Features

Going large: How to stage a musical about obesity, with a company of 120

Editorial Staff
London's West End Off-West End

It’s not everyday you get to see an epic musical on the subject of obesity, performed by a company of 120. But that’s precisely what’s happning with Epidemic, which opens this weekend (20 May 2012) in the Old Vic Tunnels.

Led by producer Steve Winter and writer Morgan Lloyd Malcolm, the show is based on interviews conducted with over 250 Londoners, while Old Vic New Voices has assembled a company of over 120 volunteers aged 16 to 60 to bring it to life.

Here, Winter, Malcolm and one of the actors, Bill Noce, tell us more about this most ambitious of projects, which runs until 27 May.

Steve Winter (Director, Old Vic New Voices):
Our Epidemic started 18 months ago by asking 500 Londoners a simple question: what do you care about? We got on soap boxes on London estates, held group workshops, creative writing sessions, pitched up at after school clubs and joined rice and peas lunches with pensioners. As you can imagine, we got a variety of different responses, but time and again the same issues kept coming up: weight and mental health. Not exactly themes you might associate with a musical but nevertheless those were the ones we had and in fact excited us.

Bill Noce in rehearsals/W@S_IMGNext we needed to find a company of volunteer actors, singers, dancer and musicians to make it happen and so the audition process began with120 places on offer we saw just shy of 1000 people. Auditions were inspiring, surprising, exciting and occasionally just downright strange. People are passionate not just about the project, but also about having the opportunity to make a statement, and this can be extraordinary to see. City workers sang with taxi drivers, first time mums danced with ex-offenders and everyone threw themselves together, all ages, all cultural demographics and all backgrounds embrace each other&

and effective outreach to the community, on an important and timely theme, thereby providing both discourse on social issues and an artistic experience of the highest order – for the audience and those of us fortunate enough to be a part of the project.

I must admit when I heard the premise – a musical, based on the theme of public health – I wasn’t sold, even though I knew of Old Vic New Voices’ reputation of inventive and relevant community projects; I had a small part in PLATFORM, the 2010 production, and found it a strikingly different and thoroughly engrossing experience; but really, a musical about disease and public health policy?

But I should have known; never underestimate the power of art to address the human condition, our issues of life and death and, in this case, health. Epidemic holds up the mirror to poke and prod, to spoof and to satirise, albeit with affection rather than condemnation; Puck’s comment in A Midsummer Night’s Dream of “Lord what fools these mortals be” comes to mind. Epidemic is a story about a few memorable characters on a journey, meeting other people and growing and learning along the road; in a way, all the stories we love are about just that.

I’m in a somewhat unique position, specifically cursed and gifted, as a cast member of this show: The character I play is in a situation so close to my own, I often confuse who I talking about – Bill, or Lawrence. Both of us, real and literary, have a massive battle with obesity and depression. Bill has learned, Bill has grown and searched his soul, by walking in Lawrence’s shoes, saying his lines, feeling his thoughts. Throughout the rehearsal, I have come to know myself more, examined my struggles, and – due in no small part to being in the company of the absolutely delightful people in this cast and crew – dramatically relieved chronic depression.

The lead character in this play is a young mentally Ill man; I lost my younger brother, a suicide, 28 years ago, when he was about the same age as Marlon, the boy in the play. I see the same look in the eyes of the actor, the brilliant Joey Ellis, as I did in my brother those years ago. It is searingly painful sometimes, and I’ve left the stage more than once to have a good cry; but in the end, my experience on stage with the character of this troubled boy is a powerful catalyst, bringing an acceptance and healing which decades could not grant me.

I’ve blogged about my feelings, my turmoil and soul-searching, and I am surprised at the number of cast members who have come to me to tell me they are having similar experiences to me. We are receiving a charm, a blessing – with tons of laughs and love along the way.