Guest Blog: 'At the Heart Lies a Story We’re Deeply Passionate About': Actors Alex Hinson and Kitty Devlin on THE INTRUSION

About a year ago our director, Anna Marshall, came across a call-out from a company we have long admired, Told by an Idiot. They were looking for an Associate Company to make a piece in response to the climate emergency. We got a text from Anna saying, “Hey team, there’s an opportunity up from Told by an Idiot at the moment…” Her idea for the show? A story about a group of cockroaches who survive the apocalypse and share their perspective on how the world ended. “Think Six meets Operation Mincemeat meets Kafka’s Metamorphosis”…we were sold.

Well, not 100%, but after having tried to make a show about the climate emergency back in 2020 (but struggled due to a lack of funding) it seemed like the perfect opportunity. What followed was staying up until 2am the night before the deadline to make a stop-motion video application, sharing the tragic tale of a cockroach whose true love was squashed by a human. Distraught by his lovers’ death, this cockroach would get revenge against all humans… especially against those who didn’t choose to fund us…

Bric à Brac met whilst studying at Jacques Lecoq, and quickly found a shared love of physical storytelling and comedy. Our first show was a devised piece based on the life of Anna’s father and his love affair with smoking. In fact, love affairs of some kind seem to find their way into all of our productions—perhaps because, at the heart of every piece, lies a story we’re deeply passionate about.

We use our skills as theatre-makers to give voice to issues that demand attention, whether it’s the dangerous power of advertising, a weight-loss world that preys on our insecurities, a patriarchy that dictates women’s societal roles, or a world continuing to ignore urgent climate warnings. Our aim is never to lecture, but to create theatre that is bold, engaging, and thought provoking. If it sparks a conversation in the theatre bar afterwards, we know we’ve done our job.

When we became Associate Company with Told by an Idiot we felt incredibly grateful. As a devised-theatre company, we’ve often struggled to go down traditional funding and programming routes - most venues want a script, something we usually don’t have until the day before we open (much to the dismay of our creative team…) One thing we do know is that if we have the means and the space to make a show, we will put everything into it to make it happen.

The Intrusion is no different. From day one, everyone in the rehearsal room is a part of the ensemble, creating the show together whether they like it or not (don’t worry, we are all about consent, really). On the first day of this process we had the video designer onstage improvising as one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, the stage manager and art director playing henchmen to a dictator, and an actor crawling around on the floor with fishnets on their face while the assistant director wheeled them in to dramatic music (thank you sound designer!).

None of this made it into the final show - probably for the best - but to have all of these brilliant creatives play with us from the start is essential. It gets everyone invested in building the piece together from the ground up. To have the backing of the Idiots (their words, not ours!) means so much to us. We are thankful that they understand and trust our process, knowing that all the clowning about will be worth it in the end.

The Intrusion is touring the UK until 29 March

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