Stockholm Resource Pack - Frantic Assembly

Friends like these
We felt it was important that Todd and Kali could be our
friends. It would be detrimental to the production to
simplify the situation and merely dismiss the couple as
rowing trash. We want you to feel that you know them
and care for them, that you want them to stop hurting
each other. We also need you to see what they see
in each other and ultimately what makes them return to
each other just when it looked like one of them
might leave.
This is the continual question to people in abusive
relationships - 'why do you go back why don't you just
leave' I have already talked about how the couple
mention love and how we wanted to be true to their
words and not dismiss them. Our task was to make the
love palpable, to make the attraction palpable and to
make their situation complicated by this real love. If they
are our friends then this situation becomes frustrating,
infuriating, tragic and utterly human. If Todd and Kali are
not our friends then they are just idiots who will bring
about their own destruction. They are not the kind of
people we would take the time to care about.
The theatrical implications are clear and massive.
Samuel James and Georgina Lamb
Photo Scott Graham
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