An Interview with Sarah Van Parys from Falling Doors Theatre

by Ken Powell (Editor)

Falling Doors Theatre company was established in 2015 by Young Everyman Playhouse graduates, Sarah Van Parys (theatre director) and Nancy Msiska (creative producer). I was able to catch up with SVP briefly to find out more about this venture before coming to see their latest production – There’s a Dead Body in my Baby’s Sandpit – at the end of February. The play is a dark, dystopian comedy following a young family, recently moved into a new neighbourhood, who find that everything isn’t at all as perfect as it seems.

KP: Thank you for giving me some of your time Sarah. I know very little about Falling doors, so let’s start at the beginning – why the name?

SVP: Basically, I’m a freelance director and I was doing a lot of shows which I was self-producing and I didn’t have an umbrella company to put them under. I knew I needed a company but I didn’t have a name.

We had a show on at the time called ‘The Morning After’ and the main focus of the set is a big door which was the focal point to the whole storyline. It was really imperative that this door didn’t move. But at the end, the pivotal moment, the door crashed onto the set. Something had got loose when one of the actors slammed it. The company all felt very bad about it but then we thought ‘okay, let’s turn bad into good’ and that’s where the name came from – a tragedy turned into a good thing!

KP: I guess that occasion is burned into your memory forever!

SVP: Absolutely but we made it a name rather than just a bad memory – plus I always double check safety of flats and so on now! But I think at the time when it fell, it could have ruined the whole play but it didn’t, and in a production anything could go wrong so, I felt, let’s make productions where the audience could still really enjoy the play even if things do go wrong. The name is a constant reminder of this.

KP: This production is on at the Hope Street Theatre. What’s the theatre venue like itself? Is it large, small, has wheelchair access, bar and so on?

SVP: It’s classed as a studio venue – multi-configuration venue, with up to 120 seat capacity when arranged ‘end on’, but productions are all arranged differently so it ranges 80-120. This production will seat around 90.  The theatre itself is up two flights of stairs so, unfortunately, there’s no wheelchair access as yet but the owners are in the midst of getting this sorted; it just takes time to be able to implement it.

In the building is the Liverpool Arts Bar, which is run as a community hub for artists and creatives across the city which only opened a few months ago but everyone goes there – lots of artists and theatre people! Lots of toilets available. Parking is free on the street after 6pm though there are other places nearby where you can park.

KP: You’re still relatively new in the theatre business so why form your own company rather than work in an established theatre?

SVP: I’ve been freelance directing and producing for around 8 years since leaving university. I really wanted to form my own company because I love all the different sides of it. Myself and Nancy run the company but every single project has us working with different creatives from all around the north. We wanted to do our own projects where we handpick who we work with and create brand-new theatre that’s under a name rather than just be a freelancer working on other people’s projects.

We’re both really passionate about starting projects from seeds, or no ideas at all; just getting into a room and deciding what play we want to do and then building up our team from the ground upwards. We both do other freelance work but we keep coming back to Falling Doors to do another production; we’re always ticking away in the background working out what we want to do next as a company though.

KP: How many productions per year do you put on?

SVP: At the moment, as a company, we do around one main production per year though as freelancers we both work on different productions as well as that. We are hoping to do 2-3 soon, for instance ,this year will potentially be three productions but, in the past, time and resources have been limited. We basically fund the productions ourselves while we’re still trying to get our name out there and obtain art council bursaries and so on. We’re getting there slowly! It just takes time.

KP: (We discussed what’s coming next for the company but with future productions not yet announced, I will respect the privacy of Falling Doors and keep mum. I will say though that the forthcoming productions do sound very exciting – including a planned co-production with the Liverpool Irish festival.)

KP: It sounds like you do like darker productions such as ‘The Nether’. Or is it just coincidence that recent ones have been like this?

SVP: We like going on the edge of dark theatre but also love comedy as well. We end up going between dark comedies and thrillers. We don’t want people feeling miserable and depressed after the theatre; we don’t want to do harrowing theatre all the time.

We did Dennis Kelly’s ‘Taking Care of Baby’ which was quite controversial about a woman who’s accused of killing her two young children but it has moments of dark comedy running through it as well despite the dark subject matter. We put on Jennifer Haley’s ‘The Nether’ – that’s dystopian, very ‘black mirror’. The play is about a virtual reality world created for people with paedophilic tendencies. It’s about creating this world for them where adults act as children and so there’s no children hurt and it’s like an interrogation to find the people who made it to try and ban it and stop this VR world from happening; the play looks from both ends at this. Even now, a year and a half later, people are still talking about it with people having big debates about whether it’s right or wrong.

Both Nancy and I want to make theatre that makes people talk. What’s the point of going home afterwards and saying ‘oh, that was nice, that was good’ and nothing else? It’s got to instil a fire inside you.

‘There’s a Dead Body in my Baby’s Sandpit’ is written by the Falling Doors Theatre company, directed by Sarah Van Parys and produced by Nancy Msiska and Sarah Van Parys. The production runs from 26-29 February at Hope Street Theatre, Liverpool. For tickets and further information go to www.hopestreettheatre.com