crew making a movie of the day’s events, and all of the audience will be extras in this presentation. In other words, when the cameras start rolling expect anything to happen. (David Pollock) ■ Cargo, Camera… Action!, River Clyde Embankment, Glasgow, Sat 26 Jul.
10 Jul–21 Aug 2014 THE LIST 31