CANDIDE

Written by Mark Ravenhill

Candide is an optimist. A dreamer. He believes that everything is for the best in the best of all possible worlds. But that belief is tested as Candide's comfortable life is overtaken by an endless barrage of misfortune. As his world collapses around him, the story travels across the centuries to new locations and parallel universes, ultimately colliding with life in the 21st century.

The play Candide is structured around two parallel narratives: one tells the story of Candide's attempts to reunite with his love Cunegonde; the other follows a woman who experiences a hugely traumatic event as she attempts to find a way back to happiness. The play is also seperated into four acts, each taking place in a different geographical place and historical time-period. I thought it would be fun, and artistically justified, if each act were to possess a bespoke acting style and its own unique visual identity, including filmed visual projections. Please click on the four illustrative images below to increase their size.

In Act One of the play, Candide experiences a theatre company playing out a fictionalised version of his life-to-date, with ultimately chaotic results. Initially, rehearsals for this Act were tricky, lacking a sense of spontanaity, high stakes and situational-based wit.  However, after encouraging the acting ensemble to create character detail, relationship threads and a circumstantial sense of purpose for this fictional theatrical troupe, we rehearsed the Act entirely in character within a fictional 18th century rehearsal-room setting and it sprang fully to life. I later pursued this meta approach to rehearsals more extensively and expansively with the production Fairytales of New York.