Interview with Leeds theatre maker Ruth Berkoff about her solo show The Beauty of Being Herd

The production has evolved out of two different monologues and characters that Berkoff created. “Then the two concepts came together and the piece developed from there,” she says. “It started with this character of Hannah, a young woman who is lovable but awkward and finds it difficult to make friends, at a rave. Then I had this other ‘sheep’ concept where I had a woman called Sheila and I was wondering if someone who is really nervous might find her power through sheep.” It was when she was doing some research and development in Manchester last year with director, writer and theatre maker Georgia Murphy, associate director at Bolton Octagon at the time, that the notion of combining the two came about.

“I think what it really needed was Georgia – she is just a genius,” says Berkoff. “I said to her ‘these are all the possible characters involved and here are all the possible scenarios – I don’t know what I have got’. And she sorted out the structure. We improvised a lot of stuff and we just experimented. We made lots of stuff and it all got filmed. I went away and did some writing, then we met again a month later and we made the piece in three days. Working with Georgia was great – I trust her direction and her impulses. It was really collaborative.”

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Berkoff spent two years training at the École Philippe Gaulier, a prestigious French theatre school near Paris established by acclaimed clown and teacher Philippe Gaulier. “I was there 2013-2015 and the training was really challenging and fun and tough. It was amazing in terms of learning performance skills and that is where I learnt how to be on the stage and do theatre. Gaulier says that if something is not good you just have to ‘put it in the bin’ and say ‘thank you, goodbye’. What you learnt with him is that you constantly have to ask yourself ‘is the audience enjoying this?’ You are always trying to make things alive and beautiful and magical. It was a great experience – I really gained my confidence there as a performer and a writer.”

In the years since Berkoff has had a successful career as a jobbing actor in theatre and film while also working as a massage therapist, Samaritan and cycle instructor. She says that making her current show has encouraged her to do more. “I would like to focus on making my own stuff,” she says. “I already have an idea for my next show.”

The Beauty of Being Herd is a playful show, with clowning, lots of sheep facts, frolicking – and original songs with music by composer and sound designer Isolde Freeth-Hale, founder of Bristol-based Murmuration choir. “I took her my improvised songs and she turned them into show numbers,” says Berkoff. “The piece would be nowhere near as theatrical without her. She even made a sheep synth for one of the songs – The Thing About Sheep. That song gets a lot of compliments, it’s a bit of an earworm.”

The show has received a very positive response from audiences so far – in Manchester, Faversham and Leeds – and Berkoff hopes that more people will come along and see the show when it tours again next month. “It is joyous and entertaining – it is not every day you see someone dressed as a sheep singing songs on stage,” she says. “It is funny but it also definitely hits you in the gut if you have ever felt like you don’t fit in or have wondered what’s wrong with you or if you have ever felt awkward in a group or at a party. If there is a message of the show it is that everyone should be loved and accepted.”

Ruth Berkoff will be performing The Beauty of Being Herd at Common Space, Bradford on April 23, Rural Arts, Thirsk April 25 and Hyde Park Book Club, April 27.