Detective Diaries - Podcast 'Guildford Shakespeare Company'

TRANSCRIPT

Guildford Shaespeare Company (Part 2)

Eli Murton

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Welcome to Detective Diaries brought to you by Private Detectives' Answers Investigation.

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Detective Diaries is where secrets unravel and the truth is always a clue away, presented

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by Private Detectives' Answers Investigation. Each episode contains offbeat conversations

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about the real people involved in investigation.

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Once again, we're back with Detective Diaries, and you have probably heard and remember

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the fantastic time we spent with Eli Murton, of Guildford Shakespeare Company, who, I have to say can

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talk. That's her laughing in the background. And we ran out of time, so wonderfully Eli's come back

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to talk with us again. So bless her, welcome back Eli, and thank you for being here once more.

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You're very welcome, delighted to be here. When we spoke before, you touched on the whole

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education community aspect, of Guildford Shakespeare Company, but if I park that for a minute,

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something I do know about you, one of your passions is the whole murder mystery thing, the

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evenings. I mean you write this and script it youself ,dont you. Yeah, in collaboration with Sarah and Matt.

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Yes, absolutely. So we've done, I've written four, five, I've written four, I've written four,

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I believe, just doing mental count up. The first one I wrote, I pitched to Sarah, I'd had an idea,

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we'd performed one, a 1920s one that I hadn't written at the Ivy,just before COVID,

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and I'd had an idea and we'd actually started working on it and that got performed,

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I think literally the week before lockdown, and that was a nine, one set in the 1950s and then

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I'd had another idea that was percolating, and Sarah and I during lockdown started going on walks

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and I said, oh, I've had this idea for a murder mystery, because we'd gone, we jumped straight online

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as soon as we went into lockdown. So this is COVID? This is COVID. We started by putting out a

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murder mystery, an interactive murder mystery online, that sold so well ,and was hugely popular at the

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point where everyone was new to zoom and wanting to engage. So it's a Sunday, we're on our walk and

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I said, oh, this idea about an art galler,y and I sort of just started talking, she asked me a few

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questions, and then on Monday morning I got an email going, yeah, we love it. We'd like to,

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can you get us a script by Friday because we'd like to R&D it, research and development on the

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script next week and then we'd like to get the script out to the actors the following Friday. I think

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that was, the timeline was insane, and I was like, I've not written yet. And she was, I mean, to be fair,

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I hadn't got anything else on. It was lockdown. So I wrote 'All that Glistens' and I loved the,

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I loved the writing process of it. I loved creating this web of connections with people and

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it was set in the 1980s which I just, there was one bit where I was like, can I get away? This feels

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a bit cheesy to be putting this series of lines in, that are, you know, that are lyrics, and we took

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it into the first R&D and they were like, oh no, no, we need to put that in, that needs to stay in.

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And the R&D process, I mean the R&D process with GSE is, I find, you know, terrifying going in for me,

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but it's so lovely, it's so nurturing and you know, you just know that the product that you're

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going to come out with at the end is going to be so much better for it, and so you pick it apart

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and then you put it back together, you find what works, and it did indeed stick to the timeline ,and

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nothing more galvanising than a show going on sale ,when you've still not written the final draft yet.

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That's quite a leveling feeling. But your locations for the murder mystery evenings? I mean that's

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in the whole GSE ethic, isn't it? Oh, completely. So, so I got a phone call in 2022 saying, should we do,

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we're going to, we think about doing a murder mystery on a plane, and I was like a big, a big

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plane, a little, what? No, a plane, a 747 and will it be in the air? No, it'll be grounded. I mean,

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because you've just asked me if I could write a murder mystery for a plane. I think all of my questions

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are valid. I know it's going to be, it's going to be grounded, it's at, at Dunsfold and,

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and so we went to the, the 747, they've got three or three at Dunsfold and, and so that was the first

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site responsive, and it was the first ever play I believe that has been written for and performed

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on a Boeing 747, and it was, it was completely amazing. I don't think I ever stopped pinching myself.

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So that was the, the first one, and that was called Boeing Boeing Gone, because we love a good pun.

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I've got to interject because, because I was there, and I saw it, and it was just fantastic,

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it was the whole experience was out of this world, and of course, I'd gone away very full of it, and somebody else,

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you know, had been to see it as well, and I mentioned to my friend Chris, who's a

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BA pilot and the absolute epitome was him saying, 'oh yes, I've flown that plane. Yeah. I mean, did you ever have

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any other BA staff? We did. We had flight crew, we had flight attendants who'd, who were able to

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sort of tell us about the plane and they'd, they'd, they'd traveled on that, they'd worked that plane.

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It was, it was fascinating. We had another person who'd flown that plane who came up and was

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because you, we took the audience up onto the second level, because it would, it had the,

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it was where business class was, and then you could get straight into the flight deck. So we had

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the flight deck open, and we had our slumped dead body in the, in the flight deck. You weren't allowed

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to go into it, but you could look in and we were able to take the audience all over the plane,

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which is of course what you don't get to do when, whenever you go on a plane, you tend to go to your seat

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and the loos, and possibly if it's long haul then you wander up and down your area but we took the

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audience, there was a modified sort of cargo area at the back, they were able to, you know, the main

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brunt of the show happened in economy and then we took them into business class, we took them into

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first class, we took them into upstairs and to view the flight deck. So you, we had an audience that

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were, were able to move all around the plane and our evidence room was in the cargo hold, which

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everyone loved playing in. It was, yeah, we've seeing the audience getting to play. Do you think you

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could, adapt Shakespeare to a 747? I don't know but I wouldn't put, I wouldn't put anything past Sarah

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and Matt at this stage of the proceedings. Yeah, that probably is the only thing I would say. I'm

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trying to think of the Shakespeare play that could be best performed on a 747, I mean that's,

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that's a challenge. Well, we called our, so the airline was aerial airlines. I don't know whether

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I don't know. I mean, we've had, we had Mary Wives of Windsor done where the actors arrived on

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on a, on a miniature train. So I won't put anything past them at this stage of the proceedings.

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But yeah, it was, it was fascinating and, and the production manager Hannah and I got to lock up

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the plane every night. So after everybody had left, we got to lock up the plane, and then came out the plane.

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I'm sure you didn't play, while you were doing that!. We just, we just loved it. We had, we had one night

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where my family were in. We have a brilliant sound designer called Matt Eaton who, who does most

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of our shows, and he is a genius human being. And he'd put sort of subwoofers under the seats. And

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so when it's, when the plane was taking off, it sort of, you felt those vibrations and he created

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this amazing soundscape. But on this particular night, it was, it was really, really windy. And the plane

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is aerodynamic. So it moves in the wind. We didn't, we didn't clock that this was going to happen.

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None of us had considered that the plane was going, you know, you felt a bit of wobble, but it was,

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it was properly, it felt like it was bouncing. There was some flex in the wings, that was having an

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effect on the fuselage. So the, the, the sound comes in that, you know, you've got that rumble

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of the plane beginning to take off. The actors are doing sort of Star Trek acting of, you know,

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you know, the plane moving. And I can see the audience going, 'the plane's moving'. The people in front

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look like they're just, that I can see because we're all in high viz, the stewards are all in high viz

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watching the audience ,because the consideration for that particular location was all the doors have

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to work because if you have an emergency evacuation, fire crew need to get in. So all of the doors

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open from the outside and the inside and have to work, but you're 45 foot up. So if you open a door

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and step out of it, even if you step onto a wing, it's a six foot drop, you're going to break an ankle.

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If you step out of the plane, out of one of the doors and there isn't the stairs, you know,

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spiral fractures is the best outcome. You're doing a 45 clear drop onto tarmac. So we had to be very,

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very vigilant in managing the audience to make sure that no one went rogue and tried a door.

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So that's been our safety concern. That's been my, as front of house manager in that mode,

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that's been my concentration, suddenly the audience are going, oh my god, they're moving the plane.

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do you reckon they've got hydraulics? Me and Hannah are meanwhile having a conversation going, how bad does

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it have to get before we have to evacuate? Is this safe? And her dad was on board that night and he is,

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that's his wheelhouse. And so we were sort of looking to him, and were like 'he looks fine'. And

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everyone, no one else security, no one else has said anything, we're fine, but it was a moment of,

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this is a, this is an unusual situation, but the audience completely delighted by it. We were in a

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completely different mode, but yeah, that was, that was a special place to perform. We've also

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performed, we also took a murder mystery to West Horsely Place, which is where they film BBC's ghosts,

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so it's a button house. And again, completely different, but completely magical, that was our

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Christmas murder mystery last year called the House trap. And we got to perform in a building that's

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been there since, or part of it been there since the Tudor times. Creating an authentic atmosphere must be such

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a headstart, to, to any production, 'oh my goodness'. I mean you mentioned, I

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remember, when we spoke before you said about about the arena, the venue, being the extra person on

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stage, yeah, it's the other part of the company it is. And it, it lends itself so much. I mean, you know,

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you're performing a 1920s murder mystery in, you know, a building that's been there since the Tudor

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Times, so has been through so many iterations. And you can put people in, in period clothing,

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and again, you know, we had all of the sort of the 1920s set dressing and beautiful lighting

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to just create that atmosphere. And suddenly, yeah, you completely buy into it, because you're

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going into a room that is, that is set up and it's, you can, or you can feel the history in that space.

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Is it fun watching people trying to solve the murder mystery?

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Oh, I love it. It's, it's fun and it, you, again, it's that, you give it to the audience,

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it becomes theirs, they do with it what they will. And people are desperate too. I think they perhaps

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give me more credit than I'm due, because they will come up with some outlandish theories,

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which I love, the more outlandish, but they will disappear down rabbit holes. And, you know,

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when you're writing it, you try to give, you try to give some red herrings and, you know,

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some misdirect. But you don't want to give too many, because you know that people are going to come

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and they will create their own and they will, they will marry that and they will follow it to the

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ends of the earth. And you're just like, I love, I love your imagination. But that's absolutely not

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what happened. This, this is what happened. We told you along the way. But it's, it's fascinating to see.

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And it's, and it's joyful. It's really, really joyful to, to see people when they, they realize

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something or they, you know, in the evidence room, they'll spot something and, you know, they have an

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aha, moment and it's, it's, it's an absolute delight. And people come with such an energy when they,

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because you're being completely immersed in, in that world, they, they, they just, they just get

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so into it and it's, and you can just see it sort of takes people out of themselves and it,

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it's a real gift. It's, it's really lovely to see, to see, just see, to see people playing with

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something that you've created. Indeed, fantastic. Eli, back to this subject about, yeah, education

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and community. And, and, you know, you go in to the schools and an awful lot of other

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avenues and, and, and ventures. Kid who's seen one of your workshops and been involved in it.

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Do you ever attract them into the main productions? We do, we do. We have, so, we have

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funded tickets available for, um, our teenage mental, family mental health group. We quite often

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provide funded tickets for those kids to come along and actually we've got a big party in

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tonight. And on Saturday, so earlier on, it was a couple of weeks ago, I was judged for

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Guilford High School's Shake, Shake Fest, for their year eights. They're, I look forward toit each year,

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they're very, very, they're amazing kids. And, um, on Saturday, Mattinee, this group of girls,

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so year-eight, is about 12, 11, 12 came over, and they were like, you were our Judge. And they

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came to see Frankenstein, and they absolutely loved it. And then I had another lot in. And so you have,

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you know, you're, you're talking and making a connection with these students, these young people.

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And, uh, they're sort of getting swept up in the joy of, of, you know, engaging wether

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it's through a workshop, whether it's through me just going in and, and, and chatting and,

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and watching what they're creating, and they have done some amazing work. And, and then, you know,

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they're, they're bringing, they're coming to, to see perhaps a show that they, they perhaps wouldn't

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have seen before, they're bringing their family in. And, and you see those connections being made,

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where, and you're bringing young people into, into a theatre space that perhaps either they didn't

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think was for them. It happened particularly in Romeo and Juliet when we had a young community chorus,

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as well. We had the older chorus, we had the adult chorus and then we had young people. Um, not only were

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they, they come, you know, bringing their families and their friends to a theatre to, you know,

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to a performance, but for some of them, they were coming to Guild, coming into Guildford Town centre

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for the first time because it was a space that they didn't think was theirs. So it's making that space

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and making all of these spaces that we work in, community spaces, it's making them for everyone.

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You're an actor yourself, and, and, and, and, and, and, I mentioned last time we spoke about my total

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apprehension in, in interviewing you. Because I'm interviewing someone who I know who can just talk

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and honestly, the, the prospect of that is quite awe inspiring. What's the best role you have

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have played? And, oh, yeah, and what role would you like to play? So, so what's your best role?

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What would you really like to play? I've got another question after that as well. Okay. I think the, the best one,

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another 'pinch me' one was I played Jane Austen at Chawten House. So Chawten House is, so Jane Austen's

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cottage that she, that she grew up in, that she wrote in, is in Chawten, the village of Chawten.

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Not far, not far from here, for about 30-minute drive. And the great hall at Chawten house was where her

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brother lived, and where they used to put on private theatricals. So this is like performing Shakespeare

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in Stratford? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was, it was, it was a pinch me moment. There was a moment where

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I was stood outside. It was, it was done in the great hall where we know that she did, she was

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a big fan of private theatricals. So she would write these hilarious skits when she was sort of a

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young adult that were completely bonkers. These characters were outlandish and some of them, the play

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looked at the evolution of, of Eleanor and Marianne from Sense and Sensibility. And it looked at, you know,

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how you can identify them in her early works, which are completely, you know, over the top characters.

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And they were all in, and I would stand outside. And there was a moment where I was like,

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"Are, you really here." You feel the history.

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So what's the role you would like to play? Or is that unfair?

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I mean, there's, so my son is currently in his third year at drama school.

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So he's just about to be launched into this, this world. And I would love to do,

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I would love to perform with him. And so if we were going down a Shakespeare route,

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I would love to play Gertrude to his Hamlet, just because of the, the, the knotty,

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you know, mother-son relationship that goes on in that play. I think that would be,

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that would be another pinching moment.

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Yeah, it's kind of quite close to home for you guys, isn't it?

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Yeah, okay. All right, on that scene of what would you write?

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GSE, famous for using a site specific venue, what would be your ultimate? Apart from a boeing 747

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but your ultimate site specific venue?

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Well, keeping with the transport route, so we've done, we've done planes, we've done a plane, we've

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we've done, we, I've performed on Cunards, Queen Mary, doing the transatlantic, so doing

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Prospero's final closing speech in the atrium of the Queen Mary whilst crossing the Atlantic.

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It was amazing. And they're going, they went on the Queen Victoria with Pride and Prejudice last year,

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so we've done, we've done ships. There's something about a train, I think, we've done it,

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we've done the mini train, steam train, something, so again, something completely,

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a logistical nightmare, but, but completely fantastic.

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Because we've been in sight, we've done, you know, Alice in Wonderland had Guildford Castle,

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we had the trial take place in Guildford Castle, so all of the major landmarks in Guildford,

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that have been logistical. So do you know where I'm going? Been there, done it, been there, done it,

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we walk round going, do we? Canal barge would be, would be fun as well, but it's the logistics of

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them. Sure. There's the creative head. Yes. That, you know, and Sarah, and Sarah, and Sarah Matt

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are both brilliant at finding these locations, but, yeah, I think there's train or the train carriage

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would be, it would be a fun, that would be a fun one. Okay, Eli, finally, before we, we sadly have

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to leave, I've got some personal questions for you. This has got to be quick, fire answers.

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Okay. Okay, what's your favourite Shakespeare play? And why?

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Mid-Summer Night's Dream, because it's the first one that I saw as a child, and I was completely

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entranced by it. I got the mic taken out of me because I was basically just sat with my head in my

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hands, just locked in, and it was, the, the fairies had tutu's and like mid-calf doc-martin boots and

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ripped tights, and Puck was in like a half dinner jacket, and the bed came down. It was at Stratford,

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the bed came down from the fly, and it was just magical, and I loved it.

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Well, if you could have dinner with any historical figure, real one, not fiction ,cant do Shakespeare,

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who? Ann Boleyn. Ann Boleyn. With her head, or without?

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Ideally with her head, because then she could do talking. I think she's, I think she would be really

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fascinating to, to learn about, I quite like that, to that time period, I think she was fascinating.

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So I think even with the answer, the Shakespearean character you most relate to, is that still

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Gertrude or? So I play Lady Macbeth a lot in school's workshops, and I spend a lot of time

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going, these are not mentally healthy people, so we're not going to villainize them. I mean,

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they do do bad things, but Lady Macbeth, I think, has, gets a lot of, a lot of muck thrown at her.

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And I think that she has been through a huge amount, and I think that she's, we know that she's lost

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children, and there's all of that potential you have when you have a child, and for that to be taken

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away, and for her to, where she puts that love, there's that beautiful line in Fleabag, where Fleabag is

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saying, when Fleabag says, I've got all this love, and I, I don't know what to do with it, and her best

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friend, says, give it to me, it sounds lovely. And I think there's, there's a lot of,

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of Lady Macbeth in that, she's got a lot of ambition and drive, and it's not, she's, you know, the

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power that she has is, is dictated to her by her husband and her society, and the society that she lives in,

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and, and yeah, she doesn't do great things with it, I will admit, but I also think that

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she's a really interesting human being. What's one thing you do when you're not, and I'm sure this isn't

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the case very often, but you're not actually thinking about theatre, when you switch off, what do you do?

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I sew, I enjoy sewing and creating, so I sew a lot of clothes, it's quite unusual that I'm not wearing

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one of my creations, my bag, I made my bag, but yeah, I make, I make clothes, and

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every person I know that has had a baby has, has bunting with the baby's name on that I've made for them.

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I crochet, I enjoy, I enjoy fabric and yarn crafts, I think, it turns my brain off, and, and I'm still

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creating, but I'm doing it in a different medium, I'm doing it with my, with my hands, and I get to use

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colour and shape, that's my, that's my bag. Eli Murton, actor, front of House,

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Seamstress, some of the different hats you have on, and I know from your studies of Shakespeare, I'm sure quite a

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fan of history. So who's your favourite detective, either from fiction or in history? It's putting you

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on the spot. I love the Joy Ellis, Jackman and Evans books, I listen, I've listened to every single one

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of them, so Rowan Jackman is my favourite, and they, she, Joy Ellis writes, "Police procedurals" and

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set in the Lincolnshire fens, and they're read, I listen, I listen to a lot of audibles, so I,

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that's what I do, when I'm sewing, and they're read by Richard Armitage, and, and I love the world

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that she's created, and I love the character of Rowan Jackman, he's my favourite. That's a wonderful

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diversion from the usual answers of Sherlock Holmes or Magnum or soemone. Yeah, no, very specific.

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So any plans to feature them in murder mystery? Oh, what feature? I'd love to feature, yeah.

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No, that's her world, I like to listen, I don't have anything to do with her world, I want to listen to it,

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and listen to the story she creates, mine are a little bit more, outlandish and not, you know,

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there, because I get to walk through different time periods, whereas hers are very modern

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and up-to-date, you know, on the ball. Ellie, thank you so much for taking time out from what I know,

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it's a fairly horrendously busy schedule. Thank you very much. Will, you come back and talk to us

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again in the future. I will too, absolutely. Thank you, Eli. Thank you. Thank you, my friend.

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Detective Diaries is designed to be interactive. You'll hear a voiceover to this effect,

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and we want to hear from you. Send us an idea for a podcast. It needs to have a link to

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investigative work, of course, or a guest you'd like to hear interviewed, or even whether you would like

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to appear yourself. You can send your thoughts by email to podcast@private-detectives.co.uk.

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The email address, if you haven't heard it, is in the show notes. The best entry will receive two tickets

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with our compliments and be our guest for the evening at Guildford Shakespeare Company's production

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of David Copperfield, and you may well find yourself interviewed.

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Hi, my name is Eli Murton. Come and listen to me talk about Guildford Shakespeare Company,

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the venues we perform in, which includes David Copperfield, which begins life at

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Jermyn Street Theatre, then goes to the Theatre Royal Windsor, the new Wolsey, in Ipswich,

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and finally, Guildford's Holy Trinity Church. Listen in on Detective Diaries.

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Send an email to podcast@private-detectives.co.uk, or reach out via social media.

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You may hear your story featured in an upcoming episode. Don't forget to leave your contact details.

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The email address is in the show notes.

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My name is Daria Simpson-Dernovaya. I'm studying criminology at Bath University,

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In a few months time, I'm starting a year-placement with Answers Investigation,

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Podcast

'Guildford Shakespeare Company'

TRANSCRIPT

Guildford Shaespeare Company (Part 2)

"searching the world for answers"