Oceans of interest

What made you choose Octonauts as suitable for a stage production?

THERE are a variety of things my team and I look for in projects. Perhaps first and foremost we’ve got to be excited by it. If we haven’t got that, everything else will probably fail. Octonauts is a great adventure and really suits a stage adaptation – visually it’s impressive and it’s got some great characters in it. Perhaps most of all it’s got an important message to deliver: the protection of the seas and the natural environment.

How closely do you have to work with the original producers of these children’s TV programmes?

It is essential. They are the original source of enthusiasm, ideas and energy for the world that they have created and they are the people to guide us on the adaptation process. Sometimes I refer to them as ‘The Gods’ of the Peppa world, the Octonauts world, etc. The choices they make, the characters they develop and the narratives they choose are all a reflection of what they hope to achieve. One of our key roles is to ‘get inside’ the world of the TV show and understand it in a truthful and fundamental way. If we fail to do this, we will never accurately represent what they hope for on stage.

TV's Octonauts is a visual underwater feast and full of fast-paced adventure, sea vehicles and ocean creatures. How do you represent that in the stage production?

When turning TV animations into stage shows you have to be true to the core material and with Octonauts, as you say, the fast-moving adventure is a critical part of that. We use a mixture of formats that include large-scale projections to represent the sea and show the scale of adventure the Octonauts are undertaking. For action in the sea we also use a mixture of black light and UV puppetry. We have costume characters which accurately reflect the shape and size of the screen characters. But crucially, we make sure the costume characters have mouths that can speak directly to the audience so that we can include natural interactivity with the families watching.

How does it compare to the creation of the Peppa stage shows which you also adapted and directed?

In the case of Peppa, retaining the intimacy and the childish fun was crucial to the show. It very much focuses on family values, Peppa’s relationships with her friends and other events in her immediate environment. With Octonauts the focus is on broader themes: environmental damage, saving sea life and working with others as a team to achieve a goal. Additionally, the Octonaut scenarios are set in a more complicated environment, they are either under the sea or in an area that is more technically difficult to reproduce and they can involve fast-paced stage action sequences.

Do you prefer directing children's theatre productions to more grown up theatre productions?

Perhaps the thing I like the best about directing the children’s shows is that I also get the opportunity to adapt them in the first place and then direct them in the rehearsal room afterwards. With the ‘grown up’ shows you tend to be given a script that has been written by someone else and you apply a directorial interpretation to someone else’s work. In the case of the children’s shows, you are applying your own interpretation to your own adaptation. In this way, you are able to develop the ideas that you had at the script stage even further when you come to present them visually on stage.

Perhaps the other exciting thing I find about children’s shows is that there is always a level of interactivity with the audience that you don’t have with the ‘grown up’ shows. As everyone tells you, children can be your harshest critics. If they are bored or unhappy they will stand up and run around or just make a noise so one of the greatest challenges is often to find the focus for their concentration levels and ensure that they are continually engaged by the show. This is a real challenge.

Do you have to use your inner child to transfer the production from screen to theatre?

Every adult still retains an inner child; it just depends on what access that adult has been able to retain to that child over the years. Sometimes they’ve been worn down by responsibility, by work, by events that happen in their life and have lost the capacity for that innocence which so reflects young children. Although in my adult life the questions I ask have changed, I still retain an enquiring mind about everything around me. Hopefully, I've also retained a sense of humour and imagination. One of the things I find most fascinating is watching the first audiences that we have for a show because they will tell you instantly when things are not working or when things are going wrong.

What's your next project?

Well, we continue to represent Peppa Pig Live tours worldwide and we have productions in Australia, Spain, Italy and shortly in Latin America and the US. Currently, I’ve just completed the first synopsis for what we call, Peppa Pig 4, but will probably be called Peppa Pig’s Surprise. This will have its world premiere in the UK in October and then a 50-week tour. We have a new production of Ben & Holly’s Little Kingdom touring from next month.

• Here's your chance to meet The Octonauts and win tickets for a show. The Darlington Civic Theatre production is offering a VIP Meet the Octonauts after the show on Saturday, February 21, at 4 pm.

To stand a chance of winning answer the following question: What is the name of The Octonauts captain?

Entries must be received by Monday lunchtime (February 16) at Octonauts Competition, What's On, The Northern Echo, Priestgate, Darlington, DL1 1NF. Normal Newsquest competition rules apply.

• Saturday, February 21 and Sunday, February 22, 10am, 1pm and 4pm, Darlington Civic Theatre darlington.gov.uk/arts
• Saturday, April 11 and Sunday, April 12. Gala Theatre, Durham galadurham.co.uk
• Wednesday, June 17 and Thursday, June 18, Harrogate Theatre harrogatetheatre.co.uk