Downtime with Cathy Marston Transcript
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Transcript Lou Cope talks to Cathy Marston 25 May 2020 Lou: Hi, Cathy, how are you doing? Cathy: I'm very well. Thank you. Lou: Thank you very, very much for joining us Cathy: You're welcome. Thanks for inviting me. Lou: Yeah, it's a privilege. So I believe that you are in Bern in Switzerland and I'm very jealous. Am I right to be? Are you in a beautiful environment? Cathy: Right now. Yes. Well, I'm at home right now, the weather is gorgeous. Thankfully, and I've just gotten back from a beautiful walk by the river and if you're ever near Bern, I recommend it. It's just quite heavenly this morning. There was no one there. I was all on my own. Lou: So you have mountains around you and you can see the mountains in the distance? Okay. Not a bad place to be. Cathy: No Lou: So I think that, a couple of things have been paused in your life. since we went into lockdown, what, what's the situation for you? You had a couple of shows just about to open, I think, is that right? Cathy: Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, I'm counting my lucky stars because in February I premiered.. as in, got on stage, thankfully 'The Cellist' for the Royal Ballet, which was my first work, the main stage. And I have to say, looking back now at the timeline of Corona, I mean, I think it was by the skin of our teeth that that happened, but it did. Yeah. And then shortly after that, I went to San Francisco. Where I had made last summer a new work for them that we should have premiered in March called Mrs. Robinson about Mrs. Robinson's perspective on the story of The Graduate. And sadly that didn't make it. And we were a week off premiere and suddenly Trump decided to cancel flights from Europe. And it seemed very obvious that I needed to get back straight away and anyway, the theater had closed. So that's on ice. It's ready to go… when the company can get back on stage, it will be going again. And then I was supposed to be going, actually now to Germany to stage my ballet, The Suit, which I'd created a couple of years ago now for Ballet Black. And I was staging that in Karlsruhe. That's obviously postponed and I should have then been going to New York to restage Jane Eyre for American Ballet Theater, at The Met, that's clearly not happening right now. So all of that's definitely gone. And then next year is very, or next season is very, very much in flux right now. So I should be making a ballet on Of Mice and Men for the Joffrey Ballet. And that's set to premiere in the spring. We've just pushed the dates a little bit on that to try and give it a better chance of making it. And likewise for the Atlanta Ballet, I'm making a piece. And hopefully we're getting Mrs. Robinson back on, but all of that's in America and my eyes are constantly looking towards America to see how Corona's developing there. Lou: Yeah. Cathy: At the moment not great, but… Lou: Gosh, gosh, what an extraordinary thing to be so busy. And so I imagine the momentum was like, ah, I've gotta do this, gotta do… Oh, okay. Stop!. Cathy: Yeah. It was really disappointing. Cause of course, you know, the Royal Ballet commission was something I've wanted to do for 25 years and there was a huge momentum around it. And then going straight onto San Francisco Ballet, which is another incredible company that's really great, but you know. We’ll just have to hope that that, that momentum will regain the same strength at some point. Lou: I'm sure it will, but you must be thinking, okay… so how am I now going to fit all of that into a smaller space of time afterwards when everything does hopefully kick back off again... Cathy: Yeah, yeah. yeah, it's definitely a lot of chats with my husband sort of every other day... or not, not quite that frequently, but every time I get an email from one of the companies trying to sort of shift their dates and it's all getting jammed together and we're just accepting that right now. Whereas I would have always said, okay, I'll go away for three weeks and then, and then come back because we’ve got two young kids. We might have a slightly trickier time for a period of six months or so, where as you say, everything's trying to squeeze in. Lou: Yeah. But the other side of that is that you were home now with your kids. Cathy: Exactly. Yeah. And that’s lovely. Yeah. Lou: So, so right now, have you been busy sort of dealing with all of this or are you actually having some downtime and some family time? Cathy: A bit of both. So I was obviously trying to deal with homeschool for a while. in Switzerland, the schools went back just over a week ago. So today I'm on my own. Lou: Oh my God! Very nice. Yeah. So you're going to work or are you going to rest? Cathy: Both. mean, actually. .. As it happens it was only a week ago that a couple of, projects moved from the autumn to next spring. And that seems to have really released my shoulders somewhat because I was feeling quite a pressure, you know, am I going to be able to go and do this in September or not? And now I know that I'm not like those, those two projects are going to be later, I feel quite a lot more air around me. Yeah. So yeah, I'm reading, I'm using the opportunity to read, to walk, to think, and, and do some work. I try to make myself write notes when I'm doing my readings, so that.. it's not all forgotten. Lou: Okay. Okay. and, () sorry, I just got a message on my computer screen. I just got rid of,) have you been involved in any, turning things digital? Getting things out there for the market. Cathy: Not exactly. I mean, I've done several interviews and there's several coming up. And the Royal ballet are going to be streaming The Cellist this week, which is really exciting. It's very exciting that. and actually San Francisco Ballet are going to be streaming another piece that I made for them in 2018 called Snowblind. And so both of those are going out on the 29th of May. () () Wow.) Which I'm very happy about to be able to share those pieces. I haven't made any digital work so to speak. And I have thought about it a fair bit and I found my mood to go really up and down with it. It's, you know, I'll have days where I feel very inspired and just want to create something and interact with dancers. And then days where it feels like, you know, I don't want to rush into this thing because I feel like I should, you know, there's, there's a lot of material out there at the moment…and I, I feel like I need to figure out. What would I do rather than what can one do? Lou: Yeah. Finding your authentic place in that. Yeah. I think a lot of people are struggling with that. and of course, for some people it's perfect. It's what they do anyway. For some people it's quite a nice experiment and for other people it's just not true. And, it's, you know, it would be fake and it would be for the sake of it. And so yeah, takes a bit of courage maybe to not do that, I suppose, for some people. Cathy: Yeah, I haven't made the decision either way. I just haven't done it yet because it feels not authentic yet, but that's not to say that the right thing won't come up, but I'm letting that brew a little bit. Lou: I think another phenomenon of this whole thing is mood changes. You know, I've certainly for myself, I feel SO like focused and energetic and I'm brilliant at homeschooling and I've got all of this energy one day and the next bit, like, can we just watch another Frasier or can we just.. yeah…And actually the privilege is being able to go with that....and then just see what floats to the surface, I suppose. Yeah. Okay. So I wanted to talk to you about a couple of things. I guess your creative journey, really, first of all, across your career, but also, through a process. And I was interested in, first of all across your career, your, the journey towards and away from narratives. ... so kind of the fall and rise of narrative. I know you've, you're quoted as saying that for ages, narrative ballet wasn't cool, but now you've got loads of offers, so, you know, it's all changed. And I wanted to ask you about that. What do you think dictates that? Why has that happened? Cathy: Gosh, I wish I knew - that's a really good question.