Two young strangers on a hunt for ghosts and monsters

Pressed further by Brink Bits, director Chris Drummond tries to lessen the mystery surrounding Harbinger - mystery that has arisen from the Brink marketing pundits struggling to find a way to talk about the show without revealing too much too soon. What we call  'spoilers' that reveal too much to audiences before they experience the play. In Chris' words....

I am reticent... to reveal the plot … and to talk about the process.  I don't want to analyse what we're doing.  The minute you start analysing what you’re doing in rehearsals you’re lost. But I have to give it a crack, so…. what to say?

Photo by Chris Herzfeld

For starters, the reason for being so circumspect about the plot is that Harbinger's main 'fuel' is the element of surprise.  I can tell you Harbinger is a ‘quest’ play that occurs over the course of one night from dusk to dawn, involving two young strangers on a hunt for ghosts and monsters.  Along the way there are hauntings and transformations, Ziggy Stardust, Hall & Oats and an excess of blood. The play makes wondrously impossible demands of the stage and the actors... has a brilliant ear for the idiosyncrasies of human behaviour and exquisite playfulness and wit.  Right now in rehearsals we have (at least) two ways to read the play… two different layers through which to understand it.  Our job is to build a journey that encapsulates both these layers without committing to either.  This can be truly difficult work but when it comes together the play springs into life.  The actors are doing absolutely beautiful work and there's a density and a lightness to their playing.   Most days, usually late afternoon, the rehearsal room becomes filled with giggling idiots incapable of speaking.    Not unusual in a rehearsal room but particularly persistent here.  I try and claim it has to do with some brilliant insight or other... but Yael just reckons it's a disease that needs to be destroyed.  Either way, it's joyous.