It all starts with a conversation

The British Council Edinburgh Showcase 2009 has kicked off today and has welcomed around 250 people across the world, all gathered tonight at the opening reception held at the National Museum of Scotland. Guest speaker Phelim McDermott (photo), artistic director of Improbable Theatre, has offered the audience an inspiring speech about the art of conversation. He tells us more about the importance of creating connections and how it influences his journey as an artist. Interview by Canan Marasligil. Photo by Jonathan Littlejohn.

During your speech to the Edinburgh Showcase delegates, you have spoken about the importance of having conversations and create connections, but that often people tend to “shoulder surf”, too busy to try to get somewhere. Could you explain why you feel conversation is so important?
Everything that has happened in my career has actually happened through a conversation. We often talk about conversation being this light thing, but we can make the decision to invest in a conversation and make it meaningful. This requires to look at ourselves and see whether we are listening or are involved, whether we are genuinely interested in this conversation that might be the beginning of a relationship. You never know in a linear way how it is going to pay off, but if it does, it is because it had some meaning in it, and more importantly because it has been engaged. What I learned through open space -the law of two feet, is that you don’t stay anywhere where you’re not contributing, you’re not learning, or you don’t want to be. This is quite a scary thing to do because there is so much social pressure about whether you stay or go, or watch a show you don’t really like. If you follow your two feet and trust yourself you will be taken into places that are valuable. It’s all on yourself. The Edinburgh Festival is an excellent opportunity to exercise the idea.

How does it work with the audience?
The audience creates an atmosphere through the quality of which they attend, watch, concentrate or don’t concentrate. The most interesting of our shows are those when either it is all amazing or nothing happens at all, because it means it is absolutely about the audience’s contribution. The scary thing as a performer is accepting and being honest that nothing is happening, but the audience also has to take the responsibility, by recognizing that the way they attend can change the atmosphere around the room. For instance in a piece of music there are moments of silence. The quality of these silences is determined by the audience. If the audience is not concentrated the quality of silence will be different. We’ve seen it with the Philip Glass piece we did for the English National Opera. In that silence there is so much happening or not. And those two things interacting with each other is the experience of a live event. It is not just us, the performers and them, the audience, it is a circular event.

Does the British Council Edinburgh Showcase allow such connections?
I’m interested in meeting people who are engaged, not about showing my work and have people clapping about what I do. I want to offer the opportunity of a way of working that empowers them to create work, to connect with each other and things that might happen out of that. Here again what matters is the quality of conversations. I don’t think the Edinburgh Showcase is only about coming here and booking shows, it’s more about the possibility of these connections, recognising the things we share and share needs we have to connect across culture.