Inside The Three Kings Rehearsal Room

Published on 27th October 2018.

We catch up with Craig Edwards (Director) and Saikat Ahamed (Writer In The Room) about our sparkling new family show; touring schools and venues this winter.

Three Kings is Travelling Light’s latest fully devised Christmas family show, can you describe it in Three Words?

Craig: Stories, love, sharing.

Where did the idea for the show come from?

Craig: We wanted to make a show that celebrated storytelling because that is what Travelling Light are about: telling great stories. The classic story of the Maji, or ‘Three Kings’ came to mind, so we started researching and investigating and we discovered they weren’t actually kings. They were astronomers from different continents, people who read the stars, and found stories in the skies.

What made you want to tell this story at wintertime?

Craig: There’s something special about this time of year, when friends, loved ones and sometimes complete strangers come together on a cold night and share food and space and stories. There’s a warmth and open-hearted feeling, it might not be there at the start, but that’s part of the magic: you make it happen just by being there.  That’s the kind of story we wanted to tell.

You’ve cast three women in a show called ‘Three Kings’, whose idea was that?

Craig: We auditioned lots of actors, the three best ones for Three Kings happened to be three women. So then the question was “how do these women tell these stories” and “what kind of stories do they want to tell?”. In rehearsals we discovered that the Three Kings are actually figures who have changed our stargazing characters’ lives forever. That’s the great thing about devising, the cast are part of shaping the story, of course the story shapes the casting too but when you’re working on a devised show it feels like a more reciprocal relationship.

The Three Kings follows three strangers from different cultures, who meet and discover something which unites them. Why do you think it’s important to tell a story like this now?

Saikat: We are living in the age of displacement. While this has always been part of our history, it seems to have gripped our times with a savage ferocity. It is easy to get caught up in headlines and statistics and forget that every person who moves from one land to another, for whatever reason, has a story to tell. I felt it was important to come up with a show that both celebrates different cultures and lets us see that there is more that unites us than divides us.

Like following a star?

Craig: There are thousands of stories about stars in British folklore and cultures from all over the world. It’s not that surprising when you think about it: if you look up, anywhere in the world at night, we’re all looking at the same sky.

So Three Kings is a show for everyone, but is it a Christmas show?

Saikat: While it could be enjoyed at any time of the year, as the title suggests, there certainly is a festive connection. It’s not dissimilar to mince pies in that respect.

Three Kings tours to schools and community venues around Bristol, to audiences of primary schools in residential homes in North Somerset with Theatre Orchard and theatres around the UK. For more information about dates and tickets visit our shows page.