201 Dance Company’s artistic director Andrea Walker says he has never read a book which spoke to him in the way that Michael Rosen’s Sad Book did.
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00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor of Sussex Newspapers.
00:06Really lovely today to speak to Andrea Walker of 201 Dance Company, now coming up the Old Market,
00:11Brighton, Tuesday and Wednesday, March the 11th and the 12th. Well, your company is in action with
00:18a show, Sad Book, that is really, truly significant to you. It's based on Michael Rosen's book,
00:25and when you read Sad Book, it meant something, it said something to you. What did it say?
00:32Yeah, thanks for having me. Yeah, when I read Sad Book, nothing I'd ever spoken to my own,
00:38mental health, sadness, depression and grief, the way these pages did, to be honest. There's
00:46something about the way Michael writes, it's so deceptively simple, but it's just, it's you,
00:54right in the core. And I just found it so incredibly powerful. And I remember the second
00:59I read the last page, I instantly felt I should adapt this into a show.
01:05We're talking about a book that was written for children, but as you were saying, sometimes
01:09adults need the deceptive simplicity of something intended for children to sort themselves out,
01:14don't they? Yeah, yeah. And that's the thing, like, I wasn't really going out looking for a
01:20children's book or going out to adapt a children's story. But yeah, I feel that that simplistic
01:28language is really what spoke to my own experience of grief and depression. And it's what made me go,
01:34yeah, let's adapt this. And I do feel that the themes of the book Explorers really transcend
01:42age, to be honest, which is why we always say the show is for anyone aged 12 plus, it's for anyone
01:49who's struggling with feelings that are hard to put into words or who have struggled with feelings
01:54that are hard to put into words. And is that because the book is offering answers, or is it
01:59just simply offering support? I wouldn't say the book offers answers. I think the book definitely
02:07offers support. But what's so powerful about the book is that it says, you feel sad, and that's
02:14okay. There's not necessarily an answer to sadness. It's a valid feeling that doesn't necessarily need
02:21to have a conclusion. You feel sad, feel free to feel sad, but it's okay. And that's why the book
02:28is so great for me. You're making it sound a terribly difficult book
02:33to put into a stage show. There's quite a few steps in between reading, loving the book, and
02:38bringing it to the stage. But you are pleased with what's happened, you feel proud of what's happened.
02:43Why does it work, do you think, in your estimation? Thank you. I'm extremely pleased. I'm extremely
02:50proud, to be honest. I feel that we were able, with the show, to get a really powerful
02:57balance between the themes of the show, the sensitive subject matter.
03:05Yeah, and I'm just quite proud of what we've created, to be honest. Michael
03:11loves the work, which for me is the biggest thing we could have asked for, is the biggest
03:17success in itself. And yeah, it was a really long journey to get the show on stage, I would say
03:24almost seven years. So, it's a massive labour of love. And yeah, I'm excited for it to go on tour.
03:33And lovely that you'll be doing this in your adopted home, City of Brighton, which you were
03:37brought to by, as you say with a smile, a failed relationship. So, sometimes in a circuitous way,
03:42things work out, don't they? Absolutely. I mean, I think everyone should move to Brighton. Brighton
03:49is the absolute best. I've lived there for almost eight years now. I can't really imagine being
03:54anywhere else. Yeah, it's a place really where my creativity could blossom. It's accepting, it's queer,
04:02it's weird. Yeah, love it. Love Brighton. It's the ultimate anything goes, isn't it?
04:08Brilliant. We're really lovely to speak to you. Congratulations on the show,
04:12the show which is in Brighton on, what did we say, it was the 11th and the 12th
04:17at the Old Market. 11th and 12th of March. Lovely to speak to you. Thank you.