Every year, the students on the Theatre and Performance degree course [hence the TaP of the title], are given the task of creating their own show, woven {tapestry.... see what I did there?} around a given set of stimuli. This year, there were two groups and ten particular ideas, objects, movements etc that needed to be considered and included within their devised pieces. Both pieces were then directed by tutors.
Theatre and Performance, vagariously called Contemporary Theatre Practice or Contemporary Experimental Performance, is a comparatively new thing whereby the students are allowed to explore the modern styles of theatrical performance and push those boundaries ever further, becoming the theatremakers and creatives of the next generation. I write this simply because one never knows, once you have entered their performance space, exactly what might occur. I have been watching students on this course for a good number of years now, and I am still a liitle uneasy taking my seat, sometimes with justification!
The first of the two plays this afternoon was directed by Maddie Brew, and for once, I was not taken out of my comfort zone at all. This was one of the most cohesive and coherent piece of contemporary theatre I have seen from students on this course. More dialogue driven than normal, 'Marching On' focussed on the lamented closure of the coal pits, and the ongoing slow demise of the colliery bands that were so much a part of the miners' and their families' lives.
This was a fully ensemble play, and the contrasts between 'acts' and emotional responses was juxtaposed superbly. A clever (not unique maybe... but certainly very interesting) start to the play with good use of humour and comedy throughout, and the historical information and political ire directed towards the conservatives and Margaret Thatcher was well-placed, appropriate, and focused.
There was one thing I personally didn't like in this play (if you will allow me to be purely subjective for a moment), and that was using non-brass band music for the 'brass band'. It started with 'The Floral Dance' (an obvious but perfect choice), however as the dancing became sillier and more frenetic, the music changed to contemporary pop songs which ruined (for me) the illusion.
However, the message - 'colliery bands are being lost, and we need to at least keep their memory alive' // 'If you take away a part of our culture, you take away a part of our history' - was clear and heartfelt, and the whole very enjoyable.
For the second piece in this double-bill, we changed gear again, and returned to the more abstract and esoteric with Aiden Brooks's direction of 'Swallow 'Til I Burst'. Here the cast used 'Theatre Of The Grotesque' and 'Theatre Of The Absurd' techniques to good effect. The German's have a wonderful word for this type of performance: Provokationstheater.
Perhaps not all, but most of The Seven Deadly Sins were represented in this multi-media piece which promoted vegetarianism / veganism, by 'glorifying' the eating of pigs and chickens / eggs. There was also a deal of sex thrown in for good measure too which went hand-in-glove with the gluttony idea. This idea might also have been meant to have been a mirror to our own existences: " I am what I am no matter where I live".
It was less cohesive than the first piece, but no less of an ensemble-led one, and of course, such a work as this is always open to multiple interpretations. I enjoyed the political quotes, and the use of archive video footage. The lighting hue changes also worked well.
In both pieces however, I had some amount of difficulty in hearing and understanding the speech that was unmic'd. I have said it before and I will continue to say it until I am blue in the face no doubt, that the one thing that modern theatre training doesn't seem to take into consideration is vocal projection and articulation, which for this reviewer at least, is the keystone of any fully 'arched' performance.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 9.12.22
on - 9.12.22
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