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Behind the Scenes with Sara Conkey, producer of Hinterlands
Interview conducted by Johanna Zorn
> Hinterlands is very different from documentary work being produced in
the U.S. in the way that it intertwines interviews with radio drama. How does
the production of a piece like this begin?
It actually began with the writer Sarah Woods and myself taking a walk in a
park. We had been talking about working together for some time, but without any
idea how that might happen. As we were approaching my home, I said: "Actually
what I'd really like to do is a programme about death. I'd like to talk to
three women about their experiences of grief." I had never heard a program on
this subject. Sarah got very excited about how she could write a drama around
it. We went inside and wrote up a proposal there and then.
> What drew you to producing a program on death and women's experiences
of mourning?
I had never heard a programme that explored grief.
> How did you collaborate with the playwright to design the dramatic
story?
I did the interviews first, and everything grew from that. Sarah Woods then
started working on selecting and ordering the interview material, and we had
long conversations throughout about what to keep and what to lose. For example
we kept all the emotional content, but lost repetition. We lost details of the
broader families’ reaction, because that would have made the stories too
complicated.
> What is the relationship between the real-life stories of the people
who talk about the deaths of a son, husband and mother to the dramatic story?
We were very aware that, unlike pure drama, we were dealing with real people
with real feelings. We consulted the interviewees at each stage along the way,
and also showed them the final script. They were very generous, and gave us
free rein to create characters as we chose. The characters are based on the
loved ones they lost, but they also serve a dramatic function, exploring what
they need to let go of in life, before they can leave the hinterland they find
themselves in.
> What do you think would have been lost if the production had been
based on the interviews alone and had omitted the dramatic aspect?
Hinterlands has an otherworldly, almost spiritual feel to it, for me, because
we are able to explore that "otherworldly" place, beyond time. I think the
programme without the drama would have been more prosaic, less poetic. I loved
the idea of the dead communicating with the living, although the living
couldn't hear them.
> And how did you work with the actors to create the effect you were
looking for?
Claire Grove, the director, worked with the actors. The idea was to get as
naturalistic performances as possible, to blur the line between fact and
fiction.
> What is the benefit to the piece and to the audience of blurring "the
line between fact and fiction?"
I think it stimulates the imagination. It helps us to listen to fact in a
different way — it opens up possibilities. I think what I hope will happen is
that the brain will try to listen to the programme as a documentary, then as a
drama, and will finally give up and listen to the piece as a whole.
> What is the best setting in which to listen to Hinterlands?
It aired in England at 9 p.m. at night, which I think is a good time to listen
to it. It does need a little quiet, time and attention. I know one friend who
listened to it on her Walkman as she was running! I recommend people to lie in
a dark room and listen to it with a glass of whiskey.
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