INTRODUCING: CHRIS GYLEE & EMILY LIM'S 'ANOTHER FINE MESS'

Briefly describe for us what your show is about?
Our show tells the simple story of an old woman who collects eggs in the forest. Inspired by Jon McNaught’s beautiful comic, ‘Pebble Island’, we’ve been exploring a visual performance style that translates components of his graphic novel form onto the stage.

Is it similar to what you’ve done previously or are you trying something new?
In keeping with Jon’s book, we’ve chosen to tell our story without any words, which is something very new for both of us. The idea sprang from our common interest in making visual work which relies more on image, landscape and atmosphere to communicate narrative, rather than on text.

Describe it for us in three words.
Quiet, soft, strange.

How will it make people feel? / What do you want it to make people think about?
We’d like to make people listen carefully and look closely, to think about what it is to be friends, what it is to be strangers, and what it is to be alone. We’d like to surprise, and to move.

What stage will it be at in its development when we see it in July?
This sharing will be the culmination of four days’ R&D and five days’ rehearsal but we’ve been dreaming it up for about a year.

What elements in particular are you looking forward to testing out on Ferment audiences?
We’re interested to see how audiences react to the pace and the silence of the piece, and whether this is a form which people feel they could engage with for a more extended period of time.

What are your personal highlights of July’s Ferment Fortnight? 
We missed out on seeing 30 Cecil Street, so Dan Canham’s new piece - ‘a bleak and mysterious land’ sounds right up our street. To Have and To Hold, for the promise of the synchronised deaths of Molly & Mabel’s husbands, Wattle and Daub’s vomitting puppets, and we’ll be trying to get to the Inspire Sessions too.

Our pin-board of visuals: http://pinterest.com/eandccreate/
More about Jon McNaught: http://jonmcnaught.co.uk/