Interview with James Seager.

Before the opening of The House with Chicken Legs at the Southbank Centre I managed to catch up with Co-Director James Seager who started by explaining where his interest for the story came from.

My daughter had read the book at school and mentioned it to me at the exact time that my business partner Oli had also heard about it from his writing agent – so it seemed like it was written in the stars! And then when I actually read it I knew that we were the right company to bring it to life due to the themes and beautiful imagery and storytelling – I simply loved the book!

What other work have you co-directed with Oliver Lansley before?

Oh quite a lot really! We’ve co-directed many stage shows together for our company Les Enfants Terribles like The Terrible Infants, The Marvellous Imaginary Menagerie, The Infant and then large scale immersive shows like our Olivier nominated show Alice’s Adventures Underground.

Seeing the costumes at the press launch I thought they were impressive. What did you think about them when you first saw them?

I loved them – we worked closely with designer Sam Wyer to foster the idea of Eastern European folklore that the book is so heavily influenced by. I knew Sam would get the inspiration and ideas from the book and capture that sense of otherworldliness, romance and strangeness!

Were you surprised with the success you have already had with The House of Chicken Legs?

To be honest no (!) – which sounds quite big headed but it’s not because I knew all the elements were brilliant that didn’t come from me! The music written by Alexander Wolfe is simply beautiful and makes me cry every time I hear it, the set design by Jasmine Swann is fantastic and captivating, the script adaptation by Oli Lansley is amazing and truly captures the essence of the book, the puppets and costume by Sam Wyer are magical and the video design is so creative from Nina Dunn. If you add 6 brilliant actors to that mix then it would take a real idiot director to mess up that magic mix! You of course as a director you harbour that responsibility but it’s such a head start when you are working with such a talented group of people working at the top of their game.

What challenges have you faced bringing this production to the stage?

How do you bring to life a house that runs and has chicken legs! That is the biggest one I think. Also the fact that the house is in multiple locations which for the stage is always tricky. Without giving too much away I think Jaz has created a wonderful versatile set that answers those issues!

What role has author Sophie Anderson played in the production of this play?

She has simply been amazing! So supportive – we couldn’t have asked for a better person to be connected with. It was very scary taking this on – her baby! But she trusted us and also didn’t want to read the script until she saw it on stage which was very very scary. But thankfully she loved it and continues to come and watch it as many times as she can and also post about it on socials all the time! Very very supportive!

Where would you like to see this production go next?

Good question! I’d love this to transfer to the West end or Broadway – it’s a brand new large scale musical so I’d love for it to be seen by as many people as possible. It’s funny, moving, magical, inventive and fundamentally a great story for all ages.