Interview by AMBRE PLUTA / photography by CLAIRE YUBIN
When Hila decided to direct a play in Michaelmas Term, she had yet to even join the Drama Society. Her first introduction to the society was thus directing Chekhov’s Three Sisters. “I was really lucky; the Drama Society committee is amazing. From the get-go, they were so encouraging!” Hila noted that both Lara Pender (the President) and Harriet Shaw (the Secretary) were immensely helpful and made sure Hila could do this on her own.
Hila had first dabbled in the dramatic arts when she was younger and then during the International Baccalaureate. However, it had always been as an actor and never as a director. Before tackling the Three Sisters, Hila didn’t know what she was getting into. She wanted to adapt Chekhov’s play to modern-day London. Hence, her biggest concern was how to adapt a play which is so fixed in its context: a small Russian provincial village in the 19th century.
A century of prior productions made staging Chekhov’s play daunting. It seemed impossible to tell a unique perspective that developed our understanding of Three Sisters, while also making it inclusive and diverse. Hila was also intent on using the script to talk about modern topics and modern concerns. “I believe the anguish and need for change expressed through Chekhov’s characters can resonate with us all in a time of great uncertainty.”
Hila’s intention in directing the play as a modern-day interpretation stemmed from her interest in activism through the arts. “I think it’s such an important political tool and I really wanted to do something with it.” Thus, she emphasised the play’s political message. For example, the theme of class divide is accentuated; some characters had posh accents and others did not. Hila’s adaptation also references current struggles such as the cost of living crisis, the struggles of living in a post-Covid world, and characters struggling to find jobs. A final theme that Hila was intent on portraying was climate change. “I work for a climate education NGO and a lot of the work that I do with them is based on how we can use the arts to do climate action education.” Thus, Hila introduced an overarching motif of an unsettled environment. She did so through the use of audio clips to transition through the acts, with snippets of real-life news stories, such as record highs in the summer wildfires, low temperatures, political unrest, Trump 2024 announcement…
These background transitions showed time passing by. But they also created a contrast with the play’s comedic side. “They’re all laughing and having a good time and joking about Christmas. And then, [there’s] a very stark transition into a news report saying that more than 100 homeless people died this winter, because of lack of support from the Conservative government.” Hila explained that she wanted to make sure that anything that she did and anything that she put out in the world had an impact beyond just entertaining people.
Hila noted that while directing and adapting Chekhov’s play wasn’t an easy task, the spirit and enthusiasm of the cast and tech team made everything somehow work out. This was definitely visible in the final production, and The Beaver reviewed it as “another successful production by the Drama Society”.
What is unique about creative societies is the need for people to bond really fast so as to be productive. Because of this, Hila observed that the Drama Society can come across as “a bit cliquey”. However, the society ended up being a really welcoming environment and the bonding happened naturally as they rehearsed for hours and hours every week.
When casting for the play, Hila was very conscious from the start that she wanted to cast students who were new, be it master’s students or first years. Her intention was to offer people who were new to LSE the chance to join a community of like-minded people, as in a place like LSE “art people” seem very few.
“One of the stipulations with me picking my play was that it had to have a cast of more than 10 people.” The idea was to open up opportunities to as many people as possible, which Hila was really glad about. She feels that in societies such as the Drama Soc, decision processes can get elitist very fast. “In other environments that I’ve been in, it’s always just the same people getting cast, or it’s like a two-person play and only two people get to be involved.” Hila believes that the outlook that the Drama Society has is really good, as they are focused on ensuring that the most people are having fun. She was also happy to see the effort put in by the Drama Society in organising socials for everyone, such as going to see plays, going to the pub or even improv sessions.
Throughout the process of directing the play, Hila felt that one of the biggest obstacles was the lack of support shown by the university. “When I first started directing the play, I had all these different ideas. The biggest hurdle was the lack of funding and the constant problems with bureaucracy.” Hila explained that after facing so many complications, she ended up deciding that all she needed was a sofa for the play. Yet, the Drama Society didn’t get to have a proper sofa on the set and had to use office chairs that they took from the green room next to the Old Theatre. “It felt like all the problems were caused by boundaries based on bureaucracy, which just didn’t make any sense to me.”
Then there were issues with the venues. The two venues that the Drama Society usually uses couldn’t be properly used because of viewings of the World Cup and external events. “For example, the other play [And Then There Were None] had to do their tech weekend three weeks before the performance as external events were prioritised by the Students’ Union to use those spaces because they can make money off of it.”
After facing all of this, Hila finally arrived at the Old Theatre. “It is technically supposed to be a proper theatre, with good lighting, curtains and everything.” Yet, when they arrived for tech weekend, all of the lights were broken apart from two, and one of them didn’t ever turn off. Hila had designed a very simple lighting design for the play, and she accepted that even this wouldn’t be possible. The hardest part was accepting the impossibility of blackouts during the play, which are crucial to drama plays. They came to this realisation only a couple of hours before the dress rehearsal, which was obviously very stressful as they then had to rely on the creative concept of the play to make sure that it worked without the blackouts. “It was really frustrating to me because there are so many people who put so much work into these productions.”
Hila explained that as a second-year this was her first time properly interacting with the Students’ Union. There were a lot of things that she assumed would happen that didn’t end up being true. For example, she had expected a certain amount of publicising coming from the SU, on campus or even just on their Instagram story. Yet, the Drama Society ended up having to do all the publicity work themselves. “I was expecting support for student societies, instead it felt like overbearing bureaucracy. It felt kind of counterintuitive to what the point of those structures is.” Hila explained that it felt particularly frustrating because she felt they were doing something for the students. “We’re doing it for the students, for the staff. It’s great! It shows that students are creative and doing cool things.”
Hila explained that in the face of all of this, what she is the proudest of is the relationships and connections that she made with the cast and the Drama Society. “I think a lot of what had stopped me from getting involved last year was just being really shy and scared, but I wanted to push myself this year and do something that I enjoy and not let that fear stop me.” Hila feels that she’s made some amazing friends and connected with wonderful people whom she would never have known had she not overcome her fears.
Hila believes that if she had to do it all over again, she would have chosen a different play. “Maybe this is a bit controversial, but directing and adapting Chekhov was incredibly hard.” However, there are limitations around choosing plays as societies aren’t well funded. The Drama Society thus has to rely on free plays which do not have active copyright anymore.
Hila explained that as someone who has a lot of different cultural backgrounds and has moved around the world quite a bit, she feels no particular sense of home is attached to a certain place. “I think coming to LSE, I can see how that’s impacted me. For example, doing stuff with the Drama Society, or being involved in The Beaver, it’s creating those mini homes for yourself, in a way.” She felt that her sense of home was simply not connected to a place. Wherever she is, the people she connects with become her home. This is also why she believes that support for the arts is so important as for so many people it is a place to call home. Whether that’s people in the audience or performers, Hila argues that there is a sense of connection that comes from art.
As we reached the end of our conversation, I asked Hila if directing this play had somehow revealed to her what she wanted to pursue in life. “I’ve been asking myself that question. Honestly, I have absolutely no idea. I’m one of those people who have a lot of different interests and then I can’t commit.” She laughed as she continued on to say that some days, she feels persuaded that she should pursue writing (you can find her column Small Beautiful Things in the Part B section) and some days that she should work for an NGO. Other times, she wonders why she shouldn’t just go into directing and acting as it feels like her true passion. “But I think going forward, I want to be able to forge a path that combines all of those interests. I just haven’t found it yet. So, we’ll see what happens.”
Interview by Ambre Pluta, Flipside Editor
