Fresh from the Edinburgh Fringe, an exceptional new solo show is coming to London
Hello Duncan can you tell us where you’re from, & where you are living today?
Hi! It’s never an easy question to answer… Without getting into too much detail, I was born in France, we moved around a lot growing up, and I am living between Luxembourg and London.
When did you first develop an interest in the arts?
I have always been interested in creating. My friends used to tell me when I was young that they saw me as an inventor… Now, I would not consider myself a Tesla, or anything quite of that standard (yet…). It was a natural way for me to come into the arts. It’s fascinating to create something in physical space that was once an image in your head, or perhaps a thought or an impulse. I have mainly channeled that energy through fiction and character. A piece of art that feels true to my current knowledge or interest.
You were a skateboarder, before, which is a performance art, yeah, but why the leap to remembering lines on a stage?
It’s quite a big leap. It was quite natural. Now as a child, I was doing featured or small roles in commercials, and I would see the pros doing their thing and it developed an interest. I envied their boldness and naturalness. I wanted that challenge. I got quite good at skateboarding and was releasing quite a few videos on YouTube. You can see my first-ever skateboard video here, edited by my brother. I was very shy in front of the camera, but I loved filming videos, the leap was going from legs to face HA!
Who, in the arts, has inspired you the most?
My teachers and friends were my immediate source of inspiration while starting out. My transition was purely instinctual, so all my inspiration came from my close surroundings. As I developed and became a pro… I now stem a lot of inspiration from actors & creators such as; Roberto Begnini, Mr. Day Lewis, Willem Dafoe, Gene Wilder, Edward Norton, and Jean du Jardin.
You are bringing a show to the Greenwich Theatre soon, can you tell us all about it?
Of course. Dante & the Robot is a solo play set in a man’s bedsit in a busy metropolis whose only companion is a house robot named She-bot. His girlfriend has left for Japan to disconnect from technology and live an older, simpler way of being. Dante is unfulfilled. Working a job he only tolerates. He decides to write a film. As the script emerges, Dante incarnates a Spanish knight’s quest, battling monsters and traveling epic landscapes, alongside his French squire.
The monologue is a difficult, yet fertile field of performance – what are its principle nuances?
In Dante and the Robot, I have created a little safety net, because I have a robot on stage with me at all times HAHA. It is an art form of its own. What I have felt is that it’s often harder to understand what the audience is experiencing when you’re alone. Part of it has to do with the fact that it’s my first solo show, and I still have a lot to learn, but you’re often the only one pulling the story forward so many nuances are coming at you.
What are the composite themes of your production?
The main themes are reality and fantasy, power and AI.
You’ve been working with Jamie Wood on the play, can you tell us about your relationship?
We co-created the project together. Jamie has done many solo plays himself and has vast experience in devising and creating plays. So he was the key to the kingdom. We worked long distance, and every time I received some funding, Jamie flew over to Luxembourg and we did a week of devising. The process continued until Edinburgh.
You premiered Dante & the Robot at the Edinburgh Fringe – have you tweaked it since, & if so, how?
The play developed throughout Edinburgh. The technician of the show would always propose some clarity that I would incorporate into the show. It was mostly developed in the details of dialogue and movement.
& finally, you bump into somebody in the streets of London & have 20 seconds to sell your show – what do you say?
Flashbacks of the fringe are coming back to me…
Dante and the Robot is a physical comedy about a man who escapes an AI-driven world to live out his fantasy of being a Knight Errant, fighting monsters, and saving princesses, slowly the real and fantasy worlds begin to merge and collapse, pushing him into an awakened state of being.
Dante & the Robot
Greenwich Theatre (Studio)
October 18th (19:30)
themumble.uk 