Something that we're really interested to explore with this show
is the idea that the audience sit on headphones
removed from the actors through a piece of glass,
but yet, they can be having a really intimate experience
of the characters' subjectivity.
Outside of the flat, you hear nothing if you don't have your headphones on.
It's only through the headphones
that you're able to access the world of the play.
— I like this dress.
When d'you get it?
I don't think you really care when I got it.
I think you only care about when I get out of it.
— You need to shave.
— You need to shave
(HE HUMS IN HER EAR)
We're going to be late. Your colleagues are going to think that I'm disorganised.
♪ Ba! ♪
Paul is whispering into the ear of Phoebe Fox
and we, as a listener, have the experience of hearing that
in a very close proximity to Phoebe
that you would not be able to achieve in a normal theatrical show.
Binaural sound is three-dimensional audio,
and it can only be heard through headphones
because the way it works is it's recorded
through a mic in the same place as both of your ears.
What you're able to do is hear sounds in the same perspective
as you would in the real world.
So, if you hear someone talking to your right,
they sound like they're talking to your right, also behind and in front of you.
And that's the technology that we use in
(LOW MUSIC PLAYING, HUM OF CONVERSATIONS)
— So, tell me how you're getting on.
Oh, don't make me talk to anyone else, I hate them.
— You love them.
— Really?
Herr Neumann? No. What's he like?
Um... He's very handsome.
Terrible kisser!
(BOTH LAUGHING)
What we approached the National with was we wanted to use this technology
to see how well we could deliver a narrative with it
and deliver a story with it.
We met a few writers,
and Ella Hickson was one that we immediately felt we could work with,
and happily, she decided to do it.
The script is sort of architectural.
It has to have a spatial sense.
So, where things sit on the page
very much represent where people are in the space.
So, you're always playing this quite complex game
of audio point of focus and visual point of focus.
Trying to make sure that you are in control of where the audience is looking
as well as where they're hearing,
so that you can tell the story that you want to tell.
It's a very interesting way to be working
because often there are things that I would direct in a certain way
because I'd be following things with my eyes and ears in equal amounts
that then have to be made differently if you want to prioritise the sound.
Often what's happening is that we're out there
and I will discuss with Ben and Max and Ella
how they think this certain thing should be delivered,
before I then go and deliver the note.
Yeah, working with binaural audio is...
It's completely changing the way
that you might go about picking apart a script in a rehearsal process.
Whereas, normally, I think you would make decisions based on emotional intention
and then you might also think about
visually how that comes across to the audience,
we are trying to make decisions based on emotional truth,
but also about what sounds good.
All your instincts of how theatre works don't hold.
If we're having an intimate conversation
or we're far apart on the stage, I know what I need to do to be heard.
But in that glass box, in the flat,
I cannot judge when I'm being heard and when I'm not.
It's really, really hard to gauge what the mics are picking up
because of the surrounding sounds that are happening
and the surrounding voices.
And so we, literally, have to trust people out here.
We can't... It's impossible to know what's right and what's wrong, in terms of level.
The idea, in its core, is very simple because it is about these two microphones,
but then there is a whole other level which is that this flat
that Vicki Mortimer created is just peppered with speakers everywhere.
As she passes through rooms, you might not be entirely aware of it,
but the sound of each room has its own sonic identity.
So that you weren't just watching with your eyes where she was,
but you were also listening with your ears to understand the places she went.
(MAN CLEARS THROAT, MUSIC PLAYING LOW)
(QUIET CONVERSATIONS)
— MAN: Ms Weber!
— Are you leaving?
— Are you feeling all right?
(FOOTSTEPS)
WOMAN: Please don't waste them. We'll just have them later.
Ooh!
Our rehearsal process is, basically, a technical process.
We're sitting in the flat where the actors are performing
and then the creative team is sitting outside trying to listen in
and you realise the gap between what you know is being said
and you know is written on the page,
and actually what is being understood through sounds.
In film, you're often thinking about character point of view
and the camera is where people's eyes are.
Here, we want the audience to be in Anna's perspective,
to make a really subjective piece that they are following one character, Anna,
through her experience over one evening.
It walks a fine line between being very cinematic and traditional theatre.
I think you get a little bit of the best of both worlds
because the access that you're given through the headphones
is really intimate, in the way that cinema can be,
and you're right in there with it.
But there is still the thrill of a live experience that you're watching.