''It's a brutal, tender love story''
[cast of NTS's Let the Right One In'']
Last week I was lucky enough to go along to a press and blogger event at the Dundee Rep Theatre in honour of the opening of the National Theatre of Scotland's new production of ''Let the Right One In''. Over the course of ninety minutes we were treated to some preview scenes from the amazing production - performed for us on the INCREDIBLE set.
The stage was filled with trees brought in from a forest in Perth which, when paired with the beautiful lighting, made for an amazingly atmospheric set. This is quite a photo heavy post, but I'm sure you can see why!
''I really struggle to call it a horror story...'' Lorraine McIntosh
''I learnt so much. This has forced me to raise my standards.'' Martin Quinn
After seeing four amazing scenes, we grabbed a cup of tea and were introduced to three members of the brilliant cast - Martin Quinn, who plays lonely teenager Oskar, Lorraine McIntosh, who plays his mother, and Angus Miller, who takes on three different roles in the production, playing Torkel, Janne and Jimmy. The actors talked about their experience of the production, and I've included a couple of their quotes throughout this post!
Eve from NTS, Angus, Martin and Lorraine
Being the first professional role for Martin, I was seriously impressed with the performance he gave in the scenes we were lucky enough to see. LTROI tells the story of Oskar, a bullied teenage boy who befriends a girl named Eli, only to later discover she is a vampire. I haven't read the book, or seen either of the films (the original Swedish film, or the American remake) because, in all honesty, I was freaked out by the ''horror'' label. However, especially when it comes to this stage version, actress Lorraine McIntosh says she 'struggles to call it a horror story'. This production focuses much more closely on the relationship between Oskar and Eli, and takes a slightly different approach to the story. This, of course, instantly attracts my attention - anything remotely romance-centric is a winner for me. Rather than being frightening, from what I saw last week this production is incredibly beautiful. The amazing music from Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds adds to the atmosphere and the idea of the 'tragic cycle of love' (McIntosh) Eli must endure throughout eternity is really moving. At a time when we seem to be surrounded by vampire stories, from Twilight to True Blood (and yes, okay, my beloved The Vampire Diaries), this production is definitely worth seeing.
Eve, the lovely digital media associate for NTS who invited us along, also told us that an entire online fan community for LTROI has gotten really involved in a discussion with NTS over the production - as a total fangirl myself when it comes to certain TV Shows/books/movies, I would love it if a theatre company approached me for a chat about turning one of my beloved programmes into a stage show (any takers for ''Lost (on stage)''?!). I think it shows such commitment to, and respect for, the original text, that NTS have been so keen to get fans of the story all over the world involved in a show which is being solely performed at the Dundee Rep.
In addition to the production, NTS has also developed a really interesting Geolocation App (fancy, right?) for Dundee. The website describes it as:
''a location-based horror game for iPhone which uses sound to unleash a hidden adventure on Dundee’s streets.''
While my current lack of an iPhone - which I plan to rectify soon - would make it tricky for me to participate, the idea of this thoroughly intrigues me. To find out more, head to the website here!
Let the Right One In is running at the Dundee Rep Theatre until the 29th of June - so there's still time to go and see it. Let me know in the comments if you do manage to see it! I had such a lovely time at the event in Dundee, so thanks so much again to Eve for letting me come along. I also vlogged the entire day, so you can pop over to my YouTube channel and watch that here if you want to see some clips from the scenes they performed for us that day!!
hello Dundee :)
Thanks for reading!
[cast of NTS's Let the Right One In'']
Last week I was lucky enough to go along to a press and blogger event at the Dundee Rep Theatre in honour of the opening of the National Theatre of Scotland's new production of ''Let the Right One In''. Over the course of ninety minutes we were treated to some preview scenes from the amazing production - performed for us on the INCREDIBLE set.
The stage was filled with trees brought in from a forest in Perth which, when paired with the beautiful lighting, made for an amazingly atmospheric set. This is quite a photo heavy post, but I'm sure you can see why!
''I really struggle to call it a horror story...'' Lorraine McIntosh
''I learnt so much. This has forced me to raise my standards.'' Martin Quinn
After seeing four amazing scenes, we grabbed a cup of tea and were introduced to three members of the brilliant cast - Martin Quinn, who plays lonely teenager Oskar, Lorraine McIntosh, who plays his mother, and Angus Miller, who takes on three different roles in the production, playing Torkel, Janne and Jimmy. The actors talked about their experience of the production, and I've included a couple of their quotes throughout this post!
Eve from NTS, Angus, Martin and Lorraine
Being the first professional role for Martin, I was seriously impressed with the performance he gave in the scenes we were lucky enough to see. LTROI tells the story of Oskar, a bullied teenage boy who befriends a girl named Eli, only to later discover she is a vampire. I haven't read the book, or seen either of the films (the original Swedish film, or the American remake) because, in all honesty, I was freaked out by the ''horror'' label. However, especially when it comes to this stage version, actress Lorraine McIntosh says she 'struggles to call it a horror story'. This production focuses much more closely on the relationship between Oskar and Eli, and takes a slightly different approach to the story. This, of course, instantly attracts my attention - anything remotely romance-centric is a winner for me. Rather than being frightening, from what I saw last week this production is incredibly beautiful. The amazing music from Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds adds to the atmosphere and the idea of the 'tragic cycle of love' (McIntosh) Eli must endure throughout eternity is really moving. At a time when we seem to be surrounded by vampire stories, from Twilight to True Blood (and yes, okay, my beloved The Vampire Diaries), this production is definitely worth seeing.
Eve, the lovely digital media associate for NTS who invited us along, also told us that an entire online fan community for LTROI has gotten really involved in a discussion with NTS over the production - as a total fangirl myself when it comes to certain TV Shows/books/movies, I would love it if a theatre company approached me for a chat about turning one of my beloved programmes into a stage show (any takers for ''Lost (on stage)''?!). I think it shows such commitment to, and respect for, the original text, that NTS have been so keen to get fans of the story all over the world involved in a show which is being solely performed at the Dundee Rep.
In addition to the production, NTS has also developed a really interesting Geolocation App (fancy, right?) for Dundee. The website describes it as:
''a location-based horror game for iPhone which uses sound to unleash a hidden adventure on Dundee’s streets.''
While my current lack of an iPhone - which I plan to rectify soon - would make it tricky for me to participate, the idea of this thoroughly intrigues me. To find out more, head to the website here!
Let the Right One In is running at the Dundee Rep Theatre until the 29th of June - so there's still time to go and see it. Let me know in the comments if you do manage to see it! I had such a lovely time at the event in Dundee, so thanks so much again to Eve for letting me come along. I also vlogged the entire day, so you can pop over to my YouTube channel and watch that here if you want to see some clips from the scenes they performed for us that day!!
hello Dundee :)
Thanks for reading!
Imagine if there was a Vampire Diaries on stage :O ohwowowowowow.
ReplyDeleteI mentioned that my friends had went and one blogged too and mentioned your video (which I showed him) so thought you might want to know :P
http://agraham.org/blog/2013/06/15/let-the-right-one-in-and-other/
Aww thanks! :) Other sounds really interesting, I think I'd be seriously creeped out by the evil children singing though!
DeleteCan you imagine it?! Don't get me started, I'll be calling up my friends from uni who continued on with theatre studies (I only did it in first and second year) and getting them started on a production of it :P x