Trench warfare, love scenes... it’s the Zoom and iPhone Birdsong
IT IS an epic and powerful family saga set against the mass slaughter in the trenches of the Somme. Now a new screen adaptation of Sebastian Faulks’s acclaimed 1993 novel Birdsong aims to recreate that ambitious scope – with actors recording their performances in their homes on iPhones.
And the biggest challenge of the lockdown production? Shooting a pivotal, passionate sex scene when the two participants are several miles apart. ‘We are currently trying to find a way you can do that,’ director Alastair Whatley admitted, given that the scene is ‘very important to the story and you can’t really ignore it’.
‘It’s one of those areas where we are going to get playful with the cameras and use filmmaking techniques,’ he suggested.
Stage actors Tom Kay and Madeleine Knight, who reprise the central roles of Stephen Wraysford and Isabelle Azaire which they played on tour in 2018, live in London, while other cast members live across the UK. They communicate by video conference and film their parts in front of a green screen so backgrounds can be added by computer later.
First World War trench scenes are being recreated by the cast ‘writhing around on their kitchen floors’, said Mr Whatley.
The cast of 14 have been given historical prop weapons, period costumes... and a crash course in hair and make-up.
The author praised the ingenuity of the new 90-minute production, saying: ‘It will probably have the odd glitch but I wanted to support the project because Alastair had shown so much enterprise.’
The new production, from the
Original Theatre Company, will be screened online for three days from July 1, the anniversary of the start of the Battle of the Somme, in which more than 1million troops died.