Welcome to the TheOld Vic and this introduction to The Divide by Alan Ayckbourn, directed by Annabel Bolton. The audio described performance is on Saturday 10 February at 1.30pm and lasts for approximately 3 hours 50 minutes with an interval of 20 minutes. There will be a touch tour at 10.30 am where you will be able to explore the set and meet members of the production team. The touch tour is free but if you would like to join it please contact the box office 0344 871 7628 to reserve a place.
The Old Vic website tells us that:‘The Divideunfolds in a dystopian society of repression and seething insurrection. In the aftermath of a deadly contagion which has decimated the population, contact between men and women has become fatal. Under the dictates of an elusive and authoritarian Preacher, an unthinkable solution has been enforced. The adult survivors are now segregated by gender and physically separated, men wear white as a sign of their purity and women – still deemed infected – are clothed in black as a mark of their sin.’
In an interview in the printed programme, the playwright, Alan Ayckbourn, describes The Divide as a narrative for voices. He says ‘It’s all dialogue, but not conversation, in the sense that I started writing two diaries, those of Soween and her brother Elihu, as they grow up. Then, to give it some triangulation, I started adding minutes of council or committee meetings – some very right wing councillors, some liberal or left’. After that, says Ayckbourn, it seemed natural to add the voices of the people referred to in the diaries or the minutes, but he reiterates that the result is not a play.
When we enter the auditorium the stage of The Old Vic is open to us. The setting is monochrome. The floor is black. The entire back wall is covered in a dark grey silk curtain which drapes softly. Across the top is a banner where bold, white, capital letters spell out the words ‘THE DIVIDE’on a black background. This banner is an indicator board during the performance. As the scenes unfold captions appear on the banner announcing the time and place of the scene, always white against the black; sometimes this text is neatly typewritten, sometimes it is hand written.
The scene is set in preparation for a book launch. On the left, facing us is a huge image of a book cover. It reaches almost to the banner at the top and fills about a third of the available space. A large image on the cover depicts a human head and shoulders, the face is blank and featureless. The image is divided by a sharp vertical line the half on the left is black and on the right white. In the background behind the white image is a photograph of a bleak grey landscape, The background behind the black image is black and white photograph of an intricate pattern. At the top is the book title,The Divide, at the bottom, the name of the author,Soween Clay.
On the right stands a large clear tableon a frame of metal legs on wheels. A water carafe and glass stand on the table with a book stand.It is here that the story is introduced by the adult Soween. She strides on confidently, her flame-coloured short hair catching the light, and engages us in the manner of a visiting lecturer. Soween is stylish in a dove-grey pantsuit with a draped low cut top and wide legged trousers, set off with a choker of multi coloured beads and black low-heeled shoes.
On either side of the space stands a curved rail at about waist height, with a broad grey padded top. These rails are identical.
Each one is supported on narrow legs. The rails run from the front corners of the space towards the front centre, before curving in a right angle towards the back, leaving a gap between them of about half the width of the stage.
The stage itself is sometimes empty and at other times simple items of furniture are brought in or removed by the cast when the location changes.
The grey curtains on the back of the space provide an area for projection of writing, images which suggest location and they sometimes open fully to reveal the black clad choir.At other times a section of the curtain draws back to reveal on open door to another area.
The book cover is soon replaced by a projection on the back curtain of childish writing and we now meet the author, young Soween, who will be our guide as the performance continues. When we first meet her she is about 9 years old. She bounces in, eager in grey school uniform of pale round necked sweatshirt, shapeless grey skirt, long grey socks and clumpy grey shoes, her strawberry blonde hair pulled tightly back from her pale face and tamed into a long plait. Soween’s face is narrow and her big blue eyes uncertain. She canters about with unfocused energy, hunching her shoulders from time to time and glancing sideways when she feels uncertain.
Her brother Elihuis more restrained. He’s a pale faced boy with a shock of dark hair, who wears an almost identical uniform to his sister’s, distinguished only by his short ankle socks.
Their parents, Mapa and Mama, are dressed from head to foot in black, as are all the adult women. They wear a fitted round necked jacket over an ankle length skirt and flat shoes, their hair hidden beneath a brimless bonnet. Mapais a doctor;she strides about determinedly, head forward, hands often gripping her briefcase and occasionally clasped behind her back. She has pale brown skin and beady dark eyes which glint behind her spectacles.
Mama is shorter and rounder. She loves to cuddle her children, but sits quietly in the background until they need her, unless she is appearing with a tray of tea or snoozing in a corner. Her pale wedge-shaped face is generally calm: she’s a woman who knows her place and stays there.
As the story unfolds, some of Soween’sclassmates join her, all identically dressed in school uniform. Sassa is conventionally pretty, with white-blonde hair, ivory skin and a wide infectious smile. Axi is just a little older and well aware of it – she’s a graceful self-possessed girl with an oval face, alabaster skin and long reddish brown hair. She is often in the company of Giella, a lively girl with big brown eyes, dark complexion and rounded features, her curly hair restrained with difficulty into the regulation plait.
Elihu, on the other hand, is only occasionally accompanied by one schoolmate, the boisterous Fergo.Taller and heavier than Elihu, Fergo often behaves like an embryonic rugby player, pushing and butting the slighter boy as a matter of course. He has a jutting chin and pale face with close cropped dark hair.
Elihu is entrusted to a tutor, Rudgrin, whose role is to prepare him to cross the divide into the world of men in the North. . Rudgrinis very tall, with a balding pate and tufts of bushy grey hair sprouting at his temples and the nape of his neck. His long and pallid face is often melancholy. Rudgrin wears a white hoodie, and snow white trousers, lumpily tucked into long socks below the knee. Like all the other adults, he wears practical round-toed flat shoes, but his are white, of course. He also wears a visor – a see-through mask of white fabric, which hangs around his neck and is used when out and about as necessary. Women carry a similar mask in black.
The Councilis made up of a dozen women, all identically dressed, with any hint of individuality eliminated, so that only height and build distinguishthem. One leading progressive, referred to as Councillor Nivess, is particularly upright, with square face and piercing eyes as she squares up to the orthodox Mapa, and the business-like Clerk is immediately recognisable by her lilting Welsh accent.
Cast and creatives
The older Soween is played by Buffy Davis, and her schoolgirl self by Erin Doherty
Elihu(ELL–ee- hoo) is played by Jake Davies
Mapais ThusitaJayasundera, and Mama is Finty Williams
Sassa is Sophie Melville
And Axi is played by Joanne McGuinness
Giella(hard G) is played by WerucheOpia
Fergo is Martin Quinn
Tutor Rudgrin is played by Richard Katz
The Councillors are played by members of the cast
The lighting is designed by David Plater, and the sound by Bobby Aitken
The music is composed by Christopher Nightingale
The set is designed by Laura Hopkins
The director is Annabel Bolton