The Theatre And Performance (the TaP of the title) students at Arden School Of Theatre, performed a double bill of contemporary performance works at their own Waterside Theatre at the Sheena Simon Campus in Manchester.
Although both shows were in many ways vastly different, there were many themes - some more obvious than others - complimentary in both. I think the most obvious of these was the use of the colour purple. And after this performance, I can quite authoritatively state that purple isn't a colour! [it doesn't appear on the elctromagnetic scale, and is simply a fusion of blue and red (which are)]. However, moving on - although we'll probably come back to purple before this review is over - some other interesting ideas they had in common were a sense of loss, a sense of mundaness, a longing for something unobtainable, a desire to break free, a desire to belong, a need to question and find out. Oh, and the personification and anthropomorphising of a horse / rabbit.
If the first piece, directed by Wayne Stephen Jackson, 'The Fragility Of Colour', could be described as elegaic and cinematic; then the second piece, directed by Aiden Lee Brooks, 'CKTH(ULU)', could equality be described as grassroots and raw.
'The Fragility Of Colour' saw a group of weary and conforming people try to break free from their metaphorical shackles not by asking questions (as they do in the second piece), but by standing on their soapboxes and telling us what's wrong with the world and how it should change.. it's just that no-one is listening. In the end they realise that they are the salmon swimming against the current, and there's no return. There is a nice message to end the piece with, and of course a 'picture ending' because this is theatre (unlike the second piece...!) and the stage - and auditorium - is filled with smoke balls.
'CKTH(ULU)' {which, if I have understood correctly is an interdimensional squid which produces purple ink, and also stands for "Curiosity Killed The Hat" - the show features a purple top hat.} starts with a large purple Rorschach image on a screen behind the cast. They then proceed to play a kind of game to be the hat-wearer. Once the hat is on the person's head it not only changes the wearer's behaviour and attitude, but it also affects the rest of the cast too. It is a "Mood Therapy Hat" (?). This is then dropped in favour of a political rant. Humans are the only creatures which are aware and this makes us different. The individual is a dangerous concept. The system will fail you. So they go back to being minions again! No 'picture ending' here though - in fact one of the weirdest endings to a play I have ever encountered. It didn't entirely work, and the audience wasn't sure what to make of it, but it was certainly different!
The first play was ordered, arty, directed not only for the content but for the feel and look of the content. It showed, above everything, that order was beautiful. The second play immediately deconstructed this showing us nothing but disorder and entropy: a physcial reaction where everything will eventually become chaos; and as they rightly predicted, entropy is difficult to reverse.
One comment I should make though (and it is something I have said many times before about students on this particular course), there is a lack of projection (maybe deliberate) in most of the actors / actresses. Enunciation, articulation and projection - clarity of diction and understandability - should be (at least in my opinion) of paramount importance when acting on stage. There were times - especially in the first piece - when the dialogue was muffled, indistinct, or too quiet.
The two pieces complimented each other ideally, and every student was totally committed to their part / role. This made for rather compelling viewing.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 10.12.21
on - 10.12.21
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