We spoke to Matthew Gouldesbrough about his new show Holy Land, his odyssey into the dark web and technical nightmares…
Describe Holy Land in three words.
Dark, Tender, Visceral.
What inspired you to create this play?
Oh, god… A combination of things! I started writing the show more than a year ago as I was coming to the close of my time at Drama School. It’s a time in your life where you don’t have a lot of control over your life or decisions and that’s really what sits at the core of the play – How did we get to be here? How little control do we have? How much of it can we take?
It went through a lot of iterations, but it wasn’t really sitting right for a long time – until one day I was talking to an old friend from home and she told me she’d found a video of herself online, on a less-than-ideal website… and that just struck me as horrific. Imagine finding a video of a terrible incident you went through posted online for millions to see, and then discuss, joke over, and be able to do nothing about it. It was brimming with all the same ideas I was eager to discuss, and so I started doing some research and digging into these websites. The things on there I’ve seen have honestly shaken me to my core, and no one is really talking about it.
So I took it straight back to my writing desk, and in a few months there was a finished draft.
The show is described as an “odyssey into the darkweb” – did you go on one yourselves?
I certainly did…
The problem is, you don’t really need the ‘dark web’ – you can find all this stuff on the normal internet, with any normal web browser. It’s not seedy videos shared in dark chatrooms by people with codenames – this stuff is hosted on hundreds of websites which operate much in the same way as Youtube would; liked, commented and subscribed to. This is really where the issue lies.
There’s a dark part of all of us, and this stuff won’t go away because ultimately we are drawn to the macabre and the horrific. So I guess if I learned anything its that… we’re all messed up on some level.
You use 6 projectors in the show… that’s a lot of tech… what could possible go wrong… right?
When I sleep, I don’t dream anymore. All that happens when I go to bed is think about ways to simplify our technical set-up.
It used to be worse… there used to be some microphones too! However the Director Patrick is a big fan of cutting unnecessary chaff and the play is stronger for it. When it all goes to plan, it’s quite the spectacle!
What do you want the audience to talk about in the bar afterwards?
Trump, Quinoa, does Arts Council funding actually exist?
Joking aside, I don’t want them to talk at all. I want them to give each other a hug, support each other. Drink some wine, eat some good food.
It’s a dark, lonely world out there.
As an emerging company yourselves – any advice for any artists wanting to set up their own?
Don’t go alone!
Running a theatre company is like trying to sail the Titanic through the National Iceberg Convention at night with no life boats.
It’s all well and good having a great idea or script, but the amount of small admin and other menial jobs that quickly build up makes it impossible to do on your own. You have to have a dedicated core team, you’ve got to find those people who are good at all the logistics and management, then pin them down and smother them in love and baked goods as they are the ones that make things happen and allow you the space to be creative.
Do everything properly, don’t rush, don’t cut corners.
Bear your cross.
Integrity is basically what you’re trading on.
And finally, ever regretted anything you’ve posted online?
I’ve probably regretted some profile pictures, that at the time, I thought were definitely cool…On the whole though I’m not really glued to online, I like to stay in the real world! Ironic really given the play…
But hey, guess I finally stopped being a cynic.
HOLY LAND ends 15th June