Interview: Camila França and Trine Garrett, co-artistic directors of Foreign Affairs theatre company
06/04/2024
Camila França and Trine Garrett are co-artistic directors of the Foreign Affairs theatre company, which produces translated work sometimes in unusual spaces.
Ahead of their latest production, Black Swans at the Omnibus Theatre (23 April-11 May), I asked them about the new piece, how they choose what stories to tell and the unusual places they've staged theatre in the past.
Black Swans also sees Camila and Trine returning to acting after a 5-year break, so I asked them what they are looking forward to about being back on stage and how they'll be feeling on opening night.
You can watch the full interview on my YouTube channel here.
Your theatre company, Foreign Affairs, shares stories from afar. What is the process for finding the plays you put on, and what are you looking for from a piece?
Trine: Our focus is working with theatre in translation. And the translators are our best friends, so plays get pitched to us. We also discover them through our theatre translator mentorship, which we run every other year.
And this play [Black Swans] was discovered during one of those.
What draws us to the plays that we stage is a lot about identity and belonging. We are both not from the UK; I'm from Denmark and Camila's from Brazil.
And then plays about women. I think that has been at the forefront for the last year with this one in particular [Black Swans], and prior to that, we did a rehearsed reading of a play about a female Danish scientist.
Black Swans is about caregiving for an elderly parent in a world of increasing technological influence. Tell us a bit about the play and what drew you to this particular story.
Camila: It's a story about women, and that immediately appealed. And then there's also a personal connection to the story, both on my side and Trine's, caring for elderly family, which is something we as a society tend not to talk a lot about.
The play is about two sisters who have to care for their elderly mother, who can no longer look after herself.
In that comes all the beauty and the bickering of their relationship and what happens when decisions have to be made.
How do they deal with it, and how does it affect their personal relationships, their own lives, and their relationship with their mother?
Trine: Without giving too much away, that's the first part of the play. Then, the older sister introduces Rosie, the robot, who seems to be the perfect solution.
That's what drew us to the play, and it's also a two-hander.
Originally, a lot of our productions were ensemble pieces, but in the current financial and funding landscape, anything with more than one person is a stretch financially.
You mentioned that a robot is introduced into the story, which feels pertinent to everything that's happening with technology and AI and the questions that it raises, for good and bad.
Trine: It's quite funny. We were first introduced to the play in 2020 during the pandemic. We did an online version, and when we read it, we were like, 'Oh, okay, it's a bit futuristic'.
Then, boom, we pick it up in 2024, and it's not futuristic.
There's lots of exciting stuff going on in healthcare and caregiving in this field. Maybe not Rosie the robot, but stuff that we couldn't imagine even a couple of years ago.
In Black Swans, you're back on stage again, what are you looking forward to most about performing?
Trine: We originally met as actors but couldn't find a place in the industry, and we thought, okay, we'll create our own space.
We started by acting in all of our shows, and then we stopped and started producing. But we thought maybe this is the one that brings us back on stage.
When we direct and produce, it's all about arriving somewhere. As a trained actor, I look forward to being in the moment, experiencing and living and sharing that story with an audience.
And obviously I get to do it with Camila.
Camila: It's been so long, so it will be really special. And I'm looking forward to both of us sharing this story together so it's not like one or the other.
How will you be feeling on opening night?
Trine: The rehearsal process is a lot harder than it was when we rehearsed last time, which was five years ago. A lot has happened in those five years, so I think there'll be a lot of nerves.
We have the most wonderful, female-led team, and they'll be there supporting us. It feels like there are all these wonderful people holding us.
But I'll be scared, terrified, petrified. Maybe we shouldn't say this!
Camila: As a team with lives, we're trying to rebel a little bit against the system and what's imposed, the normal working hours that don't take into account childcare and other responsibilities that often fall on women's plates [sic].
Having a female-led team has been truly, truly wonderful, and we feel really supported. It's been a fantastic experience. Don't know how we go back to normal life.
Foreign Affairs likes to bring performances to unconventional spaces; what is the most unusual space you've put on a production?
Trine: We once performed at Barts Pathology Museum. It was a collaboration with a group of universities, and we did an adaptation of a play called Professor Bernhardi, which was then quite recently adapted at the Almeida as The Doctor.
But we presented it surrounded by jars of specimens and the hospital. It made a lot of sense to be in that world.
Camila: Yes, it was beautiful. The space is amazing, but you want to look at a distance and not get too close to what's in the jars.
What is your favourite type of theatre to watch?
Trine: Theatre that moves me. It can be a theatre that has very few words; it could be a more traditional text theatre, but that moves me emotionally, or it makes me think.
Or is surprising: 'This was not what I expected' but in a good way.
Has the casting gone 'we don't care what it should be', and is it something that embraces the world of theatre? It is not film.
Camila: I love ensemble pieces, seeing lots of people on stage, and pieces where movement is involved.
But it has to have an element of surprise, thinking out of the box, and making me think, or maybe it goes against a preconceived idea I have.
I like theatre that keeps with me for longer instead of the fast-food type.
For more details and tickets for Black Swans visit the Omnibus Theatre website. I'll be reviewing Black Swans later in the month.
Enjoyed this interview? Check out some of my others with theatre actors, writers and directors:
Actor and writer of The Manny, Sam McArdle on getting back on stage.
Robert Softley Gale AD of Birds of Paradise Theatre Company talks disabled representation
Theatre in 5 questions with director Sara Joyce includes chat about Sara's play Boy Parts, Soho Theatre.