In the Studio: Danny Boyle
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 27 November 2023
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Danny Boyle, the visionary behind the 2012 London Olympic opening ceremony and the Oscar-winning director of films like Slumdog Millionaire, Yesterday and Trainspotting, returns to his home town of Manchester, England, to direct a hip-hop dance spectacular to open a breath-taking new venue, Aviva Studios. The show, called Free Your Mind, is based on the Wachowskis’ Matrix franchise and updates the concept of a dystopian future to reflect recent developments in artificial intelligence. We go behind the scenes to eavesdrop on rehearsals and meet Danny and his creative team.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Global Story, with Smart Takes and Fresh Perspective, on one big news story, |
| 0:07.8 | every Monday to Friday from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:11.3 | Search for The Global Story Story wherever you get your BBC |
| 0:14.8 | podcasts to find out more. I'm Elizabeth Olka and welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:34.4 | In this edition of In the Studio, we head to Manchester in the northwest of England. |
| 0:41.2 | Here we meet Danny Boyle, the Academy Award winning film director who returned to this city, |
| 0:47.0 | which is just a few miles from where he was born, to produce a hugely ambitious new stage show. |
| 0:53.0 | Five, six, seven, eight, one. |
| 0:57.0 | Which has dance at its centre. |
| 0:59.0 | Three, two, |
| 1:01.0 | three, your mind combines hip-hop dance, new electronic music, extravagant stage and costume design, |
| 1:09.2 | and a narrative based around the famous Matrix film trilogy to depict the world in which humans are enslaved |
| 1:16.2 | by algorithms. Tapping into the collective energy of the moments saves the show |
| 1:24.0 | as billing. Can we break free and do we even want to? |
| 1:28.0 | One and two and three four five six seven, five, six, seven. |
| 1:33.8 | One of the things I thought it was appropriate to the Matrix |
| 1:36.0 | is because it's so number-based. |
| 1:38.1 | What I didn't realize, and I saw this begin to happen |
| 1:42.2 | through the rehearsal process, is the way the numbers enter their bodies and they're no longer counting. |
| 1:47.0 | One, hold two, three, four, five, six. |
| 1:50.0 | The numbers enter the body as an empowerment of them to create mass work, |
| 1:55.0 | disciplined mass work, but also to liberate themselves. |
... |
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