English Theatre Leipzig’s final production of the 2023/2024 season is Eden. Written by Luke Dunne and directed by Izzy Collie-Cousins, it sees “eight unnamed characters embark on a journey of ritual, cruelty and love with high spirits and good humour, reliving old stories and inventing new ones.” It’s an ambitious creative project, from its casting processes to its audio-visual design. We spoke to the directing and writing team to get a few insights into what makes it such a fascinating production and what audiences can expect when Eden opens at Neues Schauspiel Leipzig on March 7th 2024.
Eden’s blurb gives a good overview of the play. But from your perspectives as creators, what would you say it’s about?
Luke Dunne (LD): Eden explores the universal longing to leave home, or destroy it, and construct something completely new in its place. It considers the seductions of an impulse which moves poets, prophets, revolutionaries and anyone else who longs for the end of the world in all its particulars.
Representing the drive to destroy one’s existing context, Eden is saturated with its own. It interpolates and alters a number of older stories to create something new; a kind of patchwork quilt or mosaic whose raw material comes from scripture, folklore and mythology, and whose pattern comes from a new arrangement, or existing indeterminacies.
Izzy Collie-Cousins (ICC): For me, it’s really about people trying to impose meaning on their lives. Trying to make choices that make them feel in control and make them feel like they are progressing. We have two literal journeys throughout the play: one of these is two characters on a train, the other is that the chorus leave the city that they live in. They live in a city that is surrounded by a ring of mountains, so the sun sets earlier in the city than it does beyond the mountains. This image is very tantalizing for them and it’s the image that convinces them to leave – the miraculous image of creating a second sunset by leaving the enclosed city.
Izzy, what interests you about this concept as a director?
ICC: Well, there’s a few things there. Who precisely these people are isn’t really given to us in the script. Therefore, I’ve picked out certain narratives that I think are happening in the play and tried to make them more obvious through how we costume people and through the activities they do with their props in between scenes or befores scenes. We use silence and movement a lot, too. We make the most of our silences.
Also, we cast Eden in December, before the script was fully finished. We cast them without assigning the roles. I did this because I wanted us to workshop it as a chorus at first. That was very important because we wanted to see what people’s natural chemistry was with one another. Certain throughlines in the play have become more concrete and more explicit because of that, which is really fun.
Eden poses aesthetic challenges, too. Like, we have to create an absolutely perfect hunk of meat from Heaven. I’ve previously worked on plays where the script is quite clear on who the characters are and what the narrative is. I love doing those plays, but this is the most abstract thing I’ve directed and that feels like a nice next-stage thing to be doing.
What’s surprised or excited you the most about the production process of Eden?
ICC: This isn’t limited to the cast, but I’ve been really surprised and delighted by how much energy everyone is putting into this. Everyone feels like they’re here because they want to be there and they’re giving it their 100% focus. I was a bit nervous when starting, knowing I probably wouldn’t be able to pay anyone for anything they’re contributing. The whole team takes the project seriously, whilst having a good time doing it. I’m very grateful for that.
LD: There are lots of things I left quite open-ended in terms of the staging, design, delivery etc. So I’m excited to see what choices have been made by this particular production.
You’ve brought on a really interesting range of audio-visual artists to contribute as well, can you tell us a little bit about what they’ve been doing?
ICC: Our stage designers – Talea Funk and Simon Veyl – have been fantastic. They have gone foraging for skulls to make an idol and they’ve made chimerical little sculptures to decorate the set. They’ve also taken on the whole figuring out how to make fake meat conundrum exceptionally.
The sound designer, Jack Heritage, takes sounds from real life and then manipulates them with his synthesizer on his computer to make them sound like other things. It has this really nice uncanny quality, and makes the whole sound design of the show feel much more layered.
What do you hope audiences will take away from Eden?
ICC: I hope they see something that is quite beautiful, quite funny, and quite strange. But I also hope that they want to stay in the bar afterwards and talk about it with each other. Maybe people will discuss their interpretations of what some parts are about or who certain people are. I hope it’s kind of inspiring or stimulating in that way.
LD: I hate when people say they’ve learned something at the theatre; it always sounds incredibly fake to me. Whenever I go to the theatre, I am looking for a physical response; one with the intensity of fear or rage, without being either. I suspect some believers find the same in religious ceremonies.
What are some of your inspirations both as creators and for Eden in particular?
LD: Too many to count! Without thinking too hard about it: Ernst Bloch’s work in general, Joseph Brodsky’s non-fiction, Sarah Kane’s work in general, and in particular her last three plays.
ICC: I was initially most influenced by Pina Bausch’s choreography for ‘The Rite of Spring’. I’ve also been very influenced by Sarah Kane, and Paradise by Kae Tempest is a good show for choruses, too.
Why did you want to work with ETL on this project?
ICC: ETL was sort of magic actually; sort of like a mirage in the desert! I moved to Leipzig and saw ETL was accepting pitches. I thought “let’s go!”, because I directed stuff at university and really liked it. I thought this would be a great way — having just moved to the city — to make some new friends and do something that felt worth doing. I think I’m increasingly clear that it is what I want to do with my life. So, this was a wonderful opportunity and really opened up a way into the city.
LD: As an anglophone, ETL seemed like an obvious fit for us, and they’ve been very supportive throughout this process!
About Izzy Collie-Cousins:
Izzy Collie-Cousins is a director from London, based in Leipzig. She has directed in a variety of media, including opera, film, musicals, and theatre, and is always seeking to try new things. She is currently directing Eden at Neues Schauspiel, she will direct The Story of King Lear and his Fool who calls him Nuncle at Ost-Passage Theater in July 2024. Her latest short film, Sweeping, will be released this summer.
About Luke Dunne:
Luke Dunne is a writer based in Leipzig, Germany. His poetry has been published in various places, including Shift and New Note. His first play, Eden, will debut at the Neues Schauspiel in March 2024, and a film based on his screenplay, Sweeping, will be released this summer.
Eden is at Neues Schauspiel Leipzig 7th, 8th, 9th, 15th, and 16th March. Tickets here!