From the circus to digital projection, Ben Knapton is the director of a new Australian production 'He Dreamed A Train.'
The production explores the complex relationships of human aspirations, terminal illness and creative drive, combined with the use of digital projection. The story is based off Margi Brown Ash's life and her brother who has a terminal illness, Multiple Systems Atrophy (MSA). “Two years ago they gave him six months to live and he is still alive,” Ben says.
Ben Knapton“[Margi's brother] is a fascinating man and has done lots of interesting things throughout his life. Her wanting to write the play was her reaction to dealing with that process. But from there, it has moved into a more fictional story about a woman and her relationship with her brother.
“[The production] also has Margi's son in it, Travis Ash. He is a musician and also plays a character in the show. It has plenty of humour and funny bits in it. It's a really beautiful story about a complex relationship between a woman and her brother before he meets his untimely death.”
The production is unique as it integrates digital projection with traditional storytelling. “Basically we have projection mapped the set so every surface is available to us to transform and change the spaces. It looks stunning.
“It is a fairly new [concept]. Over the past 20 years it has started to [appear] in theatre more and more. People often picture a big screen and there's content on the screen. We use it in a very different way. Our set is a natural set, where there is half a house on stage and it looks quite real and authentic.“The play really starts in this naturalist world, but then as she starts to remember stories of her brother, family and different times and places, we use the audio visual [element] to really bring those aspects out.
“It's fascinating to work with... as it integrates with the content and expands upon ideas of loss, grief or love. These kind of concepts that are a bit bigger than us can take us into these aesthetic worlds. At the same time, there's trickery that's part of it as well, kind of like magic on stage that is integrated with the content in the show.”
Ben works in various art forms as he is also the Associate Director of Australia's premier contemporary circus company, Circa. “I've never worked with a circus before, but it has been fantastic. We do about 300 shows a year in about 20 different countries around the place. It really has just exploded and there seems to be great interest for contemporary circus at the moment.
“I kind of jump around art forms a bit. Obviously the forms are very different. At the end of the day our goal is to make great art no matter what project I'm working on. It seems to me it doesn't really matter what form you're working in. The way you move forward is through searching to make great art, but it doesn't necessarily matter what form you are working in to obtain that goal. I quite like working in the circus and then back to theatre. They cross pollinate each other in an interesting way.”
'He Dreamed A Train' will be running from the 15th to the 26th October at the Brisbane Powerhouse.
