Seizing the Little House Arena at Latitude, Christopher Brett-Bailey’s latest show gets off to a rocky start. Running almost half an hour late (in what has otherwise been a very tightly orchestrated festival), the audience wait confusedly outside. Eventually, we are admitted inside and Christopher explains the problem. His show is designed to be played at 120 decibels; at that volume, you would be able to hear it at all other stages on the Festival site: the organisers are having second thoughts. Before there is any time to really contemplate this, a steward marches through the crowd hurling neon ear plugs and Christopher proudly declares that they are going to do it anyway until “the Narcs shut us down”.
David Mercatali’s star seems to forever shine even brighter with every production he works on. 5 years ago, Mecatali was nominated for an Evening Standard Award for Outstanding Newcomer and has gone on to fulfil the Award’s championing of his work to stage pieces that get audiences talking. In 2013, he went on to win a Fringe First Award for his staging of Dark Vanilla Jungle and subsequently went on to be nominated for Off West End Awards in 2011 and 2014. Having also worked with theatre’s most exciting talents, Mercatali shows no signs of slowing down. Ahead of his staging of Tess Berry-Hart’s Cargo soon to show at the Arcola Theatre, Theatrefullstop were luck enough to speak with the award winning director about the show!