Below is my interview with the duo behind Falling Iguana. Falling Iguana is a physical theatre company. What is physical theatre, and how does it manifest in your work? There are elements of that, but we consider physical theatre to be present in all types of theatre. Physical theatre explores bodily movement in ways that enhance the story.
We use movement to reveal what a character is really thinking versus what they say. We also use movement to build the world. In both of our plays, we jump around to different cities and timelines. We think using broader movement helps the audience go on that journey with us. It makes for great comedy as well! Both plays have a lot of comedy, and we think it comes through because of that physicality. Could you describe the experience of taking a stage production and translating it for a digital space, all while working within your living room?
You can expand and collapse your movement to fit whatever space you are in. When we found out we were going to be performing from our living room, we decided to reshape the piece from the perspective of a film. We thought it would be fun if the camera was an additional character in our story.
We decided what we wanted to share and not share with the camera. We also played with scale and forced perspective. At one point, I used the wall as though it was the ground. Do you have a background in film and operating a camera, or was that new for you?
Higgins: We have experience in front of the camera. Ian Ottis Goff: I have worked on films as an actor and a member of crew. As theatre creators, you are always thinking about what the audience sees. We thought a lot about what does it look like from this angle? If we move the camera like this, what does it feel like? Did the experience lead to any discoveries? Goff: The amount of eyeballs we got on it. A theatre is only so big, meaning you can only fit so many people inside.
