Marc Blake, writer and director of Private View which runs from 10 to 15 November at Greenwich Theatre Studio. Tickets can be purchased here. We sat down with Marc to discuss his upcoming production.
Private View explores themes of avarice, forgery, and the cost of owning art. What inspired you to write a story about the darker side of the art world?
I used to be an artist, but at the age of 28, having had several exhibitions, I started to learn about how the Art world works. This led to my putting down the brushes and swearing never to paint again until I was 60. When I hit that age, I picked them up again and I have just had a full one man show here in Greenwich earlier this year. I read some excellent books and researched the issues with collections, curation, offshore freeports and the machinations of millionaires.
The play’s premise about a missing masterpiece and a circle of people under suspicion has an intriguing mystery at its core. How did you balance the thriller element with the play’s commentary on art and greed?
I followed the characters. The artist-in-residence (a young black woman from South East London) becomes a victim of these hyper rich people. Each has his or her own agenda. The dealer and curator are all bound up in Art Speak and much of the back and forth between them is subtle jousting over figures. They also get to mansplain a lot of the art world to our Artist. The 2nd wife is seemingly above all this, but is also in the frame to be patronized by one and all. The collector is a bombastic tyrant who think he knows and loves Art, but of course, it’s all about the money and prestige. Theme I think, should be an undercurrent, never obvious. Audiences are smart. They get it.
As both writer and director, how did your dual role shape the development of Private View? Did one perspective ever challenge or enhance the other during rehearsals?
We haven’t got to full rehearsals yet so I will let you know. We have had live readings and we did perform this a year ago in Kilburn for Player Playwrights. The feedback enabled me to re-write and add another half hour of meaty stuff, plus more twists. I work as a writer first and foremost. The intention of the dialogue, the implied back stor(ies), the whole sense and arc of character ought to be there on the page. Then, if you cast it right – and I hope I have – the actual directing should principally be about blocking, technicalities and presentation. Questions about motivation and intent can be worked on once it is ‘up on its feet’.
You’ve written novels, television dramas, and shorter plays. What was most different or challenging about creating your first full-length stage play?
I find it a relief. I like minimal locations and staging within the Aristotelian Unity of Action. It is of course a lot shorter than a novel, which will take a year to write and edit, and the format (I keep stage directions simple) is great because you are focussing so much on character, plot and action. I find of late that plays, movies and Streaming series are being stretched out way beyond their necessary running times. This is most likely for financial reasons, but I so often abandon a TV series as it’s clearly treading water. With the play I wanted it to be the right length and no more. That, in this case, is 90 minutes. I also like films that are under the two-hour mark. I want to entertain not indulge.
The play’s tagline suggests illusion and perception. What do you hope audiences will take away about truth and value, both in art and in people?
As an artist, I know that we/they are mostly concerned with technique, with how to do something. What are the materials and how do I use them? Oil paint is incredibly hard to use and yet so versatile. The artists who made the world’s masterpieces were learning on the job, in candlelit rooms, with hogshair brushes, turpentine and pigment, on sized canvases or wooden panel. Sure, they had patrons, but it was always about the work. We are today living in a Hyper commercialized society where ideas of value and truth are far too fluid. Like Gold, Art is considered the finest commodity you can own, for legacy, for investment, for any number or reasons that seem to escape the mega rich. If I can expose any of these motivations then I will have done my job.
How can you see the show and buy tickets? Please put a link in the article.
The link is in the top of the article – where it says Tickets are here.