Orlando Weeks, Marcus Armitage and Maxine Peake: Something Out of Nothing

Orlando Weeks was the frontman of alternative rock band The Maccabees for 14 years until their disbanding in 2017. Orlando went on to create The Gritterman, a visual and audio book written and illustrated by Weeks and starring Paul Whitehouse as the voice of the story’s hero. The audio accompaniment includes an album of original music, also written by Weeks. He recently wrote the music for the National Theatre’s production of After Life, staged throughout the summer of 2021. In the summer of 2020 Weeks released A Quickening, his first solo album. His second solo album, Hop Up was released in 2022.

‘The initial idea for Something Out of Nothing came from reading that the Madonna And Child sculpture in the St Ives parish church was a memorial to Hepworth’s eldest son Paul Skeaping. This felt to me like an act of making as therapy or self comfort. Whilst I can not imagine the grief of the loss of a child I could fully appreciate and associate with the desire to make or use making as a way of processing something so awful.

I am a maker. I make music and songs and short stories and drawings. The cynic in me winces at this but I find the process of ‘making’ very therapeutic. It gives me purpose. It is a distraction and can even become meditative. I rely, perhaps too heavily sometimes, on ‘making’ for a sense of self and wellness.

For as long as I can remember having any interest at all in art I have loved Hepworth’s work. To the pipsqueak me, there was something fantastically unfussy and satisfying about these huge, dino-skeletal, climbing frame-esque sculptures. In many ways I still feel the same about them now.’ – Orlando Weeks

Marcus Armitage is a BAFTA-nominated filmmaker. Marcus, who grew up in Wakefield, went to Leeds College of Art and Design and then onto the Royal College of Art in London. Marcus’ hand-drawn work employs bold colour and expressive motion, creating captivating visuals and thought-provoking stories.

The diversity of his approaches can be seen in his commissioned work such as his animated sequences for the documentary LIMBO which premiered at Sundance and in his award-winning short film MY DAD, which explores inherited racism using a tactile approach of oil pastels and newspaper clippings.

‘It was really exciting to be asked to work on this project. I have close family connections to historic mills that share the waterfront site with The Hepworth Wakefield. Before the gallery was created, my mum worked in the design office of  Caddies Wainwright Mill designing patterns for men’s knitwear. My aunty Marie worked in the mill on the overlocking machines.

My dad, who was born in Wakefield, also worked in the space. When the mill was first closed, it was offered as artist studios. Dad had a photographic studio and his sister Julie had a space in the building for painting and fine art projects. Once the building was sold, Dad moved his studio into The Gatehouse, which is now the garden café. 

I studied at Leeds College of Art and Design, and later at the Royal College of Art in London, just as Barbara Hepworth did a century ago.

These connections made the project very personal and special to me. I have been directing animation for a decade, but working on something with so many connections to home was a very unique experience.’ – Marcus Armitage

Maxine Peake is an actress and narrator. Her film credits include Mike Leigh’s Peterloo, Oscar nominated The Theory of Everything, a BIFA-nominated turn in independent British feature Funny Cow (on which Maxine served as Executive Producer through her own production company, Vexed Pixie) and Thomas Clay’s Fanny Lye Deliver’d.

Maxine is also well known for starring in high profile TV dramas such as Silk (BBC), Black Mirror: Metalhead (Netflix), Three Girls (BBC), The Village (BBC), Shameless (Channel 4) and The Bisexual (Hulu/Channel 4). Maxine was recently seen in the lead roles of Anne (ITV), which follows the true story of Anne Williams, a mother seeking justice after the Hillsborough tragedy, and workplace thriller Rules of the Game (BBC).

Maxine is also an established writer, with credits including the critically acclaimed stage and radio play Beryl (BBC Radio 4/West Yorkshire Playhouse/The Rose Theatre). Maxine also wrote Queens of the Coal Age for Radio 4, which she later adapted for the stage (Manchester Royal Exchange). Other plays include The Last Testament of Lillian Bilocca (Hull Truck Theatre), and the upcoming and highly anticipated musical comedy Betty! (also at the Royal Exchange).

Theatre acting credits include the title role in Hamlet at the Manchester Royal Exchange in a “radical reimagining” of the original, returning to play Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire and Winnie in Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days. More recently Maxine was seen at the Barbican in Avalanche, and returned to the National Theatre to lead Lucy Kirkwood’s The Welkin. She was most recently seen in Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads (Bridge Theatre, and televised for the BBC).