A mad director’s impressions from a day of rock climbing
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My life depends entirely on that knot, tied to that tree. And I am just about to climb straight up a straight cliff face. I must be mad.
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I’m crawling on my belly through a slimy cave.
‘Head first’ the instructor said.
Surely I can’t fit in that hole?
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‘Scrambling means climbing without a rope.’ Oh really? And what happens if I fall?
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Oh great. Now it’s raining. As if that rock wasn’t slippery enough.
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If I let go of this rope now, Hannah’s in big trouble.
Funny when she fell off, she looked a bit like a jojo up there.
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Neil – how do you manage to make that look easy?
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It’s a 13 degrees angle. Above me. Where did that come from?
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‘Put your fingers in that crack.’
Crack?
What crack?
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My foot is slipping.
I can’t grip onto that little, slanting piece of… nothing, with my bare fingertips?!
I’m gonna fall…
I’m gonna fall…
!!!
…
I’m dangling.
I’m actually hanging off a cliff held up by nothing but a rope.
Swing forth, swing back…
This is quite cool actually!
Ahhh, relax.
Oh.
Hannah’s holding my rope.
Start climbing again…
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That looks well funny, Lanz, with your bum and one leg hanging off that boulder!
Don’t move, I’ve got to get a picture of that.
What are you saying?
You can’t move anyway?
Nowhere to go?
You’re half the way up the face of a cliff, Lanz, you better find somewhere to move…
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I’ve got one of my actors dangling off a cliff.
Only supported by a tiny rope.
Because there’s nothing for her to hold onto on the cliff face, which is completely smooth.
And slippery.
And she’s filming.
Some important footage for our show.
She looks slightly worried.
‘Great expression! Film your face!’
She’s holding my camera. My expensive camera.
There is God-knows-how-many feet down.
Certain death if the rope snaps.
Don’t know what I’m most scared of: Loosing Hannah, loosing my camera or not getting the footage we need?
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Today Imploding Fictions went rock climbing. We took our team from Norway.Today down to Harrison’s Rocks in Groombridge, Tunbridge Wells. Hannah Boyde and Neil Connnolly (the actors), Laurence Short (our film designer) and me, Øystein, was the excited and partially scared team, whilst Sarah Cullen from Rock Climbing Classes (www.rockclimbingclasses.co.uk) was our instructor for the day. Norway.Today is set on the edge of a cliff in Norway, and needing some footage for our video projection plus wanting to let the actors experience what it is like being at the edge of an actual cliff, seeing how that changes their physicality, we decided to do a day of rock climbing. It was also great for teambuilding of course. I now know that I can trust any of these guys with my life (not that I ever doubted – ?), having had them belay me (belay: to fasten or control the rope to which a climber is attached) as I climbed – and fell – off a huge cliff.
I think life should be an adventure. And working with Imploding Fictions is definitely an adventure, for me and hopefully for all the people we work with.
In this case even quite literally:
adventure:
n
1. an exciting or extraordinary event or series of events
2. an undertaking involving uncertainty and risk
3. the participation or willingness to participate in things that involve uncertainty and risk
v
1. to risk something
2. vi to dare to go somewhere new or engage in something dangerous
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Eeehhh… My knees are badly bruised. My hip’s twisted. I’ve pulled something in my shoulder. My legs hurt. My back aches. I’ve scratched my arms. There are some weird red spots on my thigh that I’ve no idea how got there. And I’m dead exhausted. So…
I feel really great. Bloods rushing, today was beautiful. Let’s do it again!
- Øystein
Imploding Fictions’ production of Norway.Today by Igor Bauersima is part of the Young Angels Theatremakers Awards, run by Company of Angels and the Junction in Cambridge. You can read more about Norway.Today on www.implodingfictions.com. If you are interested in seeing the production you can contact us on improfilm@hotmail.com.