Author holds mirror to world in time hop epic

PROGRESS Theatre is putting on a show for Terry Pratchett fans from far and wide. Night Watch, adapted for the stage by Stephen Briggs and directed by Chris Moran, is at the theatre next month.

Chris says: “This the sixth one that I’ve directed. The very first one we did was Mort, in 1998, and I was in that and I got bitten by the bug then.

“I started directing in about 2010, I think was my first one, and Going Postal, Fifth Elephant, Wyrd Sisters, Masquerade, last year I did Hogfather and then this year it’s Night Watch.

“Night Watch is my husband Aidan’s favourite book, he’s a big Terry Pratchett fan and he does all the set design and oversees all the costume design.

“We do it together really but it’s his favourite book so I thought it was about time we did that one.

“It’s a bit like a cross between Back to the Future and Les Misérables.

“Sam Vimes finds out that there’s a murderer on the loose on the top of the library roof and he goes off to arrest him but they get into a fight and they fall into the library.

“The library has got different pockets of time within it, so they actually go back in time, about 30 years. Then Vimes is back in his own past and meets his younger self but the murderer is on the loose in the past as well and starts messing around with things. Vimes has to put things right by tracking him down.

“When Sam Vimes goes back into the past, Carcer, who is the villain, kills John Keel, which is going to have an effect on the timeline.

“So, while he is in the past, Vimes takes on the persona of John Keel and tells everybody that’s who he is, because you can’t have two of him in the past anyway and he has to right the wrongs, the things that Keel would have done.

“Keel was a good guy, and the Watch are a bit corrupt in the past.

“Keel was the one that sorted them out and taught them how to be a proper police force, but because he is now dead, Vimes has to take that on to make sure that it happens, that the revolution happens in the right way and the right people get into power.

“It is quite a costume-heavy and armour-heavy play. We’ve got 22 actors but between them they play so many characters that we’ve got more than 90 costumes.

“We’ve tried our best to try and make it clear to the audience who is on which side by giving them different-coloured costumes and things like that. There’s quite a lot of fight rehearsals, all that kind of thing, there’s a lot of swords, daggers, knives and coshes and things like that in it.”

The cast comprises Lara Clargo, Gareth Davidson, Miriam Dodd, John Goodman, Daniel Gladwell, Declan Gray, Andrew Hughes Nind, Christina Hughes Nind, Lucy Kean, Sam Knight, Guy Nicholls, Aine O’Connor, Joseph O’Leary, Damien Passmore, Edel Ricau, Isabel Smith, Adi Srinivasulu, Olly Swinyard, Kate Wakeman-Toogood, Akaanksha Venkatramanan, Callie Wenham and Kirsti Wilson.

“The people that come on board all get really excited when we do a Pratchett because there’s so much creative scope to do interesting things,” says Chris.

“We get a lot fans coming out of the woodwork, people come from Wales and Birmingham and all sorts of places, as well as Progress supporters.

“Obviously the script is a watered-down version of the book, but we try and put as much back in as we can so there’s a few visual references to things from the book that fans will see and there are a few little Easter eggs throughout.”

Chris’s husband, Aidan Moran, says: “I’m doing the production design, so I’ve designed and I’m building the set. I’ve done a lot of the props and worked with the costume team to make sure it’s all consistent. It’s kind of like a view and a vision of what it will look like, based on my love of the Pratchett stuff.

“A friend of mine said to me, maybe 30 years ago, ‘You must read these books’ and I did and it there was no stopping me consuming them, they are amazing.

“It’s got a lot of humour and it’s very funny, it’s a great, accessible way into the Discworld.

“The thing that Terry Pratchett always did and why I love what he wrote is that he just holds a mirror up to our world, England and the wider world, and does it in a humorous way.

“I think that’s just so clever and when you watch the play and you’re thinking about the world right now, it really resonates about what’s going on.

“I think that’s the genius of good writers, they’re able to do that in a humorous way and also make us think at the same time.”

• Night Watch, by Terry Pratchett, adapted by Stephen Briggs, is at Progress Theatre, The Mount, Reading, from Thursday, February 6 to Saturday, February 15 at 7.30pm, with Saturday matinées at 2.30pm. For more information, visit www.progresstheatre.co.uk