The Chronicles of Atom and Luna: R&D Week

Our marketing officer Emily caught up with poet Murray Lachlan Young, Nina Hajiyianni (Director), Bek Palmer (Designer – who also designed the EA show The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart) and Matthew Linley (Producer, who co-produced The Ballad of Maria Marten with us) to talk about their epic new story during their recent R&D in Wrabness Village Hall (one of our regular Eastern Angles tour venues of course).

The Chronicles of Atom and Luna comes to the Sir John Mills Theatre (Eastern Angles Centre) on 13th and 14th October, with one public performance on the 13th at 6pm.

Q Perhaps you can start by telling us all about The Chronicles of Atom and Luna?

Murray: Gosh where to start – it’s a really epic story which actually spans 100’s, even thousands of years! But at its heart it’s the story of two children – our hero’s Atom and Luna – ten year old twins who must venture into the magical, forbidden forest to find Old Mother Redbeard in order to save their friend Iffly Sney. It’s a journey which will change their lives forever!

Nina: We actually started work on the story just before Lockdown, but we kept going even when we couldn’t meet and rehearse in person. That’s why we made the six story casts (which you can find for free on You Tube and Spotify) which are like the back story, and the Augmented Reality game where you can have a go yourself at journeying into the magical woods to find Old Mother Redbeard just as Atom and Luna do!

Q Why do you want to tell this story now?

Bek: For me it’s a cracking adventure story with lots of different elements which adults and children will love we hope! Good storytelling feels really important right now!

Nina: It’s also all about children – and how resilient they are, and how they have to fight to find their place in the world when they are disempowered by things that happen in life. Often adults have the power don’t they and our story is about children coming into their own, and being the heroes of their story. It's also about working together – Atom & Luna have to play to their strengths to succeed.

Matthew: It's also about nature – the power and magic of nature. During the R&D one of our actors described The Chronicles of Atom and Luna as a beautiful blend of fairytale and nature, which is a really good way of putting it. We hope in a small way we will encourage our audiences to be more connected to the world around us.

Murray: And if we encourage some of our young audiences to start telling their own stories – in whatever form they want - then I think we will have done our job!

Q So where are you in the process of making the show!

Nina: Building on the story casts and the AR Murray has been hard at work creating the first draft of The Chronicles of Atom and Luna. And we’ve been in the rehearsal room in Wrabness exploring just how we can turn Murray’s extraordinary story into a stage show. Murray has set us quite a few challenges – there is a giant hare, birds, butterflies, an all seeing ball and even a transforming wolf! So we’ve been spending the R&D working out how we achieve all that theatrically. It’s been absolutely thrilling.

Q And you still found time to go foraging during those rehearsals?

Nina: Rehearsing close to nature has become really important to us.

Murray: And that’s why we’ve been working with Colchester based Lora Aziz, our Resident Forager. Lora has been helping us link the story we are telling with the myths associated with the natural world, as well as helping us to explore how Old Mother Redbeard, and indeed the children, might survive in the magical wood we have been creating!

Q Resident Forager? That’s not something you see in every theatre team is it?

Matthew: No not at all – and in fact when we first started to talk with Lora I don’t think we knew what we meant by Resident Forager – but increasingly Lora has become involved in all aspects of our project. Her knowledge and expertise is informing the story, the design, and the smells an audience will experience when they come and see The Chronicles of Atom and Luna. She leads our foraging walks for our artistic team, but also with members of the public, she’s been part of our schools work and she writes a seasonal foraging task every month in our monthly Explorer email. You can sign up to those on our web site at funnelwicklimb.com

Q There's so many aspects of this project I’d like to touch on, but Bek one of the things I know already about Atom and Luna are the beautiful illustrations I’ve seen on social media and in the story casts Nina mentioned earlier – can you tell us a bit about your role on the project?

Bek: Well, I’m a theatre, costume, and puppet designer usually but because this project is so much more than just a theatre show, I’ve found myself doing much more too. So yes, I’ve been converting Murray’s stories into digital drawings which have accompanied the stories, and then informed the development of our Augmented Reality game Quest for Old Mother Redbeard.

But right now, I’m focusing on the design for the theatre show – exploring ideas around the forest, the moon, and Old Mother Redbeard’s cottage in the tree!

Q And have you worked with Murray and Nina before?

Bek: I’ve worked with Nina lots before and I worked with Murray, Matthew and Nina on Funnelwick Limb’s previous show The Mystery of the Raddlesham Mumps which was touring right up until Covid brought us to a stop.

Q Talking of Covid it must be exciting to be back working together?

Murray: O yes – very much so. I really missed performing live during lockdown!

Nina: It’s just great to be back in a room making work with fellow creatives again.

Murray: And we’re looking forward to bringing the show to the Eastern Angles Centre, especially as Eastern Angles – alongside Theatre Porto – are our co-producers.

Q What does that mean co-producers?

Matthew: Well it means a huge amount to us – in all sorts of different areas. Eastern Angles helped to seed fund the show, they’ve shared contacts with us, shared facilities and often pointed us in the right direction. We even borrowed a broomstick!! And by making the show here in the East of England and touring to 5 venues and 2 schools in the East I hope we are giving something back to EA too!

Q Aside from Atom and Luna what else are you all working on?

Murray: Well, my new musical with Grant Black REHAB has just announced its London dates and cast, so that’s very exciting. It’s a very different story from Atom and Luna – it’s actually about a jaded pop star who finds himself facing the consequences of court action – so it couldn’t be more different. That’s going to be on in London as we rehearse The Chronicles of Atom and Luna so it's going to be a very busy September for me!

Nina: So away from Funnelwick Limb I’m Artistic Director of Theatre Porto (formally Action Transport Theatre) and we’re really busy right now! We’re re-opening our new venue which is really exciting. In fact Atom and Luna will be one of our very first public shows in our new theatre! And as well as directing The Chronicles of Atom and Luna I’m overseeing two other productions this Christmas – Star of Wonder in our new space and Little Red which is going to be at the Eastern Angles Centre this Christmas!

Bek: Well, I’ve just finished working on Sherwood for the BBC, and with Nina on another family show called Baba Yaga. Another of my shows is touring right now – London Classic Theatre Boing Boing. Right now my focus is on two shows The Chronicles of Atom and Luna of course, and some giant puppets for Little Shop of Horrors – so like Murray I’m working on two things together which are totally and utterly different!

Matthew: The Chronicles of Atom and Luna is taking a lot of my time at the moment, but I’m also working on a new play for Spring 2023 with Riksteatern in Sweden, and with Nina on Little Red too.

Thanks so much for talking to us! Good luck with rehearsals and we’ll look forward to seeing you in October!