An exciting site responsive project is well underway in Plymouth this month as Listed Theatre celebrate Plymouth's modern history and heritage with their 'play in a pool'. 

Artistic director, Jessica Manley talks about Listed Lido.

Tell us about Listed Theatre and Listed Lido.

Listed Theatre makes performances based on, and performed in the buildings and spaces that make up our community. 

In 2009 we began work to develop a performance piece, exploring and celebrating the history of Broomhill Pool, a derelict lido in Ipswich, Suffolk and the campaign to save it.  Out of this work grew a research project, which led us to discover the rich legacy of lidos nationwide.  

This Summer Listed Theatre will be performing at Tinside Lido in Plymouth, celebrating the iconic Seaside Lido and using the play as a platform to question why similar lidos have been closed. To devise the show we have been collecting the stories of Tinside Lido, from their fortitude during the blitz, to the first ever bikinis, these magnificent pools saw generations of teenagers showing off (some in the well-known Tinside beauty pageants) and trained swimmers to brave the channel.   

The project seems strongly associated with the community surrounding Tinside Lido. What made you want to celebrate this community? 

For this years performance of LISTED LIDO we wanted to make the show about a sea front pool and as lots of the company are originally from the South West it made perfect sense to devise the show about Tinside Lido. 

Tinside Lido is an iconic landmark and is often referred to as the Big Ben of Plymouth. Along with its hometown it has had a tumultuous history and although it is currently open and thriving it was closed for many years before recently receiving a £3.4m facelift.  Plymouth has also been the subject of mass regeneration ever since the World War II, when the integrity of the city’s layout was changed drastically by horrendous bombing.  

How do you hope the community to participate?

 The show is devised from scratch so as a starting point we have been researching the history of the pool and meeting with different people in Plymouth whose stories will either inspire the work or be used more directly as dialogue between characters. So far we have been talking with: the ladies & gentleman at Elspeth Age Concern who talked with us at length about Tinside, the Barbican and the war years; members of the Devonport Swimming Association who have given us the inside scoop into the history of the club, Chris Robinson a cherished Plymouth artist, broadcaster and prolific historian, and of course the dynamic Kevin Kelway and members of the Tinside Lido Action Group who were essential to the pools regeneration and re-opening in 2005. 

How have you approached the topic through your process so far? 

To begin with in the interviews we were looking only to talk with the people who had experience of Tinside, but we quickly realized that most swimming groups associated with the lido had long ago been disbanded or that people could not remember as far back as the lido’s opening. We decided to change our tactics and began asking more general questions to get a more varied perspective of swimming and Plymouth in general. 

We have begun exploring ways to build on these interviews in rehearsals, working them into our improvisations so that eventually the real life stories will fit in and adapt to make up the whole of LISTED LIDO. 

What were the reasons to approach the project using a devised process?  

As our work is both site-specific and more importantly, site-responsive it is essential that the venue (in this case Tinside Lido) is the star and author of the show. Crafting the production from scratch allows the director (Suzy Catliff) and cast (Joseph Carey, Helen Clapp, Georgina Landau, Sam Miller, Melanie Tanneau and Michael Woodman) to take inspiration from visiting and enjoying the pool whilst conversing directly with those who have more experience and stronger opinions about it. While we've endeavored to enter the rehearsal process fully armed and ready with material, the process of research and interaction with the community will never be over. The beauty of a devised piece is changes can be made up to and even during the performances! 

Has the devised approach uncovered anything you hadn't expected? 

We didn't realize just how much Plymouth has adapted and evolved over the years. From 1935 when Tinside Lido was built in a beautiful and booming Plymouth to its near destruction after the horrendous bombing runs in World War II, and finally in it's remarkable rebirth from the rubble in the years following.  

More so than anything we've been struck by the unbounded enthusiasm of the Plymouthians. We hoped locals would find this project as interesting as we had while conceptualizing it, but the positive response has truly blown us away. We can't stress enough how thankful we are to the community for being so forth coming with their experiences, both humorous and staid. The vote of confidence we've received from the local council, educational institutions, theatres and the general public has given the means for this play to be of the artist standard we're now proud to boast is in development. Entering the rehearsal room each morning has been a delight knowing we're working on a play not only made up of the oral history of Plymouth but also backed by universal support from locals.  

The tales of Tinside Lido and history of Plymouth richly informs the universal human condition, in showing our capacity to heal, forgive and grow. In supporting the worthy body of these memories we are calling on the epic tradition of Greek Myth as a narrative skeleton.  

What is using such a unique performance space like? 

Tinside Lido is as unique a performance space as you could ever hope to find! To make sure we are filling the space and using everything it has to offer the management of the pool has kindly allowed us as many site visits as needed and the freedom to document the site in detail through photography and video. Having these references to take back to rehearsals (at the TR2 & Barbican Theatre) has been invaluable. It's definitely a big challenge but the burden is quickly alleviated with our daily post rehearsal swims.  

Will the performance be transferable to a different city or a different Lido?  

Yes, the idea of LISTED LIDO is to build a bespoke script each year out of last years show (already we are using parts of the script for last year based on Broomhill Pool for this years play). The nature of LISTED LIDO means we can only perform during the Summer, like this year we would spend the run up to the Summer researching each pool and interviewing the surrounding community then develop a bespoke script for each pool in our tour.

Listed Lido open at Tinside Lido on 30th July at 8pm.

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