MINOR DEVIATIONS

crew

director • producer - Ivantiy Novak

writer - Erin Osgood

sound • lighting - Leo Bacica

cast

A298 / A452 / A671 / Maeve - Iulia Pal

Townsend - Alexander J Smith

McNally - Will Tusker

the project

A short farce about a husband who seeks a robot replacement for his dead wife. Written by Erin Osgood, this was a piece I directed and produced for Baron’s Court Theatre ‘Reboot Festival’ in 2024. 

In order to capture the betrayal and patriarchal tyranny central to the piece, we did a lot of work with clowning, Brecht and Vakhtangov, using garments and objects to playfully showcase the sinister subtext contained within the dialogue, and the Malgmgren-Laban’s theory of movement to ‘stretch’ the characters’ inner states outside themselves. This allowed for us to utilise the grotesque à la Stephen Berkoff, and hit the satiric elements so prevalent in Erin’s writing. 

I worked extensively with Iulia, Alex and Will on each character’s physicality, mannerisms and speech, and set the play around the impulses and discoveries made during our rehearsals. Brechtian staging was used to underscore the constructed nature of our characters’ relationships and the games they play in order to upkeep their social masks. 

cherry-picks

«a comedy with a satisfying twist... Ivantiy Novak used the space to its full potential» - Heather Jeffery for London Pub Theatres Magazine.

«it is the comedy performances that make [it] stand out... absolutely hilarious in how they approach the madcap script» - Kat Masterson

«the physical comedy and clever writing lead you to an unexpected twist» - Lou Reviews