Taking to the Alphabetti from the 22nd March, the North East premiere of Camilla Whitehill’s Mr Incredible, is a show to watch out for. Full of dark and brutal insight into privilege and gender, Mr Incredible remains topic even some six years after it’s original release at the Edinburgh fringe festival. The Northeast show will be directed Natasha Haws and acted by Joe Gill. Damian Robinson spoke with Natasha and Joe about the show, about its relevance today and about how perfect the staging at the Alphabetti is to bring the show to life.
Mr Incredible explores some interesting themes about relationships and entitlement. Could you tell us a little about where the desire to explore those themes came from?
Natasha – Although Mr Incredible is a 6-year-old play, the themes and focuses seem more prominent than ever. As a culture we seem more obsessed with the idea of relationships and finding love, thinking of things like Love Island, Love is Blind, Married at first sight. Whilst also attempting to reject the age-old norms of settling down and having 2.4 children. We’re stuck in a cycle of not really knowing as a society what we’re striving for. Mixing that with the rise in domestic violence, interrelationship violence and awareness in how certain elements of masculinity can be dangerous for society…has led me to wanting to direct Mr Incredible.
In terms of direction, what key motivators and characteristics did Joe have to find, and how easy was it to build the Mr Incredible character?
Joe – We did a lot of research into Adam in our first table work. We had to really look into his background, his life, his upbringing. There are key elements which have shaped him like abandonment issues and confidence issues. Adam is a fully rounded person, we can often fall into tropes of making complicated people just complicated. But he’s still a bloke who loves Chelsea, loves an M&S meal deal and just wants a family. That informs the character just as much as the darker elements to him.
Is there a particular setting, staging or direction that the show will take when it plays at the Alphabetti that might see the show differ from other performances?
As with any performance at Alphabetti , the play will be performed in Thrust. So three sides of the stage are surrounded by audience. I really love directing for Alphabetti as I think directing for Thrust actually creates a more natural style.
Mr Incredible plays the Alphabetti from 22nd March – 9th April 2022. Matinee shows are available.