As I write this entry, our production of Great Expectations should have been beginning its tour in Barnes, at OSO Arts. Alas, the global events of the last few months have put that on hold for the time being. Thankfully, we were in a position to postpone, rather than cancel the production and cannot wait to share it with you all in the future – whenever that may be. Based on the preparation that we had been busily going about and the wonderful cast, creative team and crew that were primed to get into rehearsals before the pause button was pressed, it promises to be a very exciting adaptation of Dickens' fantastic novel that I, for one, cannot wait to get my teeth back into in the hopefully not too distant future.
In the meantime, our 2016 radio adaptation of the play which was produced in collaboration with Blackshaw Theatre is available to stream on our website. What better way to whet the appetite for the return of the production to theatres on the other side of the current challenges that we face.
Whilst theatre making is a tricky pursuit in the current climate, we’ve taken the time to get thoroughly stuck into the other aspects of company running that make Cyphers tick, alongside the creative work that we do.
For many years now, Marcus has tried to convince me that Excel Spreadsheets are a source of fun. I can’t say that I’m quite sold on that choice of adjective just yet, but I’ve definitely come to a greater appreciation of their use over the last weeks as we’ve looked to re-evaluate where Cyphers is going as a theatre company both creatively and as an organisation.
Whilst I’d rather have spent the last month or so in a rehearsal room, the chance to divert that energy into planning our creative programming, work with university students through our Create programme, work with young people in schools and communications training for university lecturers and teachers has been both satisfying and highly productive. We’re even more excited than ever to continue to develop and share all of these things when the world returns to something like normality.
Alongside all of that, we’ve been busy working on a number of new creative projects which are in the pipeline for the months and years ahead. I won’t give too much away, but Marcus is working on an adaptation of a novel which is rooted in one of my new found hobbies – gardening. For my part, I’m developing a piece which jumps into a world where human life has changed even more drastically than we have all had to over the last few months…
We can’t wait to get back to sharing all of these stories with you as soon as we can. In the meantime, we wish you all the best health, happiness and hope in these challenging times.