Renewing Mark Ravenhill connection
Chichester-based Deni Jones comes full circle as she directs Mark Ravenhill’s The Cane for Drip Action Theatre Company in Arundel.
She worked with Mark at Chichester College back in the 1990s.
As Deni explains: “Bill Brennan (Drip Action artistic director) and I trawl through plays. For the company we’re always looking for edgy off-the-beatentrack type plays and actually I worked with Mark in the early 1990s at Chichester College when he was a fledgling new young playwright. I was head of drama and we were developing the BTEC in performing arts and we were doing a playwriting module.
Somebody said there is this chap Mark who is just starting out and so we got in touch and he worked with us at Chichester College. He was a darned good writer. It's about being able to write but also about being able to teach and put it across to the students. We were the pilot study for the BTEC in performing arts and we had a great time. And since then, of course, he's gone on to become one of the most prolific playwrights in this country and abroad. His work is always interesting. Bill and I were going through lots of plays and we came across this one.”
The Drip Action production will be from April 24-27 at 8pm at The Victoria Institute, 10 Tarrant Street, Arundel. Tickets £14, students £10 from www.dripaction.com
“It was first performed in 2018 at the Royal Court
Theatre. The play is centred around a cane which was used in corporal punishment in schools and which was banned in 1986. It centres around this cane and around this family of three. The father Edward was a teacher. He is retiring and early in his career as a deputy head he would have used the cane quite a lot. He is married to Maureen and there is an estranged daughter Emma who is a current teacher who is now working on developing the academies. The play is about the complexities of a dysfunctional family and it is also talking about morally provocative issues and greater social issues. There is a lot going on. Mark Ravenhill wrote an ending which I know the audience will walk away talking about. He leaves it so that various answers might come and the audience will be thinking about it. But the cane is still the focus to the play and actually we think the cane represents the British colonisation of the world. We feel that that is something that is still on our plate but that's another story!
“It's a riveting gripping drama but there are some shades of darker comedy. It is so gripping and so engaging but you do get this dark comedy but you are not going to be guffawing in the aisles. Mark Ravenhill is a writer who has a unique technique that really challenges everybody and I won't say what it is because I want people to come and see for themselves. But it's a really interesting and challenging writing technique.
"The play is a ripper and the audience are never going to be bored!”