The Ninefold Ensemble is a unique company in the Sydney theatre landscape.  With their new production, WYRD: SEASON OF THE WITCH, now in creation I spoke to lead artist Victoria Greiner who has been with Ninefold Ensemble since 2014 about the company and production.

SAG:  Hi Victoria.  This looks like an exciting production but I wonder if could begin with a chat about Ninefold Ensemble.  Ninefold work with the Suzuki method?

VICTORIA:  Yeah, so the full title is the Suzuki Method of Actor Training and it was started by Japanese theatre practitioner Tadashi Suzuki.  It’s a hard thing to put into words but it uses exercises from ballet, martial arts and is inspired by Greek Theatre and it has a holistic aim: to bring out breath, voice, free the body, it’s about your centre.  Sort of to reunite parts of yourself dismembered by the modern world.  And the thing is, you never fully conquer it …it’s a style of training where you get to know your body better and push its limits.

SAG:  So, this translates into what kind of performance?

VICTORIA:    Shy Magsalin, who is our director, she has trained all over the world and is an international member of the Suzuki Company of Toga (SCOT), and she’s interested in how it translates into contemporary performance.  What we are exploring at the moment in Ninefold is very stylistic … physical, yet in other ways quite minimal and presentational.  But in many ways it’s going to be a feast for the eyes. 

SAG:  So how does WYRD generate from that training? I know that Ninefold has worked with ‘Macbeth’ before. (You can view images of previous work at the Ninefold Ensemble website).

VICTORIA:  What arose from that previous work was an interest in the supernatural parts of “The Scottish Play”.  So basically, in Shakespeare the witches make an appearance but they are not the main characters obviously.  And Shy was interested in telling her version and that is how it arose and its grown from there. 

It’s Shy’s version but we all devise and perform in it.  And that’s what exciting as a performer, to devise and perform in it to cultivate the end project.  In the early stages of rehearsal we were working on composition.  Shy would send us away to work on the Banquet scene or the Coronation scene or things like that and  she would give us something that needed to be included … a physicality or a reference perhaps.  And we would go away and then come back and present it to the ensemble and that became a really important part of our project and a really exciting way to work. 

Shy has this really incredible aesthetic and she knows what she likes and she know what she wants and has a big vision that is really exciting to be part of.

SAG:  Tell me about the 1950s pop songs in among all this high energy and tightly choreographed work.

VICTORIA:  It’s about what inspires Shy.  Shy has this way … she sees things in a really visual way and things will pop into her head and she will just run with them.  It’s kind of beautiful, the contrast between the uncanny, David Lynchesque physicality that is happening and the choral work and the music and there’s this really exciting soundscape as well, by Melanie Herbert.  And it just weaves together in this unexpected and exciting way.  And the music is surprizing  and it’s cheeky and people smile when they hear that kind of music.  Very unexpected.

SAG:  The breath and voice thing is interesting to me.  ‘Murder in the Cathedral’ being my favourite play, I rarely get to see choral spoken word performance.  

VICTORIA:  I feel the same.  Australia doesn’t get to do that very often except in a very classic or traditional way which, as you say doesn’t happen that often.  And what you might see in Sydney may not be that strong because it really does take so much time and effort to create and do.  And that’s where our training feeds into it.  Because we are training as an ensemble … we’re sweating together… the Suzuki Method of Actor Training strengthens an ensemble very well and quickly.  The physicality and the core work really does give it an amazing strength.

SAG:  Ninefold has a two-year residency with PACT? (PACT Centre for Emerging Artists [Facebook])

VICTORIA:  Yes, it’s new for PACT and it’s new for us.  PACT have been really supportive of our company so there’s a weird, sort of coming home about it… nice to be back in that space.  The residency is called atPACT and Ninefold Ensemble will be creating two productions a year.  I can’t say yet what we will be doing but what’s been flagged in the group is really amazing.

SAG:   I’m really looking forward to this show, I saw the Suzuki company perform THE TROJAN WOMEN many many years ago at the Opera House and the images, like the full lighting grid slowly coming down on top of the performers, is still visually imprinted.  Best of luck to you and  the ensemble for the rest of the rehearsal period.

The cast of is made up of the current members of the Ninefold ensemble: Aslam Abdus-samad (Tragedy of Antigone, Debris – LZA Theatre); Erica J Brennan (The Tragedy of Antigone); Jessica Dalton (Blackstrap Molasses –Sydney Fringe); Victoria Greiner (Tragedy of Antigone); Matthew L Heys (Woyzeck - Pasvolsky Studio); Melissa Hume (Bluebeard – Lies, lies and Propaganda); Gideon Payton-Griffiths (Tragedy of Antigone); Shane Russon (Three Sisters - Sport for Jove); Brigid Vidler (Do Something Else Old 505 Theatre); Tabitha Woo (A Westerner's Guide to the Opium Wars); Paul Musumeci, Luke Yager and Stella Ye.

Shy Magsalin as director, (The Tragedy of Antigone, Room, member of the International Suzuki Company of Toga); Liam O’Keefe (The Tragedy of Antigone) as lighting designer; production design by Victor Kalka; and an original score by Melanie Herbert (Room, member of Splinter Orchestra).

WYRD: THE SEASON OF THE WITCH from Ninefold [Facebook] will play at PACT [Facebook]  Wednesday – Saturday June 20-23 & 27-30 at 7pm.