A pandemic puts the world at a standstill and turns the lives of everyone upside down. No, we're not talking about Covid. Station Eleven is a novel written by Emily St. John Mandel in 2014. Even then, it seemed to predict somewhat eerily and accurately just what the world was going to go through in the past two years. Now, HBO has brought the novel to life in a new miniseries. Despite the apocalyptic storyline, the show is unlike the drab and dark shows we've come to expect from an end-of-the-world TV series, but showcases humanity moving on from what they went through. Guru speaks with two stars of the series, Mackenzie Davis and Himesh Patel, about similarities with the pandemic and how important art is in keeping us going through difficult times.
What do you think sets the show apart from other apocalyptic shows?
Davis: These sorts of shows often exist in a dystopia and this doesn't, but it's also not a utopia. It's sort of an argument for human survival that goes beyond doing something like going to Mars to colonise it. What happens when you can reset and build again? Do you do that? What does it look like? It feels like it's driven by art, community and I assume some really inventive sort of greenhouse farming. There's something lovely about it because so many stories about apocalypses are dystopian. That this isn't dystopian makes it seem far more optimistic than it is but it's just sort of grounded in what it might be like.
Was it disturbing at how eerily similar the show was to the pandemic?
Patel: I felt the reverse of that because we shot episode one in January 2020 before the pandemic. We'd already shot it and then it was happening in real life. It's very surreal, even now when I go back and watch episode one. When the show resumed shooting again, it was kind of hopeful. It's just amazing watching the process that we were all doing to make it happen. The day that we shot the scene where Jeevan and Kirsten are in a supermarket, my partner had come to visit and she was looking at the trolleys full of stuff. The production designers just filled it with vague ideas of what one might fill their trolley with. But she was looking at it going, "You know if this happened, this isn't what we'd buy." Two months later, we were back home and having that conversation in reality and I remember it really spinning me out because I just couldn't have predicted that.
When did you first encounter the story of Station Eleven?
Davis: I first heard about the book after meeting with Patrick [Somerville] and Hiro [Murai], who were making the show, in 2019. I read the book and loved their pitch. It's funny thinking about similarities between our pandemic and the show's pandemic. I really loved the pitch that this isn't a dusty apocalypse where people are fighting to survive and killing each other, which is such a pet peeve of mine with movies and shows like that. In this show, they put an emphasis on nature having come back and reclaimed the Earth after human interference had gone away and I thought that was so beautiful, only to be faced with all of the 'nature's healing' memes of 2020 and 2021.
Himesh, what was it like working with Matilda Lawler who played young Kirsten?
Patel: She was incredible. She's a really amazing actor and I'm so excited to see where her career goes if she chooses to continue being an actress. We got on from the beginning. There was just something so down-to-Earth and unprecocious about her. She's kind of what I admire in actors that I love to work with, where the work is what's important but then also it's fun. She gives this amazing performance but she also never gave off an air of someone taking herself too seriously. You can always have a laugh with her and you could also make suggestions. It was like working with an adult, honestly. I didn't see the difference. She's really brilliant.
Mackenzie, you play an actress who is part of a travelling troupe. Why do you think art plays such a vital role in this post-pandemic world of Station Eleven?
Davis: I think it's a testament to how much everybody is compelled to make the things that they love. There's an urge to just keep making things for whatever reason and you can't really put your finger on why sometimes. There isn't a lot of therapeutic space in the post-pandemic Station Eleven world and there's something really cathartic and important to these people that they have a place to put their feelings, thoughts and trauma. Somehow, the transmogrification of their trauma into entertainment also ends up being a catharsis and an outlet for other people.
Did you have an encounter with a form of art that made you feel really alive?
Davis: Oh yeah. So many. I remember seeing a performance of The Marriage Of Maria Braun by this Berlin theatre company where they used a lot of chairs in an inventive way. I was 22 years old watching this live theatre in Brooklyn and it was this sort of upending of what I thought theatre could be. I feel like most of those experiences I've had alone. Those transformative theatrical experiences have been me in a cinema alone or seeing a play by myself.
