A full choir, live orchestra and a huge professional and non-professional ensemble cast drawn from the fertile talent reserves of the South West: Joe Spurgeon speaks to some of the creative team behind Bristol Old Vic/Colston Hall’s epic collaborative Christmas show, ‘Coram Boy’.

“When I read it again recently – and I’ve read it a lot – I was immediately ensnared. It’s a very compelling story that tells you more about yourself and other people than contemporary plays set now, in the today, do. It has a huge sense of family – all the complexities, pain, compassion, conflict and difficulties – I’ve always been drawn to it.”

Melly Still, director of the Bristol Old Vic’s Christmas show, ‘Coram Boy’, has had a long relationship with Jamelia Gavin’s epic, emotion-flushed historical novel, having directed the show’s original (highly successful) incarnation at the National Theatre and its subsequent stint on Broadway between 2005 and 2007.

The tale, which weaves together several people, events and places from the past is a monumentally multi-themed affair that uses the life and work of composer George Handel (born to a family wholly indifferent to his musical impulses) and the London-based Foundling Hospital set up by sea-faring philanthropist Thomas Coram for the “education and maintenance of exposed and deserted young children”. With a plot that pits two abandoned boys into a very unforgiving world, there’s a gothic, almost Dickensian feel to the ensuing tale of kindness, compassion, reunion and tragedy.

“I didn’t know about Thomas Coram until I read Jamelia’s book,” continues Still, “It’s such an extraordinary tale and gives a strong sense of things still going on today – babies are left unwanted or grow up in difficult circumstances or are trafficked or sold. These are difficult things you can’t always talk about when there’s too much reality; ‘Coram Boy’ is set apart from today so is immediately ‘unreal’, which allows you to really explore certain truths. It feels very real to people, whereas if it was more contemporary in terms of its time and place, it might superficially be more identifiable, but it would have less impact. It’s an interesting difference between what is ‘real’ and ‘true’.”

“It’s also got the heart of the West Country,” continues Bristol Old Vic’s artistic director Tom Morris, who was also on board during ‘Coram Boy’’s initial London run. “Jamelia Gavin lives in Stroud, it’s set in the 18th century when the Bristol Old Vic was built and Bristol was a major trading port. Just as importantly, the production itself is owned by the community – children [and adults] from all over Bristol and Bath will form the choir, we have local musicians, non-professionals, producers and crew all working alongside a core professional cast. It profoundly belongs to this city and this region.”

And the reason for that? “One of our priorities at the Old Vic is to engage the creative community of Bristol without compromising quality; we’ve done that here – the cast is a double-A cast and would work anywhere, it just so happens that a lot of them are local. All we’ve done is make a commitment to including local artists in the work we produce and lo and behold we find that Bristol is sitting on a goldmine of acting talent.

“We are indeed finding the silver lining in having our main house closed for refurbishment, in that it has given us the opportunity to connect this theatre with the city in a much more comprehensive way than it had been previously. ‘Coram Boy’ fits into a pattern of work that included building a theatre in the street for ‘Treasure Island’ and taking [cult folk tale theatre company] Kneehigh to St George’s… we want to remind people that the theatre belongs to them.”

Having such a large, partly non-professional cast, as well as locating the production away from the traditional Bristol Old Vic HQ will undoubtedly bring challenges, especially for a play already widely known and burdened with a certain expectation to shine. Morris is bullish regardless: “Bringing together a company of this scale and complexity is a huge challenge, especially to balance the sound of the spoken word with the orchestra and a choir, but there’s something that happens when you combine professionals with non-professionals, and as you engage with the complexity of it all, the thrill of achieving it becomes contagious. It’s going to be very, very powerful. Some people like a huge emotional story, some people like a huge musical experience at Christmas – this connects with both. My sense is that it really will be something that people talk about in Bristol for years to come.”

13-year-old Finn Lacey, head boy chorister at Wells Cathedal School, plays the part of musical protégé Aaron (you may also have seen him pop up during Theatre Royal Bath’s huge community production of ‘Ben Hur’ in 2010 as a young Judah Ben Hur) and will be partly responsible for driving both the show’s story and musical elements.

“The rehearsals so far have been good. All the young people in the show are really getting to know each other – it’s a mixture of the Bristol Old Vic Youth Theatre and those of us who are new. What does it mean to us to be in a production like ‘Coram Boy’? All I know is that it's weird to see leaflets and posters for it everywhere in Bristol. I think people who see it will find it heart-warming and full of Christmas spirit. Do I think people will cry? Maybe old ladies…

“The story of [my character] Aaron means a lot to me. I have found being a chorister hard sometimes, but it is the best thing I have ever done. Last December, Wells Cathedral Choir was voted the best choir with children in the world by Gramophone magazine. We went on tour to The Hague. I didn’t want to go, but it was brilliant. What did we sing? ‘The Messiah’, of course!”

With such talent to hand, it’s hard to imagine ‘Coram Boy’ won’t tug at a fair few festive heartstrings, and indeed, with BOV’s 2010 Xmas adventure ‘Swallows and Amazons’ bound for the National Theatre, shows like the BOV-hosted ‘Boing!’ heading to London’s prestigious Sadler’s Wells Theatre, not to mention the continued breadth of artists flocking to the Tobacco Factory, Theatreland Bristol remains in rather rude health.

“I’ve been here for two years now and just about every week I discover something new and extraordinary about the cultural life and cultural potential of Bristol,” agrees Morris. “I keep meeting artists who are moving here or coming here to make work and people outside Bristol are beginning to understand what an extraordinarily vigorous cultural offering we have. As we’re starting to connect better, we’re on the brink of uncovering what the city could be: not just by making good shows, but by becoming a place where the city’s economic capacity is intimately connected to the city’s cultural strength.

“I saw a show called ‘Swamp Juice’ earlier this year, made by a Canadian called Jeff [Achtem], it was one of the most extraordinary things I saw at the Edinburgh Festival. Totally amazing. It has 3D shadow puppetry which few people have ever seen, and you just wouldn’t believe it’s possible. We wanted to bring him here but we were told he wasn’t available. Eventually I tracked him down in Montreal, and I said could I come and see him as it just happened that I was going to be in Canada shortly; again, I was told no, because he was making his new show in, hang on… yes, he’s making it in Bristol. He didn’t know about Bristol Old Vic, the Tobacco Factory, the Cube, Arnolfini, he’d just been to Bristol and decided this was the right kind of environment to come to, at his own expense, to make his new show. It’s absolutely nuts… trust me, there’s something in the water here.”

CORAM BOY RAN FROM 21-30 DEC AT THE COLSTON HALL, BRISTOL. FOR REVIEW CLICK HERE.

Copyright Joe Spurgeon 2011/Pics copyright Farrow Creative 2011