Amazing Arts - Interview with Emily Lim

Next month CTC is presenting the U.S. premiere of The Roald Dahl Story Company’s smash hit U.K. production, The Enormous Crocodile The Musical. 

 

I had a chance to interview Emily Lim, the director of The Enormous Crocodile The Musical.

·    What is it like directing a stage play with puppets (as compared to only live actors)?

 

It’s incredibly fun and magical working with puppets, the possibilities are literally endless! They bring a totally new dimension of imagination to the experience of watching the show for the audience, and the experience of making it for us as a creative team. There’s also a whole extra layer of work and detail which means it’s very time-consuming, and requires a huge amount of patience and rigour from the acting company. You’re essentially directing two sets of actors - the human actors, and the puppets! Toby Olié, who leads on all the puppetry design and work in the show, is a real master of his craft. Watching him help us bring elephants, hippos and giant African Snails to life in the room is a very special and particular kind of creative experience, and has been a real highlight of the whole process. 

 

·    Can you share a little bit about adapting this work as a musical?

 

It’s been a wonderful process that’s taken a lot of time and care from our team. We first began thinking about the show almost 7 years ago, and having all that time and space to keep refining the details of how we wanted to tell the story in the most clear, accessible and joyful way has been brilliant. As ever with musicals there’s a long list of songs we've cut over the years (!), and a lot of different ideas that haven’t made it into the final show - we created about fifty different versions of the opening before we decided on the one we currently have…! It’s been a constant process of asking ourselves if we’re holding the audience in the right way and doing justice to the wonderfully mischievous spirit of Dahl’s original story. 

 

·    What are some of the challenges of taking a show on tour?

 

 As a team we need to be flexible and creative about how we adapt the staging of the show to each new space, making sure our Enormous Crocodile puppet (also known as ‘The Croc-mobile!’) won’t get his tail constantly knocked off the side of the stage, for example! And as a company our wonderful actors need to be really good at keeping the material fresh every performance! We also take the care of our company and touring team really seriously - being away from home and constantly on the road brings a different set of challenges and joys for everyone, and we need to make sure that everyone is held and supported throughout. 

 

·    What do you hope audiences take away from this show?

From the beginning we always wanted it to be a show that children and their grown-ups would experience as a real explosion of joy in their lives and their day! Something that would introduce them to the beautiful magic of what it can be to sit in a theatre with a community of people and enjoy the shared experience of laughing and feeling together. We want people to take away warm memories of ridiculous moments and, of course, a brand new set of songs they can sing to themselves at home! We’ve been so moved and excited to see how audiences have responded to what we’ve made and can’t wait to share it with more people. 

Direction and Development
Emily Lim

 

Emily is an award-winning director whose work explores theatre as a form of community building and radical joy. She has created work nationally and internationally with organizations including the National Theatre, Manchester International Festival, Kiln, and Company Three. She is the director of public acts and an associate artist at the National Theatre.