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Actor Tim Marriott on his Influences and Current Productions
Grove Road Magazine • Jul 14, 2019
Eastbourne actor Tim Marriott talks to SussexEveryDay ahead of his return to perform in this year's Edinburgh Fringe.
"I founded Smokescreen Productions in 2017. Having spent twenty years as an actor in theatre and TV followed by eighteen years in teaching, I wanted to combine both theatrical and educational experience into creating drama that entertains but also enlightens, working with national charities to bring contemporary issues to life in cinematic style, supporting dynamic theatrical performance with multimedia techniques. Theatre has always been a unique forum to ask questions of society. Drama was born in Ancient Greece, where annual festivals offered an opportunity for the people to hold up a mirror to their rulers, where plays warned of human frailty, of hubris, of placing the law of man above the laws of nature. By placing themes and issues within a different context theatre can ask audiences to re-examine what they thought and felt to be true, to ask questions of ourselves and the world around us. By seeing something of ourselves reflected on stage we identify with and follow the drama. For example, in Mengele we were encouraged by the Holocaust Educational Trust not to paint the man simply as a monster, for then he is too easy to dismiss as an 'evil' man, but to access the humanity in him, present him as a man like many others before revealing the true horror of what he did. This way we remind ourselves, as Auschwitz survivor Lydia Tischler put it, of the "potential for destructiveness in all of us", and warn against buying into hatred and bigotry. I grew up watching plays by Pinter, Beckett and Stoppard, and seeing Shakespeare interpreted by great directors such as Peter Brook, the West End proudly showcasing great writing, directing and acting, intellectually challenging and innovative. This is what inspired me to work in theatre, not the trivia and tourist attractions that dominate commercial work now. I think and hope that there is still an audience out there that likes to dig a bit deeper, to question, that is willing to be stimulated and provoked, that doesn't necessarily want easy answers - as a great friend once said to me, "a good play is one where you feel the need to go for a long walk afterwards". Anything that encourages us to think for ourselves, to analyse, to look beyond the headlines and the rhetoric, has to be healthy, doesn't it?"
Tim Marriott, SussexEveryDay, June 2019
Meet Sam Chittenden, Artistic Director for Different Theatre Sam, what are you looking forward to the most about bringing Different Theatre back to Brighton Fringe? I’m just really excited about being part of the buzz that is Brighton fringe, and hopefully to the festival being back to some kind of normal this year. Brighton fringe is where we started out, so it’s always really special to be back. This year I understand your company are staging three productions this year? What are they? We are bringing Clean! The Musical back to One Church from 20-22 May. Clean won Outstanding Show last year and we are thrilled to be able to share it with audiences again.
All Day Breakfast Company at this year's Brighton Fringe
Chris, how long has Samaki been running? How did all start? Samaki was formed a year and half ago. Living in Hastings as a musician, it’s impossible to ignore how much people love music here and how eclectic the live scene is genre wise. It seemed right that there should be an afrobeat group added to the local lineup of bands. With that in mind I went around getting like minded musicians together and the rest is history. I have fond memories of playing songs from the afrobeat lexicon at school in New Zealand where I grew up. One day there, an English band called Moire Music fronted by Trevor Watts visited our school and introduced us kids to the world of afrojazz. Something I’d never forgotten and it was a huge influence on me musically. Just a few decades later I found myself living in Hastings and discovered that Trevor actually lived there. It seemed like a sign. And how did you decide on the name Samaki? Samaki is the Swahili word for fish. As we’re Hastings based we wanted there to be some sort of reference to our geographic location. Could you try to sum up your sound in just three words? Soaring Melodic Groove Some of your influences include Fela Kuti, Tony Allen and Oscar Sulley. How can their influence be heard in some of your music? The 3 names you mention are intrinsically part of the genre of music we call afrobeat. If you perform their tunes or perform like them stylistically, you’re in a way carrying on their musical legacy. It’s unavoidable. We play a Fela Kuti song in our set - Water Get No Enemy, and it’s in this song that it becomes obvious that the combination of relentless groove and highly melodic hooks make afrobeat what it is.