EDINBURGH 2018: BWW Q&A- The Hit

BWW speaks to Russell Dean about bringing The Hit to the 2018 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Tell us a bit about The Hit.

The Hit is a very black tabletop puppet comedy about Mikey, a hitman, aka the Ghost. After and accidental death under a smoking Buick and some nagging last words, he is forced to see more brain than he can handle.

An unexpectedly violent visit to a sleazy steam bath leads him to hole himself up in his bizarrely modified New York apartment. There, he dredges the events that have led him to this uncomfortable state. With only a defective massage chair for company he revisits flash bulb moments - death on a trampoline, a grotesque initiation, an inexplicable disappearance on the Mexican border and a dreadful trip to ToysRUs. Things can never be the same again...for anyone.

Why use puppets to tell the story?

The Mikey puppet is central to the show's conception. Cognitive Dissonance Theory (see below) focuses on how we use our rational brains to attempt to justify irrational actions. Neuroscience is beginning to show more and more evidence that our decisions to act are often made before we are aware of them. This can happen on really basic levels such as when we decide to move a finger. This brings our notions of free will into question, hence the metaphor of the puppet.

As an adjunct to this I was also interested in the dissonance between the audience's knowledge that a puppet is just a puppet and it's ability to lose itself in the puppet's narrative and give it life. I've done a TEDx talk about this called 'Puppetry and Perception', using puppetry to show how our brains can be hijacked. Puppeteers do this to sell the illusion of life, but advertisers, commercial and political, do it to sell us pretty much anything.

What was the inspiration for the play?

Cognitive dissonance! There's been a lot of talk about control recently. I wanted to investigate where real control lies. Leon Festinger's Cognitive Dissonance theory has much to say about our modern world, such as why we do jobs we hate, how we end up defending the politically indefensible in order to maintain membership of our tribe and how we stay immersed in a world of coercive consumerism. Someone said if the 20th century was about ideology, the 21st is about identity. I wanted to play with how illusory that identity might be in a darkly humorous way.

I also had the opportunity of working with the wonderful Mervyn Millar, puppetry director on Warhorse, as dramaturg, in addition to some extraordinary puppeteers.

Who would you recommend comes to see The Hit?

I would describe the show as Breaking Bad meets Krapp's Last tape. It doesn't pull its punches so it's definitely for over fourteens.

In terms of style there are comparisons with Blind Summit's 'The Table'. It's a ripping yarn with a Matrix style twist, so it's definitely not just for hardcore puppetry fans.

What do you hope audiences take home from the show?

From previous feedback we know this isn't a show that's easily forgotten. I hope audiences will be thoroughly entertained by some extraordinary tabletop puppetry followed by lingering (and possibly dissonant) afterthoughts...

Timings and ticket information for The Hit can be found on the Summerhall website.

Photo credit: Mark Dean

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