“Steal Compass, Drive North, Disappear” is a collection of three intriguing solo works by writer and award winning performer Rachel Blackman. She is also Artistic Director of the Brighton based Stillpoint Theatre Company and won the much coveted  Best Female Performer at last years 2010 Brighton Festival Fringe. You can see “Steal Compass, Drive North, Disappear” at Zoo Southside from the 16th to the end of August….

1.   Describe yourself?

Procurer of theatre stuffs.  Actress.  Artistic Director of Stillpoint Theatre. Explorer of less-well-lit places. Proponent of delusional optimism.  Australian.

2.    Tell us about your show/s at this year’s 2011 Edinburgh Fringe?

This is Stillpoint’s first venture to The Edinburgh Festival Fringe and we are very excited to be bringing our solo work: ‘Steal Compass, Drive North, Disappear’ up to meet you.

Steal Compass, Drive North, Disappear is a solo performance created by me, Rachel Blackman and directed by Emma Kilbey for Stillpoint. It tells the story of Martin Charon, whose commitment to his successful career as an artist and academic is counter-pointed by the chaos of his personal life and his tendency to disappear when the going gets tough. It is a contemporary story that is mischievous, blackly comic, multi textured and poignant.

The story is told from Martin’s perspective, but also via his Iranian secretary, his  daughter, his wife, his lover and several other more peripheral characters around  him. It is a solo piece but you come away feeling like you have been living beside  and  inside these peoples lives for an hour.

You can catch us Zoo Southside from the 16th of August right through to the end of   it all.

3.    What lasting image can be captured from seeing one of your shows?

A lot of what you experience or ’see’ in my work as an audience is happening inside your body and imagination.  Physically there is nothing there except my body and voice.

There is a scene towards the end of Steal Compass, where Martin’s transcriber Soraya, who has been working for him silently, thanklessly and patiently for over a year, decides to go home to Iran. She comes into his office with her son Omid to say goodbye. Having ignored her for most of the play, in this one scene he learns that she is also a mother, a wife, a graduate, a celebrated novelist in her own country and published in several languages. All this time he has been treating her as a non person. It is a wake up call for him.

4.    What’s your catchphrase?

Not sure I believe in catch phrases. I like the idea of eternal becoming in Taoism. The way is the way is the way. Which sounds an awful lot like Gertrude Steine’s ‘A rose is a rose is a rose’. Though not related at all in meaning..
Maybe: ‘Beware of ever thinking you’ve got it completely sorted’.

5.    What inspires your creative processes?

Being endlessly fascinated by people and how they behave towards each other and towards themselves. Wanting to get to the bottom of a question or problem; to scour the depths of a human conundrum. Show the difficult stuff whist finding a universality. Sexuality is a big one as it is such a big unconscious driver.

Formally, I’m influenced by some techniques used in cinema.  Space, framing and sculpting. Reframing. Editing. Particularly the films of Abbas Kiarostami, early Terrance Malik, Fellini.

The physicality is influenced by Pina Bausch and the idea of finding a shape or rhythm to articulate a state of being.

6.    How would you describe the perfect “Review”?

One that is articulate, honest and gives me a rich sense of what I might expect to experience in the piece it is describing.

7.    What really bugs you travelling from show to show?

With solo work, it is mostly just me and Geoff Hense (tech manager) on the road, so often, after a gig, you need to be packing down a show instead of hanging out with the people who have come to see you. This is a shame for us, as people often want to talk about their experiences afterwards and love the chance to talk to us (and us, them). SO do come and find us after the show!

8.    Have you ever thought of leaving the arts and pursuing a so called, “steadier career”?

I used to be a jobbing actress, which is about the most insecure job going. Managed to eek a living out of it, but it didn’t make me happy. Now I earn less money making theatre, but I’m much happier. When I take acting work these days its usually because it looks brilliant fun, or because the money is good and the material is interesting. I have a deep-tissue massage business that supports my theatre making habit, which really frees me time wise and financially to make and perform my work. Plus its very grounding after I’ve been in artist mode for an extended period. So, yes I’ve had enough of attempting to breathe life into dead-on-arrival, terminally awful soap opera scripts!! But also, I’ve never had a ‘regular job‘ and I doubt I ever will.

I think if you want to make work successfully in the world you have to really dedicate yourself to it.  Full-time jobs often cut against that (although not always). David Mamet said in ‘A Whores Profession’, if you give yourself a back up plan, you will eventually become your back up plan. A bit like that platitude: ‘Life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans’.

9.    You’re ruler of the People’s Republic in your local area.  What’s the first law you would enact?

Throw away your televisions.

10.    A film is made of your life.  What would it be called and who would you choose to play you?

A young, ‘Dog Day Afternoon‘ era Al Pacino, starring in a kind of gender mash-up black comedy about mixed identities, cultural difference and  surviving the coldest British summer without grumbling once. It will probably  be called ‘Well At Least I’m Not Dead Yet 3‘