If you do create a response to this show, we'd love to see what you make.
The following are some provocations inspired by The Tinderbox. Every single voice has contributed to the creation of the text, and each person has inspired me. The best part of the writing process has been that it was not just my imagination at work but those of the eighteen Young Company actors and creative team. As long as money rules the world, the plot will continue to be relevant. As long as there are soldiers and wars, the central character will continue to be sympathetic. Yet we found that there were parallels with our own world. When The Tinderbox was written back in 1835, Hans Christian Andersen’s Denmark was a very different place to now, with an absolute monarch on the throne and the kind of poverty that could impose mortal penalties. The source can be adjusted to serve one’s own purposes whilst remaining entirely recognisable. The fun of adapting outward is that there is plenty of space for flights of imagination but with a seaworthy carrier to return to. A good story, but one that would need expansion. In the case of The Tinderbox, it has been the opposite. When I used to imagine an adaptation project, I always pictured myself pouring over a lengthy novel and then soldiering through an almost as lengthy process of condensation and distillation. We have done all of this together and created a story, and a world, that we now want to share with you.Ī note about the adaptation by Silva Semerciyan We have sung The White Stripes at the top of our lungs, and spent mornings in the dark playing with matches. We have thrown (and caught) chairs, jumped rhythmically in formations, talked of powerful women and tyrannical men. Everything that you see on stage (and much more) has come from the cast a fearless and wonderfully creative ensemble of young theatre makers. Working in this way has allowed the creative freedom of exploration and devising, with the anchor of a writer to bring it all together. The Tinderbox has been devised by Young Company, and the material beautifully crafted and written by Silva Semerciyan. This story has allowed us to investigate the past, the present and the possibilities of ‘what if’.
I was attracted to the dual worlds of fantasy and reality, but also to themes that are both timeless and relevant to the world that we live in now - from the brutality and reasons for war, to the valuing of women based on their appearance. What initially drew me to the story was the exciting combination of a War, a Soldier, a Princess and magic. The Tinderbox by Hans Christian Andersen is just seven pages long, but the questions it raises and leaves unanswered are what make this story ripe to devise with. Tinderbox: A metal box for holding tinder and usually a flint and steel for creating a spark and/or a potentially explosive place or situation An introduction to The Tinderbox by director Lisa Gregan
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