Open Borders

The director's art, human emotion and the role of the theatre in modern society: KATIE MITCHELL gives Clare Fisher her take

A lampshade which comprises a plastic bag with a picture of a chandelier on it; wooden floorboards and a toddler bouncing on a small trampoline. This was the scene that greeted me as I entered Katie Mitchell's flat. As I made myself comfortable, I found it hard to believe that this was the director who has so divided critics; some hail her work as pertinent and innovatory, while others accuse her of distorting playwrights' intentions beyond all recognition. Her recent productions of Chekov's The Seagull, Virginia Woolf's The Waves and Euripedes's Women of Troy received plenty of attention from pundits on both sides of the divide.

The tussle over Mitchell's work is ostensibly centred on her editing of classical texts, her elevation of the visual above the textual, and, most recently, her use of multimedia. Yet not long after I'd arrived at her flat, the intended minimalism of which was somewhat compromised by the smattering of toys being spread around the floor by her two-year-old daughter, it became clear that much more was at stake. Through talking to Mitchell it emerged that the reactions to her work are representative of much broader tensions within the British theatre, tensions over how it should change to meet the needs of modern audiences.

Mitchell seems very much on the side of reaching out to new audiences, of innovation. She applauded the National Theatre's recent efforts to expand its horizons by introducing more cheap tickets, new writing and work for young people. "It has given us a balanced diet. It has done the right thing - the tradition archetype shouldn't make up 80%".

Katie's interest in visual modes of communication has meant that she has been a key part of this "opening up". She mentions that her recent production of The Waves, which incorporated a range of multimedia effects, had attracted an unusually young audience. "The younger generation is more flexible and literate with images...our language has to shift away from language. People standing in naturalistic scenery and talking isn't going to do it for young people."

This bemused me. Why should young people be more responsive to imagery than old people? Mitchell thinks that it's due to the proliferation of advertising, film and the internet. "Capitalism is driven by image. Modes of communication are becoming more visual but it is a basic human principle; communication has always involved lots of physical information." She tells me, whilst balancing her two-year-old daughter on her knee and drawing a picture for her, that her visual-centric multimedia work has been received more enthusiastically on the continent than in the UK.

The reason for this became clearer once Mitchell began talking about the training of young directors. "In the UK there are fewer opportunities to train as a director than on the continent. It is assumed that either you have the gift or you haven't when really it should be treated as a craft that you get better at, like making a bespoke table."

Her description of the director's craft as making a bespoke table highlights her appreciation for the practical, which has spawned a lively interest in the science of human emotions. "A lot of a director's craft is reconstructing emotions so that the audience can feel them. As a way of thinking, neurological science appeals to me. We have a very vague and woolly notion of emotion in our culture. It is important, particularly for actors, to realise that emotion is very physical change. There is something very reassuring about a brain scan." She likes to keep up to date with developments in the biology of emotions: "I think that this century they are going to scan the brain and the soul is going to flash up."

When we finally got onto the subject of the bouncy girl on her knee, it became clear how closely the physical and the cerebral, the transcendental and the ephemeral, the practical and the ideological, were tossed together in her work. When asked about the effect that having Edie has had, Mitchell replied: "It's like someone has removed a layer of your skin so you're much more sensitive - there is less to insulate you from the world. I think that my work has become more humanised as a result." As with the aesthetics of her flat, Katie’s vision is a curious mix of idealism and a very human reality.

Clare Fisher is a second-year undergraduate studying history at Exeter college. Clare is deputy editor of The Oxford Forum.