In Conversation with Briony Dunn | The Machine Stops

In today's Backstage Blog, we spoke to esteemed theatre director Briony Dunn, who is returning to Theatre Works this month to direct her new adaptation of E.M Forster's The Machine Stops, playing at Theatre Works August 22-30.

Q: 'The book that predicted the internet' is what many people might know about this story. What do people not know about this story?

A: ‘The book that predicted the internet’ sounds like a marketing ploy. But it’s true. 

In the novella Forster used technology from 1909 and predicted the way it might evolve towards an efficient use in the future. And he’s pretty spot on. He writes about messaging tubes through which they speak to their friends, friendships that are sustained only through these messaging tubes. They can direct message each other, or speak in groups, like chat rooms. They make video calls through a round plate they hold in their hands. They've never met their ‘innumerable’ friends in person, yet rely on them and the ideas they exchange to feel connected.  Finding the next best ‘idea’ is of great importance, and so people listen to and give lectures. But the lectures feel deified, like the TedX10 talks that are easily digestible and provide a quick dopamine hit of today. 

And in an even more eerily forwards step in our future, they’re fearful of leaving their rooms, of being touched, of the ‘direct experience’ that occurs when living life not through the messaging tubes and screen.

Q: In what ways does it stay faithful to the original work, and what ways does it differ?

A: Forster created a world where people live isolated in their own room for most of their life. In both the novella and the adaptation humanity has had to move below ground. I had to find what was theatrical about that subterranean world. 

My initial fascination with life within this singular space was the sense of timelessness implied by that. Which led me to ask questions such as, how do we shift perception of the audience's experience of time? Stillness is one way through this. The greater the stillness, the more movement we’re able to see in the body, and then hear in our own thoughts. We’re asking audiences to consider their own existence within that new space and new time. 

Forster provided a clear narrative structure in the novella, but he also was jumping back and forth along timelines. So whilst we follow the linear journey of two characters, we experience an almost omnipotent world that traverses decades, centuries or longer. 

Forster provides two very clear characters and a challenging relationship between them. But he has woven a feeling of disconnection between them, and in the theatre we long for personal connection. So in the adaptation I had to find ways to personalise these characters. To create idiosyncrasies and build personal history to enable points of empathy.

Forster refers to this personal connection as the actual experience of being and seeing through your own eyes, rather than through a device, through a message tube and through a machine or through a lecture. In the novella he purposely leant into that. In the stage adaptation I had to find moments to overcome that. 

Q: What struck you about this text as theatrical, and what drew me to adapting it?

A: I’m a big fan of E.M Forster’s novels. So when researching him a couple of years ago, and coming across his novella set underground I was very excited. It spoke to my love of apocalyptic worlds, and a need to explore stories of tensions between individuals and their domineering societies.  

Even though Forster wrote the piece in response to the damaging effects on humanity by the Industrial Revolution, it speaks directly to our contemporary existence in the dawning of this Digital Age. 

AI as a technology both excites and threatens our concept of existence and what it is to be human. It feels like we have evolved this human-seeming entity, which feels like an uncanny existential threat. But I’m not concerned about the myths of what AI is or will be. If the programmers I know and have researched aren’t concerned about that, then I’m not. AI doesn’t actually think the way the myths endow it to be able to think. It’s still just computing and code. 

However what I am scared of is how we allow ourselves to be subsumed within the technology AI runs on. I’m concerned about the machine itself, and it’s increasing capacity (pushed by business) to weave itself into the way we live, create and dial in, at an alarming rate. 

But it’s not too late. We can choose to ignore the micro-dopamine hits the machine gives us. We can choose to be in our own flow rather than the rhythm of the machine. We still have the choice to unplug. To only use the tech for actual purpose and real connection. But to spend less hours of our day subsumed by the machine. And then to push back against the business’s making money from us being plugged in. 

Q: What will surprise people about the work and what has been one of the most memorable moments of the process so far? 

A: One very surprising part of the work is how theatrical it is. The way we’ve adapted it is truly a work of theatre. Theatre is a time art and so can explore time and space in a way a novel cannot. 

In terms of what's been most memorable, there have been many as with all projects, but hearing the two actors bring the play to life in the first read through was scintillating - knowing we were embarking upon something that was it’s own unique piece. Working with two of Melbourne's finest actors, Mary Helen Sassman and Patrick Livesey is where it’s at! Their generosity, work ethic and capacity to play is what creating work for the stage is about. There was a real pull from all of us towards the work, and it was compelling to feel that initial lure together in the room. 

Working with the design team on such a complex piece has been exciting. Trying to figure out if the Machine is driving the humans or if the humans are driving the Machine can fill an hour of discussion. It’s a technically challenging piece, and I'm blessed to be building it with this team of exceptional artists.

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The Machine Stops plays at Theatre Works August 22-30.

Click here to get your tickets!