Digital programme: Get Happy

Told by an Idiot celebrates 30 years this year. How have you marked the occasion?
We’ve marked it the way we mainly do, by continuing to try new things and create. In a sense we’re looking back with Get Happy as it’s the show’s tenth anniversary, but on the whole we’ve been developing ideas and making new work. Right from the beginning with our first show, On the Verge of Exploding (which we did in this country, in Romania and then the amazing Market Theatre in South Africa and turned out to be very successful), Hayley (Carmichael) and I have known when to finish and move on. We’d done about 100 shows and had a brilliant time doing it but it felt like the perfect place to finish. We were ready to make something new. Sometimes our producers and colleagues are a bit frustrated when we decide to move to pastures new. Perhaps our longevity comes from knowing when to stop, but it’s also because we’ve never been solely wrapped up in the company. Hayley, myself and John (Wright) have always gone away to do other things. Whether it’s a great or a terrible experience I bring that learning back to the company. I do feel the longevity is to do with the time we spend away as well as the time we spend together.

How did the company come about?
About 35 years ago, Hayley and I met as students on the Diploma in Dramatic Art course at what was then Middlesex Polytechnic. A polytechnic was not quite a university, but it was a place where you could do practical, less academic courses. A lot of arts courses existed at polytechnics at the time and some were quite interesting. It was our lucky chance to turn up at Middlesex and be in the same year. The turning point was meeting an extraordinary teacher and director there called John Wright, who fundamentally changed the way I look at theatre. I went there wanting to be an important classical actor – whatever my brain thought that was! – and he very quickly disabused me of that scenario! He opened the door to creativity and improvisation, performers owning material and making shows. I’d always thought you had to have a script given to you. But John was provoking us in an extraordinary way, and luckily whenever Hayley and I got up to improvise, something seemed to happen. We couldn’t put our finger on it. John said, ‘Don’t ever put your finger on it, just go with what that thing is, however mercurial it might feel.’ Luckily a few years later, when we’d been away and done different things, we came back together and the show On the Verge of Exploding was our beginning. Two young performers lucky enough to have met an extraordinary mentor.

Did any other creatives or practitioners influence your work?
Yes, it didn’t happen in a bubble. I suppose the single biggest influence on us was Theatre de Complicité (now Complicité), who were ten years older than us. I vividly remember an occasion when John took us to the Shaw Theatre for An Evening with Theatre de Complicité. I didn’t speak French so I had no idea what complicité meant, but we all trotted off to sit in a packed auditorium. I remember waiting for it to begin and feeling awkward and embarrassed as two middle-aged women in our row started having an argument, which got more intense. They got up and pushed past us with carrier bags – this wasn’t theatre etiquette for 1986! And then they walked down onto the stage. Of course, they turned out to be members of the company. The show began and the next thing I remember is the performer Toby Sedgwick lay on the floor and pretended to be bacon frying in a pan, then Simon McBurney got someone out of the audience and started mimicking their walk. We all thought it was mad – but we wanted to be part of it. A couple of years later, Complicité were invited to do a ten-week residency at the Almeida so if we didn’t have any money to see a show, we just waited around in the bar to see them and hang out. Marcello [Magni], Jos [Houben], they were all a huge influence. As we’ve grown older together, we’ve had the joy of working with them and getting to know them.

What moment in the past 30 years holds a particular significance for you?
There are so many from over the years, but one called My Perfect Mind occurs to me, because the actor Edward Petherbridge is particularly present in my thoughts at the moment. We made the show over ten years ago, and it was directed by Kathryn Hunter, and performed by myself and the actor Edward Petherbridge. Edward and I had formed a friendship after being in a disastrous American musical in the West End that closed after a fortnight. I had the idea of doing something together. He suggested a version of King Lear but I felt there was a more interesting story. In 2007, when Edward was rehearsing King Lear in New Zealand, he had a massive stroke after a day’s rehearsal. Overnight he’d gone from knowing the whole of the biggest part in Western drama, to not being able to put thumb and finger together. He never played it. On a hunch, I thought there was a more interesting show about him having a stroke and not playing King Lear. Brilliantly this extraordinary classical actor who had run a company at the National Theatre, and created the part of Guildenstern in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, took a punt on it. We performed it twice at the Young Vic, toured and went to Barcelona and New York. Edward brought audiences to us that maybe didn’t know us at all, and there was something in the air around it. 

Is there anything particularly distinctive to every Told by an Idiot show or creation process?
We’ve always avoided talking about an ‘Idiots’ style. Other people do that. In this country we have a culture where people are quick to label things. In 30 years Told by an Idiot have never ever described ourselves as physical theatre; for me, all theatre is physical.

There are constants which remain in our work: we’re fascinated by inhabiting the space between laughter and pain. That’s always a fruitful space for us, whatever that means for each production. We fully embrace the idea of entertainment, a word that some aren’t sure about. In fact, we became aware of its older French meaning ‘to hold together’. That’s a really good analogy for the theatre. And then the audience is also really crucial. Those things remain, but most often the starting points for our shows are wildly different. So My Perfect Mind and Get Happy are different, but a sense of joy, playfulness, anarchy and unpredictability unite them.

Our tagline is ‘A company creating the unexpected since 1993’. I’m always surprised when people are unhappy to be surprised in theatre. If I go to the theatre and it’s exactly as I expected, I’m disappointed! We’ve always said that if we’re indicating to the audience that we’ll turn left, you can bet your bottom dollar we’ll turn right.

So all of those things, for us, are the constants. Not necessarily a stylistic language that we can put into words.

The company celebrates playfulness, curiosity, anarchy, the capacity to mess up – to be an idiot. To what degree has that idea changed in the last 30 years? Do we still allow ourselves permission to be silly?
I think it’s more important than ever to be silly. I would argue that many profound things can be shared or expressed through silliness and comedy, I think it’s crucial. The play I’m in at the moment, Cowbois written by Charlie Josephine, is extraordinary and the production is so joyous, entertaining, and silly. It’s also quite political and has things to say, but doesn’t hammer them home. I’m wary of things that don’t contain humour at all. 

What was the initial idea for Get Happy? What’s the story?
The idea came when my son Dexter was two. Inevitably I was observing his behaviour and saw how he could become very obsessed by something very briefly, then drop it and become very obsessed with something else. I wondered if there was a show which captured that feeling. So we set out to make something that had no narrative, no links and no connections. It became quite clear this would be more sketch-based.

We brought in some influences. I was reading a wonderful book by Dr Seuss to Dexter at the time called Go Dog, Go about dogs hanging out, driving cars, going to the shops, interacting with each other, and having a big party at the top of a tree. This felt like a good starting point.

I’d read an interview with the guy who set up Pixar Films, who was asked who his target audience was and he replied, ‘basically anybody who breathes’. I wanted to adhere to that philosophy for this show and make a show for everyone, not just for children. So it was important that the performers didn't look like children’s entertainers: we wanted them to look like people who live in the city, hold down very important jobs, or are very glamorous.

The other influence was the iconic German choreographer, Pina Bausch. So the woman in the show looks like someone out of a Pina Bausch show, and the guy looks like he works in the city. I think the children really connected with people who looked like their parents doing stupid things.

How do you find the narrative through-line?
There’s often a provocation. Sometimes there’s a lot more to go on. Our recent show, Charlie and Stan, about the young lives of Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel, was based on a true story and we were able to shape that narrative. Occasionally we do a scripted play, but usually it comes from a starting point and a group of people who come together to work through what this thing is. There’s lots of improvising, lots of failing and lots of using the imaginations in the room to see where it goes.

And ten years on, in 2023, what are the key differences to Get Happy?
We have some brand-new sketches and material for 2023. We’re also interested in how we connect with the youngest members of the audience. It might not be a full-on sketch, but it might be about interaction and objects, and how we engage with them.

How do you treat that very first experience of theatre for some of these audiences?
I treat it with huge responsibility. It’s an enormous thing to make something for the tiny ones and the older ones who don’t get the opportunity to go to the theatre.

We have hardly any rules at Told by an Idiot, except for, ‘Don’t be boring!’ When audiences have been brought into a theatre, and may not choose to be there, we’re responsible for entertaining them and to surprise and engage them.

Vulnerability is also key. The show begins as soon as those families come through the curtain. We have a structure of sketches but midway through may also need to connect and relate to someone who’s wandered on stage and started banging a drum. You can hold both of these things together. There’s anarchy and vulnerability in connecting with someone alongside a more choreographed routine.

What do the next 30 years hold for Told by an Idiot?
We do have exciting plans for going in a slightly different direction. But it’s too early to reveal… We’re hugely grateful for the support of the Barbican for not just this show but several shows over the years. They’ve co-produced with us and continued to support us. It has been really important to feel part of a high-profile international programme in London where we could show our work and be part of a conversation

Paul Hunter was interviewed by the Barbican in November 2023.

Rachel Donovan
Performer
For Told by an Idiot: Get Happy, A Little Fantasy and The Evocation of Papa Mas. Other theatre includes: Peter Pan at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre; Macbeth at the Mercury Colchester; Cheese for Fanshen; The Great Gatsby at Wilton’s Music Hall; Much Ado About Nothing at Ludlow Castle; Mojo and Mischief on Broadway for Theatre Rites; Low Pay? Don’t Pay! at Salisbury Playhouse; The Venetian Twins and Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle & Dick at Bolton Octagon; Our Country’s Good, Invincible, See How They Run and Twelfth Night, all for Original Theatre; Don Quixote at West Yorkshire Playhouse; The Merchant of Venice, The Tempest and Love’s Labour’s Lost for Guildford Shakespeare; The Miser, Beauty and the Beast, The Mysteries and The Twits at the Belgrade in Coventry; Rapunzel for Creation; Queen Bee for New Writing North; Book of Little Things at Ovalhouse; Trojan Women for Actors of Dionysus; The Pink Bits at Riverside Studios and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Orange Tree. Work for TV and film include The Crown, Silent Eye - The Museum of Me, Breakfast on Pluto, Birth and The Bill. Rachel Donovan is a motion capture artist for computer games and movies, including the Harry Potter Series, Angels and Demons, John Carter and Iron Man 2.

Katy Ellis
Performer
Katy Ellis’ work in theatre includes: Ride at Leicester Curve and Southwark Playhouse; Wuthering Heights and Malory Towers for Wise Children on UK and international tours; Never Tickle a Tiger and The Pesky Rat at Chichester Festival Theatre; The Scarecrow’s Wedding at Leicester Square Theatre and on UK tour; Metamorphosis at the Tristan Bates Theatre; Daisy Pulls It Off at Charing Cross Theatre; and commercials with Amazon Prime. Work while training: First Lady’s Suite, A Grand Night for Singing, and Henrietta.

Nick Haverson
Performer
Nick Haverson trained at LAMDA. Work with Told by an Idiot includes Charlie & Stan, Too Clever By Half at the Royal Exchange Manchester, And The Horse You Rode In On and Beauty and the Beast. Other work in theatre includes: The Yeoman of the Guard at The Grange Festival; Love’s Labour’s Lost & Won and Much Ado About Nothing for the RSC in Stratford and London; Ben Hur at the Watermill Newbury; 1984 for Northern Broadsides; Low Pay? Don’t Pay! at Salisbury Playhouse; The Lost Voice at the Southbank Centre; The Venetian Twins at Bolton Octagon; Ruby Moon for Northern Stage; The Pirates of Penzance at the Orange Tree; The Solid Gold Cadillac and By Jeeves in the West End, and The Magic Carpet at the Lyric Hammersmith. Productions for Improbable: The Devil and Mr Punch at the Barbican and in Philadelphia USA; Satyagraha at London Coliseum and Metropolitan Opera House, NY; Theatre of Blood at the National Theatre, and The Hanging Man on US tour and at Sydney Opera House. TV includes: Scott and Bailey, Tales from the Old Bailey, The Mimic, Thank God You’re Here (series), Ashes to Ashes, Spooks, New Tricks, Casualty, Head Over Heels (series, for which he also recorded the title song), Murder Rooms – The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes, Sunday, A Fatal Inversion, Last Days of Ashenden, The Bill, Redemption, Devices and Desires, Absolutely True and Wyrd Sisters (The Worst Witch 2). Films include: Matriarch, Muppets Most Wanted, Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd, Hilary & Jackie, Susie Gold, The Tales of Despereaux (animation), Gulliver's Travels, Men Who Sleep in Cars, Original Skin, Gli Zii and Sherman. Radio: Hilda, The Barchester Chronicles, Two to Tandem, Men Who Sleep in Cars, By Jeeves and The Edge.

Kyll Thomas-Cole
Performer
Kyll Thomas-Cole is a 2020 graduate from the East15 Acting School and an associate artist with the David Glass Ensemble, Flabbergast Theatre and Babel Theatre. He has performed multiple iterations of Hold/Falling, originally a standalone dance piece performed at TEDx Bedford, New Diorama SHINE BLACK, SHINE takeover at Latitude 2021, and later developed into a theatre production alongside Created a Monster Theatre and performed at Tramshed and Bloomsbury Festival. He aims to explore the structure of race through work with varied groups of people from varied communities, not just through a study of the self, but through the collaborative creation of poignant and provocative art centred around our societal norms, with a focus on equity for all.

Paul Hunter
Director
Paul Hunter is co-founder and Artistic Director of Told by an Idiot, and has worked on all Told by an Idiot shows to date as director/writer/performer. As a performer, he has appeared in La Cage aux Folles at the Park Theatre; Wise Children for Wise Children at the Old Vic and on UK tour; The Life of Galileo at the Young Vic; Gaslight at the Royal and Derngate; Tartuffe at Birmingham Rep; The Little Match Girl, Much Ado About Nothing, The Globe Mysteries, Troilus and Cressida, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Black Flag at Shakespeare's Globe; Rapunzel and The Red Shoes for Kneehigh; The Water Engine at the Young Vic and Theatre 503; The Play What I Wrote in the West End; Oliver Twist and Pinocchio at the Lyric Hammersmith; Into Our Dreams at the Almeida; the title role in Richard III for English Shakespeare Company; Animal Farm and Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night  for Northern Stage; Les Enfants du Paradis for the RSC; and the title role in The Servant of Two Masters at Sheffield Crucible. Films as an actor include: Pan, Cyrano, Princess and Peppernose, Cinderella, Denial, This Beautiful Fantastic and Pirates of the Caribbean – On Stranger Tides. Acting for TV: Masters of the Air, The Great, Bridgerton, Quiz, Midsomer Murders, Trinity, My Family, Still Open All Hours, Marvellous and Black Books.

Sophia Clist
Designer
With a background in sculpture, Sophia Clist creates installations, sets and objects for audiences and performers to inhabit, manipulate and transform. Much of her work is participatory and interactive, collaborating with artists in theatre, dance and music and with the general public. Recent work includes: Space to Be for Oily Cart; All You Need Is LSD for Told by an Idiot at Birmingham Rep; The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk for Kneehigh at Bristol Old Vic; The Paper Man for Improbable at Norfolk & Norwich Festival; Journey to the Impossible for Little Soldier Productions at The Bike Shed Theatre; And the Horse You Rode In On for Told by an Idiot at the Barbican, Brighton Festival and Theatre Royal Plymouth; 16 Singers for Dance Umbrella at Theatre Royal Bath; Phenomenal People for Fuel at WOW Festival; In This Place for Pentabus; A Crash Course in Cloudspotting for MAYK at Coventry City of Culture 2021, Unlimited and Camden Alive; and Parallelist at Aldeburgh Festival.

Tom Snell
Lighting Designer
Tom Snell is a lighting designer and associate. Lighting designs include Untold Stories by Alan Bennett directed by Nicholas Hytner at the National Theatre and in the West End; and The Bacchai for CSSD. He was previously a senior lighting programmer and assistant at the National Theatre on productions including Oedipus, War Horse, Her Naked Skin, Twelfth Night, The Last of the Haussmans, England People Very Nice, The Power of Yes, Season’s Greetings and The White Guard, among others. Re-designs for the NT include One Man, Two Guvnors on UK tour, in the West End and on Broadway. Re-lights include UK tours of Paradise Lost, Restoration, Angels in America and Rough Crossing for Headlong Theatre.

Adrienne Quartly
Sound Designer
Work with Told by an Idiot includes: Get Happy, Napoleon Disrobed, The Ghost Train, Too Clever by Half, You Can’t Take It With You, And the Horse You Rode In On and I Am Thomas. Over the last two decades Adrienne Quartly has been working as a sound designer/composer across the world. She was part of the team behind the Olivier-nominated production of Cuttin’ It at the Young Vic; Eclipse Theatre’s Black Men Walking, nominated Best Play at the UK Theatre Awards; and Rose (starring Dame Janet Suzman) which was nominated for a Manchester Theatre Awards Best Production. She has worked at many respected theatres including the Donmar, the RSC, The Young Vic,the Royal Court, the Abbey Dublin, the National Theatre of Scotland, Schaubühne Berlin, the Barbican and Theatre Royal, Haymarket. She won Audible’s audio drama production competition and subsequently designed Mansfield Park for them. Before working in theatre she was a Senior Radio Producer at Inflight Productions and for Chrysalis.

Told by an Idiot have been creating the unexpected since 1993, exploring the human condition through theatre that is ‘bigger than life’. We acknowledge the artifice of performance and make no attempt to put reality on stage, but we inhabit the space between laughter and pain which exists in the real world.

Our work is rooted in the live event and thrives on a sense of spontaneity and risk, celebrating the unpredictability of performance. Through playful collaborative writing, anarchic physicality and a comedic sensibility we create genuinely spontaneous experiences for audiences. We consistently experiment with what art can be and who can be involved and, in doing so, our work blurs the lines between artist, participant and audience.

Our commitment to accessibility informs the entwined relationship between our productions and our participation work. Through our work on stage, and through our Taught by an Idiot Programme, we foster a sense of openness, curiosity and the desire to play. We take creative risks, we tell universal stories and we include everyone.

Our education and participation strand, Taught by an Idiot, offers projects and workshops that are anarchic, spontaneous and accessible to the widest possible audience with no regard to age, ethnicity, ability or training. The only thing that is asked of participants is a sense of openness, curiosity and the desire to play. We run workshops for theatre professionals and we also work with schools, colleges and universities to provide bespoke Idiot participation opportunities within their institutions. For more information and to book an upcoming workshop, visit: toldbyanidiot.org

Artistic Director Paul Hunter
Executive Director Jenni Grainger
Producer Jennifer Holton
Assistant Producer Georgie Brown     
Finance Manager Julie Renwick

‘Their work is never less than sublime’
The Independent on Told by an Idiot

‘Theatre about as inventive, imaginative and fantastical as it gets’
Time Out

Told by an Idiot would like to thank:
Rebecca Bindang, Farrell Cox, Essa Flett, Stephen Harper, Alicia Martel, Javier Marzan, Michael McNeish, Nathan Mills Beckles, Patricia Rodriguez and Sophie Russell.