Worthing’s Dionysus Theatre is on the road for its second-ever tour, this time with a stage adaptation of the classic Victorian thriller The Woman in White, a tempestuous tale of love, betrayal and greed.
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00:00Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspaper. It's lovely
00:06to speak to Robert Tremayne this morning. Robert, your company Dionysus Theatre is on
00:11the road with The Woman in White, and you're playing various states, including Hearst Pierpoint
00:15and Southwick. And why The Woman in White? It's such a classic novel, isn't it? Why are
00:22you doing this?
00:23Yeah, I mean, it's a novel that just lends itself to the stage. You know, it'd be criminal
00:28not to do it, quite frankly. And it's been performed since 1860, I think, was the first
00:33production. And just to know that, you know, audiences have been enjoying it for that long,
00:38it was kind of like a no-brainer. It's got so much to it, there's so much complexity.
00:45And as an adaptor, when I was adapting it, the challenge of going from 60 characters,
00:51cutting them down as much as I could and keeping the core story to be performed by just seven
00:56actors is a challenge that I really enjoy. And it was something that I had in the back
01:03of my mind for so long, you know, since I ever first saw the production years ago, and
01:09read the book, I just thought in my head, at some point, I've got to do this. Because
01:12like I said, it lends itself to the stage.
01:15It's such an incredibly gripping, twisting story, isn't it? You read the novel, you just
01:20feel so invested in it, don't you?
01:23That's right. And I think that the style of writing that Collins had in the original,
01:30you know, it's all written from the character's perspective. You know, every chapter is from
01:34someone else's perspective. It's not all from a writer's, or if you like, a director's point
01:39of view, it's all written from their point of view. So as a director, you know, putting
01:44it onto the stage, you're given so much because you're like, well, I know exactly how all
01:48these people feel. And then I can put it on onto a script and turn it into a narrative.
01:54And part of the reason it's so enjoyable and so gripping is that there's an incredibly
02:00compelling villain in the piece, isn't there? And tragically, that villain is you.
02:05I know, I know. Yeah, Count Fosco. I mean, he is, he's well known. He's absolutely terrible.
02:15He's completely charming and so suave and sophisticated that, you know, no one would
02:19ever think that there's anything, you know, amiss there. And that's kind of throughout
02:24the entire book, you're kind of on side. And when you come and see our production, I think
02:30not until quite late on, you're going, oh, hang on a minute. But that being said, there
02:34is something there, you know, the whole time. It's like when you meet someone, there's a
02:39line in the show, it's like when you see a picture that's, it looks perfect, but it's
02:43not quite. There's something there that isn't quite right with him. And then we obviously
02:50find out in quite a dramatic turn of events, I might say, but without giving away too much
02:54exactly who he is and what he wants.
02:56That's an exciting prospect for the company. But it's your second tour. That's significant.
03:01Our second tour. Yeah, yeah, it really is. I mean, last year we did, we went back to
03:07our roots. Our original production in 2021 was The Seagull by Chekhov. So we sort of
03:14re-looked at that because it was our first sort of step out on tour. And we took La Mouette
03:19out on tour, which was a very, it was quite an easy show in terms of technical side and
03:26the way it toured itself. This year is a big step up for us. This production is, it's,
03:32you know, it's got a lot more set, a lot more lighting. Its production value is much, much
03:38higher. And it is a big step up for us, which I'm really happy with. We're going in the
03:43right direction, you know.
03:44Absolutely. And it's brave too, because this is a post-pandemic company and this can't
03:48be an easy time to establish anything, but you've done that.
03:52We did that. And I think we set up originally in the pandemic, which I think, you know,
03:58it's still one of those things that's very core to us. We set up as a group of actors
04:02who just missed each other. We missed performing and we would organise Zoom meetings to have
04:08just read-throughs of random plays just because we missed each other. And I'll never forget
04:13that feeling when, you know, the lockdown was lifted and we could be in that room again
04:18together. That feeling of being together in that room and being back to what we, you know,
04:23what we love. And that's the core of us as a company. You know, it's all based on the
04:27love that we have for this more than anything else.
04:30Fantastic. Well, good luck with the production. Lovely to speak to you again.
04:34Thank you.
04:34Thank you.
04:35You too. Take care.