'Once And Future' is an original piece of theatre, developed with the assistance of contemporary theatre company, Barrel Organ, with the third year students on the Theatre And Performance degree course at The Arden Theatre School in Manchester.
The staging was imaginative and clever. We walked in to a theatre which is normally on ground level with one bank of raised seats on one side (a conventional theatre space) to find that those raised seats had gone, and instead, were two rows of seats placed in a perfect and large circle with four small fragments of what, on closer inspection, could easily have been King Arthur's round table, whilst the performance space itself was bare, save it being covered in pieces of bark, giving it a rural and rustic flavour. And even though the chairs were all blue plastic, I was convinced and loved the idea.
It turned out that my idea about King Arthur was spot on. We were indeed transported back in time to a world, not dissimilar from that imagined and romaticised by those who have written about the time of King Arthur, and we were presented with not one, but two Ladies Of The Lake, with a large all-powerful sword, and the Arthurain legend that only he of purest and most noble heart will be able to take the sword and become the next King of this realm.
For a theatre course which specialises in ultra-modern theatrical techniques and is at the forefront of innovation and creativity, this was really rather conventional and somewhat (although not entirely) mainstream theatre. There was live and recorded music [stupidly I sat too close to the drum kit and was all-but-deafened by it at times!], there was movement and even dance, poetry, an appropriation of costume, and some suggestion that they were, at least in part, taking this seriously. I relaxed, and actually began to really enjoy this. It was refreshing, different, and yet very familiar all at the same time. And then it happened...
...Bang! A complete change, a shift in not only the performance, but the style and mood of the performance. The comedy had gone, the ensemble had gone, and the story ground to a complete halt. Without spoilers, suffice to say that we had now found out the reason behind the familiarity, and had come completely into the contemporary style of performance that this course is known for. Off went the over-costumes, back to the present, and what we were left with was a musing on what each cast member believed made a good ruler or indeed who they would choose to rule. The pace had dropped almost to the point of a full stop, and the energy of each individual had dropped with it. It felt much more like being a spectator in a group therapy session. For me, this section of the performance was far too protracted and dragged. It felt quite awkward at times, not really knowing whether what was being spoken about was 'acting' or 'real', or whether these characters were speaking lines given to them or speaking 'truths' about their own circumstances.
I did like the idea behind the play very much, and enjoyed the sharp entry of the second part taking us all completely by surprise. I thought the whole was handled excellently by a cast which was obviously used to working as an ensemble together, and played off and from each other nicely. However, as much as this is a plus; given that these are final year students, the work they produced for 'Once And Future' felt much more like a school exercise than a commercially ready product.
This was the first production from Arden School I have seen since the return of public shows post-Covid, and it was indeed a most enjoyable return. The premise of the production, the Arthurian idea being brought into the present, the staging, and the strength of the ensemble acting, all impressed. It was a shame that, for me at least, the play just seemed to peter out and run out of steam, ending on a whimper, rather than if they had shortened, sharpened, and got to the point quicker in the second part in order to end on a fanfare of trumpets.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
For a theatre course which specialises in ultra-modern theatrical techniques and is at the forefront of innovation and creativity, this was really rather conventional and somewhat (although not entirely) mainstream theatre. There was live and recorded music [stupidly I sat too close to the drum kit and was all-but-deafened by it at times!], there was movement and even dance, poetry, an appropriation of costume, and some suggestion that they were, at least in part, taking this seriously. I relaxed, and actually began to really enjoy this. It was refreshing, different, and yet very familiar all at the same time. And then it happened...
...Bang! A complete change, a shift in not only the performance, but the style and mood of the performance. The comedy had gone, the ensemble had gone, and the story ground to a complete halt. Without spoilers, suffice to say that we had now found out the reason behind the familiarity, and had come completely into the contemporary style of performance that this course is known for. Off went the over-costumes, back to the present, and what we were left with was a musing on what each cast member believed made a good ruler or indeed who they would choose to rule. The pace had dropped almost to the point of a full stop, and the energy of each individual had dropped with it. It felt much more like being a spectator in a group therapy session. For me, this section of the performance was far too protracted and dragged. It felt quite awkward at times, not really knowing whether what was being spoken about was 'acting' or 'real', or whether these characters were speaking lines given to them or speaking 'truths' about their own circumstances.
I did like the idea behind the play very much, and enjoyed the sharp entry of the second part taking us all completely by surprise. I thought the whole was handled excellently by a cast which was obviously used to working as an ensemble together, and played off and from each other nicely. However, as much as this is a plus; given that these are final year students, the work they produced for 'Once And Future' felt much more like a school exercise than a commercially ready product.
This was the first production from Arden School I have seen since the return of public shows post-Covid, and it was indeed a most enjoyable return. The premise of the production, the Arthurian idea being brought into the present, the staging, and the strength of the ensemble acting, all impressed. It was a shame that, for me at least, the play just seemed to peter out and run out of steam, ending on a whimper, rather than if they had shortened, sharpened, and got to the point quicker in the second part in order to end on a fanfare of trumpets.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 14.10.21
No comments:
Post a Comment