Audience comments

4 STARS!!- The Good Review

"A really novel and sweet new piece of theatre from the Manchester-based company ‘From the Mill’...
Solid and convincing performances were given by John Mulholland (Lee) and Jennifer Campbell (J).....
The one who shone through for me though was Tom Hodson (the Interviewer), who provided an almost Jiminy Cricket conscience-like guide throughout the performance. His fixed position and inclusion of the audience really was an anchor that held firmer still as the heat and tension were turned up.....
The intimate venue, small but able cast, simple lighting and minimal set all assembled together to pull in and intrigue the audience. Indeed, the performance’s technical simplicity did not detract in any way from the storytelling, but in fact aided greatly the build-up of the plot....
This ‘newly emerging’ theatre company is worth keeping an eye out for. " REMOTE GOAT

"The performance of Life's Witness was at all times gripping and believable, and the chemistry within the cast could be felt. "

"Our emotions were caught up with the characters and the situation, with a slight underlying feeling at the end of whether all was as it seemed, a true ambiguity expertly delivered. "

Our first review!!

★★★★
Reviewer: Steven Ireland
There’s something very enjoyable about watching a new show produced by a fledgling company. Often, you can feel the sense of people pulling together behind a project they believe in, putting their all into getting the thing out there for people to see. Downstairs in The Bay Horse is an unconventional theatre space but for me this lent a sense of accessibility and informality. I’d be happy to see more plays here.
Life’s Witness is From The Mill Theatre’s first show and focuses on the character of spy novel writer Nathan, played by Luke Helly. Early career success could not be sustained, but with a bright new idea his latest novel has brought him back from the wilderness, and he has agreed to a live, televised interview in which to bask in some congratulations. However, all is not as it seems, both in the nature of the interview, and in the story behind Nathan’s new novel.
It would be easy to over-play the central character, but Helly’s performance avoids histrionics in favour of casting Nathan as a flawed victim of an unforgiving industry and the false expectations brought by instant success. Similarly, John Mulholland as Nathan’s partner and writing protégé Lee is sympathetic but has enough of his own attitude and ambition to keep Nathan from simply being the villain of the piece.
The show’s producer, Jennifer Campbell, and its writer, Thomas Hodson, play Nathan’s publisher and the interviewer respectively; but this is far from a case of a small company dragging in non-acting members to help out. Hodson moves deftly between a fawning Melvyn Bragg and an interrogatory Jeremy Paxman. Campbell is every inch the ruthless industry professional, callously dismissing Nathan one moment, yet prepared to defend him (and her percentage) with all the resources at her disposal when he has a winning book.
Director Onur Orkut allows things to build nicely, as flashback scenes that begin as separate entities start to merge into the interview as the guilt and failure from Nathan’s past close in on him under the questioning of the present. When the crescendo came, and Nathan finally lost his cool with his tormentor, the moment felt a little bit crowded – probably contributed to by the lack of any real backstage area.
It was a privilege to attend this preview. If you plan to attend the Page to Stage Festival in Liverpool next week you could do a lot worse than seek this out. I look forward to seeing what From the Mill produce next.
Life’s Witness is currently on tour in the north west. For dates and information, click here.

Meet the characters!

With the production drawing closer, we wanted to give you all the opportunity to get to know the characters a little bit more! So without further a do...

Nathan: A Cambridge University graduate, Nathan is focused, inventive, charismatic and intelligent. While working briefly in advertising in London, Nathan wrote his first novel: The Conjurer, which was released to critical acclaim. Nathan derives intellectual fulfilment from his novels and believes that the success of the series is based on the public’s fascination with espionage. Nathan is appreciative of the opportunities fame has afforded him and particularly enjoys visiting Asia as well as watching opera. He also frequently visits his family in Peterborough. 

The Interviewer: The interviewer is a bit of a mystery.  Although he is well-known for presenting “Spoken Word”, we are told very little else about him. We don’t even know his name. He is clearly the kind of person that likes to keep the attention on his guests rather than himself. The only clues he gives us about himself are hidden within the lines themselves and in his reactions. We know that he very intelligent, very observant and has a sense for a story.  He likes to do a lot of preparation before an interview and doesn’t like to be caught out. He has not got to where he is by accident.

The Publisher: Known by everyone as 'J', Jessica is a young hard working, ambitious, cut-throat publisher. She has supported Nathan throughout his entire writing career, and has become very fond of him. She protects those who she cares about, and is not someone you would want to cross. While she has a tender side, her work and ambition always takes priority. Failure is not an option for Jessica. She has brilliant instinct and intuition, and you can always count on her to tell you the truth. Most of all, if Jessica believes in someone, she will stand by their side and support them. 

Lee: Lee studied History at Manchester University and, after graduating with a 2:1, he decided to follow his passion for writing and began working on a selection of stories. To support his writing he has worked in a variety of jobs, including as a telephone banking assistant and a barman. He is constantly writing and hopes to one day get a publishing contract.

Hope you enjoyed meeting the gang!

Jenny

TICKETS NOW ON SALE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tickets are for sale on Skiddle, please find links to the box office for each performance below!


Sunday 14th September                   6pm                House Liverpool


Wednesday 17th September             9pm                The Bluecoat
                                                                              

Saturday 20th September                  9pm                81 Renshaw St
                                                                             
                                   
Thursday 25th September                 2pm               Treasure House, World Museum Liverpool
                                                                          

Saturday 27th September                  3pm               Treasure House, World Museum Liverpool
                                                                          

We are pleased to finally be able to announce our performances and venues during the festival.


Sunday 14th September                   6pm                House Liverpool


Wednesday 17th September             9pm                The Bluecoat
                                                                              

Saturday 20th September                  9pm                81 Renshaw St
                                                                             
                                   
Thursday 25th September                 2pm               Treasure House, World Museum Liverpool
                                                                          

Saturday 27th September                  3pm               Treasure House, World Museum Liverpool
                                                                          

We will let you know as soon as tickets go on sale.

Exciting times!


TOM
From the Mill

 

Here is the first glimpse of our poster. Many thanks to Green Mill Creative for their work on this. 

 

Up close and personal

After kicking off last week with some full cast rehearsals, this week we stripped back and started to focus on the relationships between the individual characters.

Last night, Luke Onur and I wanted to really get to grips with the relationship between Nathan and his publisher. Since day one, Onur has had us doing exercises and games that really get us to listen to each other, and hear what other people are saying. The purpose of this is to make what we are doing believable, natural. It's not acting; we are actually there, in the moment, responding to what the other person is saying. Yesterday, Onur took this one step further and we kicked off the rehearsal by playing some warm-up games that really made Luke and I focus on each other, watch each other, take in all the detail. Once again, the purpose of this is to encourage us to do exactly this while we are on stage - watch what the other person is doing and what their body language is saying about them, their mood, how they are feeling. We need to do this in order to make our characters genuine. 

The focus of last night was for us to really start to understand and know our characters in depth. There is no right or wrong way of how to say a certain line, or react to something someone else has said. We just need to understand WHY we are saying it that way, or WHY we are reacting in that fashion. And to do this we need to get to know not only our character, but also the relationship he/she has with the other characters in the play. It's all about exploring. Making mistakes. Working out what doesn't work is just as important as working out what does work.

The script is the most useful tool to really understand our characters. It is the starting point beyond which we must explore. Last night, Luke and I did some improvising around the script, in order to understand what might make our characters say some of the things we do, helping us to start to grasp how we are feeling at certain points in the show. It really helped us to break the unnatural nature that so often comes with acting, and to really become our characters.

It was a really intense rehearsal, leaving us both a lot to think about before Saturday's rehearsal.

Until Saturday,

Jenny :)

Rehearsals

Day two of rehearsals and the real work can begin! Armed with our scripts, pencils and just a few nerves, we go back into the rehearsal room, this time at LIPA.



To be able to seal ourselves away, lock out the world and spend a whole day working together on new work is a tremendous privilege and one that I am enjoying so very much.

The work started with the script. We had to forget that this piece had ever been performed and begin completely again, with a blank canvas.  We broke the script apart, working and playing with the sections, trying out things, seeing what worked and what didn't work.

We don't know what the finished product will look like, how our characters with end up behaving but are loving every minute of finding that out.



We will keep you posted!


TOM

From the Mill

And so it begins....

Mid-week seems like an odd time to start new beginnings but here I was, standing outside the Seven Oaks pub ready for my first rehearsal. Allow me to properly introduce myself I’m John and this was going to be my first rehearsal as Lee in From The Mill Theatre Company’s production of Life’s Witness which is going to be part of Liverpool’s Page To Stage festival.

I wasn’t given much time to think before I was ushered in by Jennifer ready for the first rehearsal. As an actor the first rehearsal can sometimes be the scariest thing, meeting a group of new people for the first time and hoping you don’t make them regret hiring you is something that constantly runs through your mind, well, not this time. From the second I walked into the room everything went brilliantly. Onur Orkut, our director, dove right in giving us engaging and surprisingly difficult warm up exercises (my hand foot co-ordination isn't the best) focusing on our need to not only respond but listen to what is going on around us.

After a quick stop for a cheeky lime and soda we got down to having our first read through of the script. It was exciting to hear all these voices get lifted off the page and made me fall in love with this script even more. It has made me even more excited to be involved in this piece of work and so glad to be working with such an amazingly talented group of people.

Saturday is our next rehearsal so keep your eyes peeled for another blog building following our journey from Page to Stage :D

Until next time,

John, out :D

Meet Lee

We would like to introduce John Mulholland, who is joining us, playing the part of Lee.

Welcome to the team John! Guess it is time to start rehearsing.....

What's next?

We've talked a bit about the origins of Life's Witness and how the idea has grown and developed. But what is the plan? Where do we intend to take the play?

It's hard to believe that the show stemmed from four people accidentally ending up in a group together. However, we very quickly learned that the four of us had similar goals, similar aims. We all wanted to make theatre that would strike a cord with people. Theatre that was understated, primarily naturalistic, but had a strong meaning behind it. But most of all, we all wanted to create theatre that was fun to be involved in; we wanted to enjoy performing and wanted the audience to enjoy watching.

Page to Stage has given us the platform to do this. It has enabled us to take the play to the next level and perform what we have spent so long creating. And we can't wait! We're so excited to share with you all something that we have worked so hard on and are really proud of. Unfortunately, Pete has moved down south to London, so we are at the stage of recasting his part, but then we are all systems go, and rehearsals will commence. We're all very excited to start working with Onur, our director, and getting back into the rehearsal room with each other again.

We'd like to thank everyone who has supported us so for, those of you who came to see the show in January. The support, and the positive feedback we received really convinced us to continue working on this. Of course the constructive criticism was useful too!!

Over the next month we will work exceptionally hard to develop this play before heading to the Liverpool to perform with Page to Stage. We'll let you know specific dates and times closer to the festival, but do check out the Page to Stage website for more info.

And after page to stage? Well who knows? There is plenty of potential to pursue a variety of avenues with Life's Witness, so we'll just see where we end up.

Writing the play

Our play started as a very simple idea: what is the true price of fame and fortune? Do we ever get to see this reality or is it hidden away? Through discussions, improvisation and more than a bit of luck, that idea went onto become "Life's Witness".

Our work seemed to connect with audiences and there was a genuine buzz around it. We knew that in order to take this play further, we needed to made it longer, so that it could be a stand alone piece.  The question was, how do we make this play longer?
We decided that the key to making the play better, was to spend time on our existing four characters. To do this we wanted to work to build up their history, personalities and relationships. No story is ever completely black and white and no character completely good or bad. This ambiguity was our stepping off point.

And so the writing began! Over February and March, the script started to be developed. Some days there would be no progress, sometimes there would be a sudden idea to help push the story forward. Sometimes what was written was good, sometimes it was terrible.
But slowly, bit by bit, the script took shape. The script went through about 15 rewrites before we started to consider it ready for submission to the festival. Hopefully we have managed to keep what audiences liked and our additions and changes have made a better, more rounded and ultimately more interesting play. Time will tell..........

Before we talk about where we are going, we should probably talk about where we have come from.....

Our four company members met on a devising theatre course held at the Lowry in Manchester in 2013. During the course, we were asked to create a 20 minute piece of original theatre; a play that eventually came to be called "Life's Witness/The Observer". We were proud to win a showcase held at the end of the course and started to think about whether we could develop the piece further.

Our next stop was The King's Arms in Salford, where we were kindly invited by Mick Cooper and My Beating Heart to the "Play for Free" festival, held in January. This was a chance to try out the work on a new audience and look for feedback to try and see if the piece would work in a new place.

“Life’s Witness was presented well with clear characters created from the start. I look forward to the developed piece!”

“Really enjoyed Life’s Witness… well done to all involved”

“Definitely great potential”

“Lovely bit of theatre tonight from ‘Life’s Witness’…nice idea, can’t wait to see the fully formed piece soon!”

“Life’s Witness; great concept exploring creative duality & authorship. With deeper relationships & stakes could be a winner”.

“I would love to see the fully developed version when it is finished!”

  

During rehearsals and meetings, it became clear that we had found a company of people, who shared the same work ethic and had a combined experience including acting, writing, directing and production. We felt that we had stumbled onto a project 

that had the potential to be very special.  Thus "From the Mill Theatre Company" was formed. Our name takes inspiration from L.S Lowry's "Coming Home from the Mill" and is a tribute to where we met and started this journey. 

Our director- Onur Orkut!

Thrilled to announce Onur will be directing Life's Witness!

Here is a little bit about him:

Originally from Turkey, Onur completed his degree in Physics before starting his training in theatre.

He graduated from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) twice, with a master’s degree in drama and another in musical theatre. In training, he received a full scholarship and an award for TV acting.

He has worked both in the UK and in Turkey as an actor (stage and TV), director and singer. He has also worked as a drama coach, script-writer and dancer for the contemporary dance group [laboratuar] and founded and directed his university’s student musical theatre society “The Company”.
Onur has taught as both a teacher and course leader for various institutions including The RSAMD.

He has also developed and lead workshops for application of acting technique in professional and personal development. In 2011, he completed his PGCert in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education with distinction at the Liverpool John Moore’s University.

His credits include The Abduction From the Seraglio (Ankara State Opera), Hamlet and Cikisyokland
Cumhuriyeti (Arts Institution Award – Oteki Tiyatro), Playback (Musical Theatre Coach – VeDigerSeyler), a TV series in Turkey and many concerts, including some for international charities and diplomatic missions. He also took part in international festivals including Fabbrica Europa in Florence and (as a choreographer) in International METU Contemporary Dance Days. Onur also wrote the lyrics for the musical “1453” with A. Sahin, performed in concert with a symphony orchestra in 1998 in Istanbul and as a production in 2003 in
Ankara.
He currently works as a Lecturer in Acting at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts.