Daphna faces camera, holding a phone with her left hand to her chin. A white lamp is in the foreground.

Spotlight On... Daphna Attias

Name: Daphna Attias
Role: Co-Artistic Director
Favourite Film: I don’t have a favourite film but I recently watched the new Almodovar film and it reminded me how much I love his films. 
Dream site to make a show:  I am still dreaming about making that show on a ski lift we tried to create many years ago…

What does your average day look like at Dante or Die? 

What I love about what I do is that every day is different. I get to work with lots of different artists to tell stories in theatre, film, audio, animation, design etc. So each process looks different and part of the fun is to discover how to make an idea come to life. This could be creative or strategic. 

You’ve directed all Dante or Die productions, is there one which stands out to you as the most memorable and why? 

It’s very hard to choose. With every show we discovered something new about our identity as a company. I think I Do (2012) was the show that had the greatest synergy between form and content. Through making it we understood so much about choreographing an audience, intimacy in performance and what we refer to as 'logistical theatre'. Those things set the tone to so much of our work after that.  

You’ve directed shows in cafes, self-storage units, leisure centres and hotels… What has been the most challenging space to stage a production? 

I think self-storage buildings were the most challenging. They are cold, always open to customers and audiences don't know how to behave in them (as they would in a cafe or a hotel room). Plus, they are so easy to get lost in! 

You created your first documentary short last year, what was the main difference when directing film compared to theatre?

With theatre we can always let the work breath & evolve. It’s never final and every show is different. The film (and other recent digital work) means decisions are final. I've loved learning how to create in different mediums over the past couple of years. It’s strange not to feel the audience experiencing the work, but it allows us to reach so many more people, develop new skills and collaborate with brilliant artists from other sectors. 

What project are you most looking forward to in 2022 and why? 

Odds On. It’s the first time Terry and I are in the writers seat. It’s been such a fascinating journey so far. We are working with Tim Crouch as a dramaturg and at the beginning of the process he told me that "Writing is an extension of thinking," and he is right. So I have been trying to extend my thinking to paper (or in fact a google doc). I am especially enjoying writing for animation and allowing the piece to be very surreal.