Digging in the dirt

Posted on Tue 21 Feb 2023

Trailblazing theatre company Complicité’s latest production, Drive Your Plow Over The Bones Of The Dead, might have a murder-mystery at its core, but a variety of moral, political, ecological and metaphysical issues mean it’s no Agatha Christie. Based on the acclaimed novel of the same name, it’s the sort of edgy, thought-provoking theatre Complicité does best - as the company’s senior producer, Tim Bell, explains to What’s On...

Drive Your Plow Over The Bones Of The Dead is the sort of title that can’t fail to intrigue, and Polish author Olga Tokarczuk’s darkly comic novel more than delivers on the page. Her meditation on human existence and rallying call to save the planet is thinly disguised as an unconventional feminist detective story - and one that features a similarly unconventional feminist.
The book is narrated - unreliably - by its eccentric central character, Janina Duszejko. An ageing woman who lives in a remote rural village near the Czech border, she spends her time studying astrology and translating the poetry of William Blake. When her hunter neighbours start turning up dead, she turns detective to find out who - or what - is killing them. Could the animals be taking their revenge?
The novel was translated into English in 2018 and instantly captured the attention and imagination of Simon McBurney, artistic director of award-winning theatre company Complicité. He loved the book so much that he re-read it as soon as he’d finished it - and then added it to a list of options worth exploring for stage adaptation with the company’s senior producer, Tim Bell.
“I read them all and this was the one that really sang,” says Tim. “It’s got so many qualities that I think are exciting and compelling for the stage. It was irresistible.”
Irresistible it may have been, but the challenge of reimagining a tale that largely exists in the narrator’s mind, contains wild animals and is set in a frozen, wooded location that’s critical to the story, was never going to be an easy one to negotiate...
It turns out, though, that the company loves a challenge - as Tim explains...
“I like taking a book where people think ‘My goodness, how would this ever work on stage?’ and trying to solve that particular puzzle!
“The other thing that makes it complicated to stage is that it’s told through the voice of this extraordinary central character, Janina - this older woman who has such a unique, idiosyncratic, articulate narrative voice. The book is really inside her head, so taking that and putting it alongside all the other things - the animals, the poetry, the bleak Polish landscape, the dark, dark humour - and finding a form that captures all of those things and puts them on stage, that’s the challenge for us really.”
Casting the central character was always going to be crucial. McBurney’s friend, Kathryn Hunter - a noted Shakespearean actress with a heightened profile courtesy of a recurring role in Star Wars spinoff series Andor - was the perfect choice.
“Kathryn is an extraordinary performer, and we knew from day one that we would need someone extraordinary in that role if the piece was really going to fly,” says Tim, whose tone dips when we discuss the horrific tragedy that struck during pre-production, when Hunter’s husband, Marcello Magni, succumbed to prostate cancer. The couple had been married for 36 years after being introduced to each other by McBurney, who co-founded Complicité with Magni and Annabel Arden in 1983. The loss clearly devastated the entire company.
“Marcello has been a big part of Complicité’s life for 40 years,” whispers Tim, who says the production - which Hunter initially quit - is very much in his honour.
“He was very present in the rehearsal process. We had a picture of him up in the rehearsal room. When we got stuck, we would ask ourselves what Marcello would do - and I think he’s very present in the production itself.
“He was an extraordinary man and continues to inspire Simon and of course Kathryn. All of us, really. It’s in his memory that we’re doing this, in his honour, and we tread in his footsteps.”
Without making light of such a dreadful scenario, Tim admits Magni’s death gives the show - which is essentially about loss - an even greater poignancy and emotional heft (“to have that in the room is incredibly powerful”). But as with most of the company’s productions, the audience needs to go the next mile to get the most out of it.
“As with a lot of Complicité shows, Simon’s work exists in the imagination of the audience in a way. I’ll try to explain this as best I can: I think our shows exist somewhere in that murky gap between the audience’s imagination and the actors’ imagination - and that’s what’s really thrilling. You don’t go to a Complicité show and sit back and have all the answers fed to you. You’re kept on the edge of your seat as you are trying to piece together what’s going on.
“The reason I’ve loved watching our shows as an audience member is that Simon knows how to give you just enough to piece together the clues and feel like you’ve got agency within the story as an audience member. But at the same time, you’re never confused or lost - that’s the key to that style of work.”
The balancing act obviously requires serious investment from the audience, and although the Belgrade Theatre has historically played host to more-traditional detective stories and murder-mysteries, the venue’s new leadership team - CEO Laura Elliot and Creative Director Corey Campbell - are keen to bring productions which are more contemporary to its main stage.
“This is a detective show with a difference! It’s a murder-mystery, and at the heart of it is a romper-stomper whodunnit plot that I think a lot of the Belgrade audiences might be used to, but it’s certainly done in a different way.
“The Belgrade are co-producers, so they put money in to make the show happen, which is a very powerful statement of intent. Complicité would not exist without partners like that, and this show would not exist without that, so we’re tremendously grateful.
“We’re really excited by what’s going on at the Belgrade at the moment - the change of leadership and all the possibilities and the exciting ideas that those guys are bringing in. We’re really keen to see where the theatre goes over the next few years.”