5 Questions with Murray Lachlan Young
Hi Murray, Atom & Luna are part of Leicester's SPARK festival for families this half term. So first question when I say Leicester what springs to mind?
Ah Leicester yes! Well the big thing I remember is shortly after leaving University in Salford a friend and I were 'on tour' promoting a game called Pass the Pigs - in Student Unions all across the country. The promotion involved us playing Pass the Pigs with giant rubber pigs (whilst the audience played with the standard dice sized pigs). Half way through the proceeding the drunken Leicester rugby team stole one of our giant pigs and we had to pursue them through the streets of Leicester to reclaim our pig! In the end we had to bribe them with free copies of Pass the Pig to get our giant pig back!
Coming right back to today Atom & Luna is part of a fantastic SPARK family arts festival. Aside from Atom & Luna (of course) what has caught your eye in that programme?
Well of course I'd want to give a big shout out to fellow poet John Berkavitch but his performances were totally sold out! As Atom and Luna Chronicle One are audio tales, I'm also going to be checking out Mountain Goat Mountain (not least because I love Australia and I have some very fond memories of touring there). I'll also be checking out The Girl of Ink and Stars as it sounds fantastic - and we have some interesing ideas for another schools project with similar themes.
And I think I should get all the Funnelwick Limb team together to do a bit of Sofa Acrobatics!!
What have you most enjoyed about creating Atom & Luna?
So much to say here - but if I were to boil it down to just two things I'd say first of all the sheer creative joy of being able to allow a small idea to grow into something which is of epic proportions. And secondly I love collaborating with others - as a writer and poet I often work alone - so to be working with such a fabulous creative team, pooling all those ideas and energy into one epic story is a real thrill. So big shout out to Nina Hajiyianni (Director), Bek Palmer (Designer and Illustrator), Paul Hartnoll (Composer) and MBD Ltd (AR Designer).
It must be weird to be thinking about your digital creations going off 'on tour' when you can’t. Post-pandemic what are your hopes for the future - both for you and Atom & Luna?
Ironically we should have been on tour right now! Our previous collaboration The Mystery of the Raddlesham Mumps would’ve been at Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough as I write! Of course I'm missing live touring, and the buzz you get when you share work in front of a live audience (especially family audiences) - and I cant wait to be back to it.
That said we have always been interested in the different ways you can tell stories to audiences. Live is a big part of that - but so are books and increasingly so is digital. So with Atom and Luna its been great to experiment with AR story telling. I like to think of it as Hans Christian Anderson meets Pokemon in your own home!! Whats not to like!
As to the future of Atom and Luna! Well we are already working towards a live outdoor performance, and before then we're hoping to release another series of audio tales - so do sign up to our newsletter at funnelwicklimb.com to be the first to hear whats next!
So you've just mentioned that you have started telling the story in Augmented Reality through Chronicle 2 - Quest for Old Mother Redbeard. If you were to sum up Quest for Old Mother Redbeard in a couple of sentances what would you say?
Oh wow - thats a biggie ...how about
- a perfect non home schooling treat
- an interactive fairy tale for all the family 5+
- where (as I said before) Hans Christian Andersson meets Pokemon Go
- and something you can play for free through your phone or tablet and see a mystical world appear on your own kitchen table.
Quest for Old Mother Redbeard is available free of charge to download here
https://funnelwicklimb.com/listen-watch-play
And sign up to listen to Tales from the Forest (Chronicle 1 of The Atom and Luna Chronicles) at The SPARK ARTS WEBSITE here
https://thesparkarts.co.uk/events/122823/tales-from-the-forest
