Director's Note from Lisa Spirling

"The mixture of music, mischief and mayhem is an enticing combination."

Director's Note
by Lisa Spirling

What I love about How To Win Against History is the power of the unknown story that it is telling, but as importantly, the way that it is being told. The mixture of music, mischief and mayhem is an enticing combination, and this musical takes something that could be quite painful and earnest and delivers it with wit and warmth. 

Knowing that the show has had a glorious previous life, I approached directing this a little differently. We have joked throughout that my role was to do a meaningful 'glow up' on the show. So, with the creatives, I have dived in whole-heartedly to understand how the show was originally created, the journey it went on from initial cabaret sketches, through a mixture of devising in the room and then honed into a script and a brilliant but relatively low resourced production. This time we are scaling up; in terms of the design - and sitting the show in the beautiful Bristol Old Vic auditorium, having a band on stage (as opposed to three performers and a piano) and movement sequences and elaborate costumes. 

I've had the pleasure to bring all these elements together, to dive into each area of production with questions and to ask what is essential, what did they always want from each moment and then we've worked out how to do it. And now it's the most important bit, to share it with you and for you to be a part of it.