Kieron Barry's Spy For Spy opens its world premiere June 20. Previews began June 15 f0r the work, playing West London's Riverside Studios, for a run through July 2.
Each performance of the new work is different as the scenes are performed in a new random order every night. Spy for Spy revolves around two very different women who have fallen in love, played by Olive Gray (Halo) and Amy Lennox (Cabaret). The work tell the love story of Sarah and Molly as they move in together, meet families, break up, fall in love, and all that's in-between.
Barry, the work's playwright, said, “I was intrigued by the disparity between how we experience events and how we remember them. In contrast to our society’s endless promoting of the now, I have often found the present moment to be insubstantial compared to the reckless zeal of the past, which seems forever vivid and urgent as it crowds about us. Of course, here and there a huge event comes along and one suddenly feels alive and present again, yet the fate of such a moment is to become just another memory and so it continues. I wanted to write a play which would recreate the zigzagging, chaotic sensations of recollection, and in particular the act of summoning memory to examine the sharpest question of all: were we loved?”
Six members of the audience are asked to pick a song title from a bowl, each of which relates to a scene. The order the songs are picked in determines the scene order for the performance.
“It allows us to explore the same relationship from many different orders, and potentially draw different emotional conclusions as a result," said director Lucy Jane Atkinson. "Do we view the relationship differently if we see them break up before they get together? Do we root for their love in the same way if we see them fight before we see them kiss? A memory play, a love story, a comedy, a drama, a tragedy, the possibilities are endless (well, actually there are only 720 different potential orders, but still...)."
Atkinson's creative team comprises designer Bethia Jane Green, lighting designer Holly Ellis, and sound designer Anna Short.
Spy for Spy is co-produced by Feather Productions and TeamAkers.
Visit RiversideStudios.co.uk.
