THE CAGE PROTECTS ME

FRI 31 OCT - SAT 8 NOV

Giles Allen-Bowden

Directed by Giles Allen-Bowden

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LOFT MAIN HOUSE PREMIERE

Every night for the last ten years, a pack of wolves has descended upon the town of Drylake, Texas. Their unbroken siege has left one survivor standing, a man named Red, who by day, fortifies the town’s church, and by night, prays his work holds until the morning.

But to say Red is alone isn’t strictly true. Amidst the chaos, two voices in his head have come to life. They are his logical reasoning, Sense, and his paranoia, Omen, and though Red cannot see them, they are keeping him alive in this endless stalemate.

That is until a woman named Élan, on the run from her past, crashes into their lives. And with her arrival, old ghosts will resurface, and new fears will be brought to harrowing life.

The Cage Protects Me is a new ghost story by Giles Allen-Bowden, premiering in the Main House, that explores our relationship to the horrors of the world and the horrors we inflict, set against a Western frontier that has learned to push back.

Director's Notes

I’ve always had a morbid fascination with ghost towns. There’s something eerily hypnotic about these abandoned places, full of forgotten whispers and dreams that didn’t survive. The Cage Protects Me is the story of a ghost town, but not like any you’ve seen before.

Like many stories, this play came together at an ungodly hour of the night from a tapestry of ideas that all demanded to be explored at once. I wanted it to be a story of control and survival set amidst the Texan wilderness that I’d seen many times as a child. I also wanted to take the angel/demon on each shoulder dynamic but give these old archetypes more agency and psychological nuance. And I wanted to tell a ghost story that not only depicted, but empathised with and gave voice to its ghosts. All of this was in 2015 when I was a student at the University of Warwick. The resulting play was first staged in early 2016, and now ten years after its birth, Cage has crept into the Loft main house, ready to thrill and terrify its new audience.

It’s been an immense privilege bringing this play to life and a joy to see the actors bring out new dimensions to the characters. It’s a show written to allow every team behind the scenes to sink their teeth in and showcase their talent, and they have all done exactly that, bite marks included. Special thanks goes to Gordon Vallins for his steadfast directorial guidance and to my stage manager Hannah Brown for her patience and ingenuity in pulling all the elements together behind the scenes.

Tales of horror and ghosts are written to provoke anxiety, fear and sometimes revulsion. But witnessing them on screen and stage can also prove to be cathartic, as they allow audiences to explore their greatest fears and insecurities from a place of safety. They can also be deeply fun to watch as a collective, allowing us to scream, shiver and laugh together. I hope audiences will find this catharsis and joy when we open this Halloween. See you inside.

Giles Allen-Bowden

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