IN THE SPACE WITH… EMERGENCY CHORUS

At the core of Old Diorama’s charitable purpose is providing space and opportunities for local and creative communities, and - in so doing - we are fortunate to meet fascinating people doing inspiring things. This is the latest in a series of interviews with some of the creative people we support and commission at ODAC.

Ben Kulvichit and Clara Potter-Sweet - together ‘Emergency Chorus’ - are the recipient of the ‘To The Streets’ outdoor performance commission. This is the second year of ‘Developed on Drummond Street:’ a partnership between ourselves and Camden People’s Theatre, exploring new ways of making work locally, with and for Camden residents.

What does Emergency Chorus do?

We make performances that take place across lots of different forms. A cross between theatre, dance and live art. Sometimes we make audio and video work, and pieces for public spaces, of which this is one.

Tell us about Town Criers!

Town Criers is an outdoor project for local spaces. It is a series of workshops followed by a final performance, in which five people from the area will become town criers for the day. The things they will proclaim might be to do with their personal lives, the local area and the people who live there, or even the whole world. The participants in this first version of the show are residents of Camden and will perform in various festivals across the borough, culminating in Regent’s Roots on 29th July.

We think that audiences will see our group and assume they’re actual town criers doing their job or something, but then they’re actually revealed to be somewhat different. They won’t behave in the way that town criers usually do.

Interesting, and what does a traditional town crier’s role generally entail?

Historically, they make proclamations: announcing news, job listings, or events - maybe a royal visit. Nowadays, they also engage in commercial work. We have a ‘real’ town crier – Alan Myatt – who has come in to work with our performers. Alan holds the Guinness World Record for the loudest cry (112.8 decibels - about as loud as an ambulance siren) and has been crying for many years at Camden Stables Market.

And what about your re-imagining?

We’re interested in what happens if you take someone who is incredibly confident: who knows what's going on; is dressed in the clothing that sort of bestows that confidence; a symbol and representative of traditional power - and then subvert that. Take all of that certainty out and put something else in.

Have them say something else and speak with the ‘wrong’ voice, or do the ‘wrong thing’. If the world feels wobbly and uncertain - which to us it does - then it feels interesting to watch somebody with their tricorn hat and gold on their shoes speak with uncertainty. A shared uncertainty.

We are also interested in the ‘crying’ element - public weeping - which is something that you do find in other cultures but not so much in the UK. We’re more reluctant to show our feelings,  so seeing someone do that publicly might be an important shared experience. Perhaps processing feelings on behalf of other people – being a custodian or representative of the way a group of people may be feeling.

You mentioned the performers. Who are they?

We wrote a call-out for performers, explaining the project, which was circulated around local groups in Camden. People who said they were interested came to a workshop, and from that, we picked five people to come and make the show. It would have been great to have everyone but because it’s a paid project, it was limited to five people.

We wanted a diverse group of people: different backgrounds, different ages, different experiences; people who live in different bits of Camden; and people who have different relationships with the area.

One performer is an experienced and passionate local campaigner and has invaluable local knowledge that we don't have. Then there are people who have experiences of different housing situations, who can speak to what it's like to live somewhere if you don't have a permanent address in that borough, or people who have moved here from another country. 

When did you guys first have the idea for Town Criers?

We first had the idea in 2021. We originally imagined it would be just one ‘crier’ and it would be one of us. We usually make performances on quite a small scale, and it's just us making, performing, and directing the work.

Then when we saw this call out for the commission and that’s when we had the idea of making it with a cast of community performers. This added a layer to the idea that wasn't there before, and it was the extra layer the project needed.

The costume, pageantry, and theatre of the piece are what make it legitimate and ‘allowed’. We’re in a time right now where the Police Crime and Sentencing Bill has curtailed freedoms, and made making your voice heard in public an increasingly dangerous thing. We like the idea that this quite ridiculous outfit legitimises being able to say what you want. We wonder what would happen if you went to Downing Street dressed like that and started doing the same thing…

And how have you found working at ODAC?

It's been great. ODAC has been super, super supportive, always. You know the answer to any question is always ‘Yes we can do that’. It’s great to be in a really busy space where there are lots of things happening…

… and lots of people complaining about your bell noises…

Not yet actually! We heard some noises from an acting class next door on Tuesday and we thought ‘Great! We can really go to town on our bell-ringing!’

It’s great to be in a place where people talk to each other and it’s friendly and there are lots of people doing other community-focused things.

And finally, can you say at all what this commission and opportunity might mean for the future for the project?

This opportunity is allowing us to develop a structure, with a view to hopefully taking this project to other places in the future. We don’t often work with big commissions, and it’s very nice to do this for the first time with a lot of support, and to be allowed the opportunity to ‘explore’ in that context… and we’ll know where to go to get our bells from!

Thank you to Emergency Chorus for taking time out of their busy schedule to chat with us! To see the performance, come along to Tolmers Festival on July 1st, or come to Regent’s Roots on the 29th of July (or both!)

Thank you, as well, to Matt Mahmood Ogston for his fantastic rehearsal pictures!