The work of Roald Dahl is being given an orchestral twist by the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra this weekend. Dahlesque sets his famous (or should it be infamous?) Revolting Rhymes to music.
Elise McCann Photo: Supplied
Australian musical theatre performer Elise McCann lends her voice to the Revolting Rhymes and will also perform works from Matilda The Musical.
- The APO with Elise McCann perform Dahlesque on Saturday 11 May at the Auckland Town Hall at 11am
McCann was the original Miss Honey in Matilda The Musical created by Australian comedian and songwriter Tim Minchin; Out of that role her love of Dahl morphed into Dahlesque, a cabaret show and then an album, recorded by the ABC.
RNZ Concert put a few questions to her about Dahl’s work and what its like performing with an orchestra.
Work by Roald Dahl Photo: Supplied
What’s your favourite Dahl story?
It used to be The Witches growing up. I was terrified by the characters, which simultaneously made me feel so adult and excited. However as an adult I now would have to say Matilda. If not only because being a part of the musical Matilda changed my life and reignited my love Of Dahl. That book, those characters, that musical, the message of Matilda is forever a part of me now and something that I am so grateful for, it is ingrained in my heart.
What’s your favourite Revolting Rhyme?!
Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf definitely!! I love how ballsy and smart and sassy Little Red is, I love how naughty it is, and I love that it is again about a brave, young, strong woman. We need to continue to empower young women to feel they have agency, to feel they have permission to be bold and strong and have an opinion. I love how Dahl elevates and empowers children in his books. Most adults have forgotten how children are thinking. Roald is totally on the side of the children - the children have to surpass the parents or the authority figure. In almost all his stories the parents are killed off in the first chapter, that or they are written as ineffectual or away as much as possible. It gives kids the freedom to have really exciting adventures without their parents there, and to be able to take control of their lives and make mistakes.
Why do you think his story telling still resonates today?
One thing is that he has this ability to unite readers, both young and old. When he would mock and decry and humiliate an authority figure - a set of parents, or a teacher or even an aunt or uncle - adults and children alike love it. Subconsciously, your childhood feelings would come flooding back, of “Oh, yeah, parents are absolutely hell!” - before stopping and realising that you were now an adult, a parent themselves. I feel like what makes Dahl special is he can so vividly recreate totally what it was like to be six or seven years old. He’s never afraid to be naughty, to be crude, and I think it’s his power to make us laugh, is what makes us listen!
Author Roald Dahl Photo: Flickr
Being the first person to “play” a part can be difficult… how did you prepare for being Miss Honey?
To be honest it was pretty similar to most of my other work. You just have to start! You always feel nervous and scared you don’t know what to do, or don’t have all the answers - but the only way through that is to do something. To read everything you can, to ask a lot of questions, to give yourself time to think and digest. It’s amazing how much comes to you about a character or a story when you aren’t sitting there trying to find an answer but are just going about life and letting your brain digest and solve in the background.
In relation to this show and character specifically however, I spent a lot of time singing in the music and working technically on it. The music in Matilda has really complex rhythms and lots of difficult intervals to sing, and accompaniment wise Miss Honey is very exposed - so that required a lot of aural practice for pitch and timing and clarity.
Character-wise Miss Honey is very central but she doesn’t drive most of the scenes as she is the person most activity is done to. So, I spent a lot of time listening. To what was said about her, how people spoke to her, how she spoke about herself - and really just tried to go back to the book most of all for any questions.
Elise McCann (L) with Matilda castmates and creator Tim Minchin Photo: Supplied
What was it like to work with Matilda creator Tim Minchin?
Tim is a genius. He is so energetic, he is playful, he is ruthlessly intelligent, he is passionate, he is fun! He is like a giant child of enthusiasm and commitment and love, but with this insane wit and smarts and an intense clarity of communication. He is a joy to be around and is utterly inspiring at the same time as being like a best mate you can truly be yourself with. He has an incredible dedication and precision and respect for hard work and he brings that out in everyone around him. I feel so lucky to have met and worked with him and to have him as a friend.
We love the Miss Honey Vs Trunchbull (the evil headmistress) dynamic in Matilda, was it secretly fun to play?
Haha! No one has ever asked me that. It was, but not at first. At the beginning I found that being Miss Honey and being constantly berated and beaten and dismissed by Trunchbull and the other adult characters was really challenging. I felt quite exhausted and down because to find the truth in her reactions and hold that level of tension and anxiety in her body, I kind of had to put myself really in that emotionally every night. But after a while I was able to live it on stage and play within the scenes but not take it home with me. James (Miss Trunchbull) and I first met when I was only 15, so we had a long history of friendship and that made it easier. We had a lot of fun in a few moments particularly, it was really great to share that experience with him.
Will you be performing works from that show?
Yes! Absolutely! We perform quite a few numbers from Matilda - my favorites being ‘The Smell Of Rebellion’, ‘Naughty’ and ‘My House’.
What’s the biggest challenges performing this with a large orchestra?
All the organization beforehand! Actually performing the show with a full orchestra is a dream! It is so exciting and so much fun to hear all this incredible music come to life with this magical and mind-blowing orchestra of instruments and all their colours. It’s the creating all the arrangements and figuring out the underscoring and script and then co-ordinating the set up and music and technical elements that is the most challenging. It’s a lot of people and a lot of elements to get together. But thankfully we have an amazing and brilliant team who created the show with me - and the APO are such pros, this season has been pretty smooth and wonderful.
What was the goal of the Dahlesque show and subsequent album?
To follow in Dahl’s mission - which was to entertain and ignite a little flame of excitement and bravery. And to bring together the huge amount of music that has been written by lots of different composers, all based on and inspired by Dahl and his stories. Dahl is one of those writers that almost everyone I know has read at some point in their lives. I felt so lucky to have been able to re-discover him through Matilda, and subsequently uncovered all the amazing music and film and musical adaptations of his stories. I then started researching Dahl more fully and discovered what an absolutely insane life he has led - the huge range of jobs and experiences he has had - and saw all these parallels between his life and his stories. It felt like a perfect opportunity to bring it all together and celebrate the man, the music, the characters the world of Dahl!
What are you hoping audiences will get out of it?
I remember reading somewhere that Dahl felt his primary job as a writer was to entertain as best as he possibly could. Make his readers laugh, make them listen. And to try his best to teach them to love reading books. I have a quote from him:
"My crusade is to teach small children to love books so that it becomes a habit and they realise that books are worth reading. If you are going to be anything, books are vital in life."
We all live in a rough materialistic world where Fantasy doesn't have much part, so it is lovely to think in this show we can remind children - and adults - to be creative, use their imagination, to read, and to think - through having fun!
The other thing - typical to Roald Dahl - Is that hopefully it will be totally entertaining but with a little bit of morality creeping in. Dahl wouldn’t try to force or actively attempt to lecture or slip in morality, it was always something he said happened to creep in its self. But that through his stories and through this concert, hopefully we can put little thoughts into people’s minds and help children begin to think for themselves and develop a sense of right and wrong and stand up for what they believe in.
The Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra performs Dahlesque on Saturday 11 May at the Auckland Town Hall at 11am.
