±«Óãtv

Over a year on from theatres closing, ±«Óãtv Arts created, , a festival of UK theatre that brings productions into the nation’s homes through TV and radio that were either closed, or never even opened to the public, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Olivia Hannah is an alumni of our Northern Voices writer development group. Her play, Braids was selected to be part of the festival, giving her a new platform for her work and a first Audio Drama credit with ±«Óãtv Radio 4 and ±«Óãtv Sounds.

Olivia picks up the story of the play's journey from page to stage to radio in a remote working world.

Listen to Braids now on ±«Óãtv Sounds

Braids is my first full-length play. It’s been percolating for a long time - most of my life, I suppose, since a lot of it is drawn from experience. There is a healthy layer of fiction between me and the audience, though: it’s personal, but it is not autobiographical. Perhaps because it took so long to make it to the page and become something external to me, the idea of it actually getting a full production has always felt unreal. It came close - there were rehearsed readings at and the in 2018, then it was picked up by as part of a double bill. We almost made it to rehearsals in March 2020! But even then, it felt like a dream. So when coronavirus struck and the run was cancelled, it almost felt inevitable. Of course it wasn’t going to happen! It was always too good to be true.

Pre-Production and Cuts, cuts, cuts…

Having a second chance in the Lights Up Festival has been joyful. We were able to get the whole gang back together - director and both actors, and , were all originally attached to the Live Theatre production. It felt too good to be true again, right up until we started to talk about cuts. The stage play is a little under an hour, but the audio drama slot is 44 minutes, so I had some work to do. I’m not great at cutting my own material. I find it hard to see it clearly. I can’t lose that, it’s saying something I want to say! And I can’t lose that because it’s the thought that gets us to this other thing. And I definitely can’t lose the jokes! But it had to be done, so I (eventually) squared up to it.

The first thing to go was the swearing. There’s still a little cursing in it, but nothing like the impressive thirty-six (36) F-words I racked up in the original stage play. (Do I always swear that much or was I going through something..?) The next specific query was around a racial slur that appears in the first scene, as one character relates an experience of racism to the other. It’s not a word I especially want to hear, but I also didn’t want to paraphrase or shy away from it. There is a moment where the characters try to ease the pain of it with a joke, but it felt too easily misinterpreted as making light of it, so the joke was cut. Conversations about how to handle that moment continued right into recording, with input from everyone. I think the end result works, but I’ll be anxious about it until it’s out in the world.

Those were the easiest cuts. I also needed to lose a thousand words right away, and earmark another thousand just in case. We ended up needing that reserve, and more. I struggled to see where significant chunks could come out. As well as the cuts, producer Pauline Harris had some great notes about how to make it work for radio. Braids is already mostly driven by dialogue, but there are moments where the action won’t read well without some tweaks. Then there were some edits I wanted to make for myself, and the draft was ready to send off. Not the ‘final’ draft - that comes in the edit after recording, shaped by the director and producer.

Rehearsal day!

Chino, Olivia, Cynthia and myself gathered on Zoom for a few hours one Friday to work with the script a bit before recording. Seeing actors make the characters real is the magical part for me. I found I was weirdly nervous, then realised it was the first time I’d really been through this process. It made me very glad to have the rehearsal time, and not just be diving straight into recording. I felt better prepared for it. Olivia and Cynthia read it right through once and then went over each scene. Chino’s approach is forensic; she catches all the nuance and intention in the dialogue in a way that’s almost unnerving. How does she know what I was thinking..? The partly personal nature of the story makes the whole experience slightly unnerving. The feeling of being seen by others is part of the reward, but there’s a discomfort to it as well. Thank goodness for that layer of fiction. At one point during rehearsal day, a conversation is sparked about blackness, mixedness and growing up outside of Black communities. It was great to have the space for that conversation, and it also informed the portrayal of an offstage character.

Hearing the full read-through was so lovely, just delightful and satisfying and... about six or seven minutes too long. So I spent the weekend sweating over cuts again. Pauline looked at it as well and suggested some cuts. As alarming as the chunks of red ink looked, I could see that they worked. I was anxious about losing jokes, but there was plenty else that could go. By Monday, our first recording day, the script was a bit slimmer… although still not slim enough, it turned out.

Recording…

I found my nerves were gone. I was just excited to get going. We all accessed the virtual system used for recording from our homes; the actors also had “proper” mics and pop shields. It was audio only, but the sound was so clear and immediate that it felt easier than video calling - you could hear multiple voices at once, without delays (initial tech issues aside). We went through the scenes in order, first giving the actors the edits for the scene and then doing two or three takes. Between takes, Chino and the actors talked through it and decided how they wanted to approach the next take. Again, I was delighted with how clearly they all saw the characters. I worry so much about not portraying them properly, but Olivia and Cynthia just nailed it. I recognised the versions of Jasmine and Abeni they created. Those are my girls! I was also struck by how nuanced voice work is, how changes in tone and pace can give a scene a whole new texture.

Halfway through day one, Pauline let me know we were running long already and more cuts were needed. I immediately began sweating. What else could go? Lots more, of course. A play is much more than dialogue. I found some cuts we could make as we recorded, then spent the evening looking for more. On day two, we continued working just as we had on day one. I became aware of how little time I had left in the process, and a little melancholy crept in. That soon dissipated at the end of the day when I found we were still running long and there were yet more cuts for me to do. By now, I was approaching it with a lot less sentimentality. I was still protective of the jokes, but took out much more than I had previously. I’m still not sure if it was enough because the final cut came in the director’s edit. After the rest of us had finished, Chino and Pauline edited the material into what listeners will hear on Saturday night. I’ve heard it and really, you would never think those two actors weren’t in the same room. And yes, I did a little cry. It feels like the play never really existed until now.

I’m just absurdly happy that the Lights Up festival has given Braids another chance to find its audience, and I can’t wait for listeners to meet Jasmine and Abeni.

Braids by Olivia Hannah will air on Saturday 20th March 2021 on ±«Óãtv Radio 4 at 21.00 and will be available to listen again on ±«Óãtv Sounds