If you sobbed quietly to Up or WALL-E, if you enjoy chuckling to the infinite adult-oriented layers in SpongeBob, or if you keep coming back to Roald Dahl and Maurice Sendak now that you’re a proper grown-up, then Something Very Far Away will very likely be your cup of tea. A show for everyone and anyone over the age of 8, it’s a story of Kepler, a man who travels light years (literally) in the hope of glimpsing into what once was: a happy, love-filled life with his wife Tomasina.  A scientifically inclined romantic exploration of loss, it uses puppetry, live music and animation but it does not consider its audiences incapable of dealing with the serious stuff. On the contrary.

The brainchild of Mark Arends, Something Very Far Away is coming back to the Unicorn Theatre in just a few days. Run Riot caught up with Mark to talk about employing creativity to deal with loss, exposing the mechanics of theatre, working with Matthew Robins, and making a show that peddles its way to carbon neutrality.

Run Riot: Before writing, directing and composing the music for Something Very Far Away you trained and worked as an actor – what moved you to switch from ‘cast’ to 'creative’?

Mark Arends: Yes, I trained at LAMDA from 2000 to 2003 and then worked solely as an actor for a few years, but I always harboured ambitions to write and direct. As years passed and these aspirations became more real a close friend of mine told me that I should stop just talking about it and just get on and do it. So I did... I still act. But I love making shows with my friends. I very much hope I can continue to do both in the future.

Run Riot: What sparked your interest in theatre for young audiences?

Mark Arends: I was fortunate enough to work as an actor on shows for young people with two very inspiring directors, Will Tuckett and Katie Mitchell. I enjoyed and learned so much from those experiences and wanted to continue experimenting in work for that age group.

Run Riot: A show for anyone over 8, Something Very Far Away includes sombre topics – death and coping with loss - and science that place it within that delicate genre of tales for children that adults will relish too. Do you think adults and children experience the show differently, find different echoes in the same story?

Mark Arends: I was initially worried about dealing with such sad and tricky subject matter for young people. But I was aware that if approached sensitively, children are more than capable of dealing with sad stories and the facts of life. I drew inspiration from picture books such as The Sad Book and Death, Duck And The Tulip as well as films like Bambi and Up. In my experience of talking to audiences after performances it tends to be the adults who are most effected by the sadness of the story whereas the children have tended to respond  more to the theatrical and film making techniques we use. In 2012, very early on in our first run, I spoke to a mother with a boy probably aged about 9 after a performance. The mother's eyes were puffy and red, she told me that she very much enjoyed the show but that she'd recently lost her father and found it all a bit emotional. I asked her son what he thought and he told me how he liked it when we'd made it look like it was raining on screen and how there was real smoke when the rocket took off. I asked him if he thought it was a sad story and he said "yes", so I asked him if he thought it was ok for stories to be sad and he said "of course it is!".

Run Riot: How did you come to collaborate with Matthew Robins? What did the process of developing the visual language for the show look like?

Mark Arends: I met Matthew whilst working on Beauty and The Beast at the National Theatre. I was playing the Beast and Matthew made the beautiful silhouette puppets that we used. We got talking and it seemed that we shared a lot of influences. We met up one day to talk about the prospect of working together so I told him the story of Something Very Far Away. From there we approached the National Theatre Studio and had an initial few weeks to work on the storyboard and the aesthetic world of the show. Matthew's early sketches were beautiful and just felt right for the story. 

Run Riot: You crafted the aesthetics of the performance carefully, but then exposed its mechanics to the audience. What does this unravelling of theatre processes bring to the production?

Mark Arends: I really enjoy being able to see how things are created and creativity is key to the show. Thinking creatively is how Kepler deals with his sadness. My favourite thing about going to the theatre when I was little was looking down into the orchestra pit and seeing the musicians playing instruments, turning pages, putting things down and picking things up again but if you looked away or closed your eyes there was a finished product. Something that sounded seamless and precise and removed from all of that activity. The orchestra pit was an analogy I used a lot in rehearsals. Everything is on stage. Performers, stage management, musicians. All lights, sound and camera are operated in full view of the audience so the viewer can chose whether they watch an image on the big screen or see how that image is being created. In exposing some of the tricks I think it makes it all seem more accessible and real. The challenge was in choreographing this whilst keeping the story focused.

Run Riot: Your second Unicorn production, At The End Of Everything Else, is a completely carbon neutral show! Please tell us how that came about – and how you managed to make the electric-heavy nature of theatre environmentally friendly?

Mark Arends: I saw a few shows that were dealing with the environment or touching on the subject of living responsibly, some of which, despite meaning well, seemed to be undermined by their own carbon footprint and therefore sending out a mixed signal. I think young people respond well to clarity so I thought if I wanted to talk to them about the world and about my view of what lies ahead for us then I needed to send a clear message to them. Everything in the theatre was powered by us pedalling. Lights, sound, music, projectors. This acted as a metaphor for living within our means. Using only what we need and generating only as much as we use. This was all made possible by a company called Electric Pedals, a fit and strong cast and the help of a few brave audience members.

Something Very Far Away

20-28 September

Unicorn Theatre