The students on the degree course in Theatre And Performance at Arden Theatre School [based within the bricks of UCEN City College, Manchester] gave a double-bill of devised works this afternoon in the college's main theatre.
Before the interval it was the turn of the first year students and their self-devised, hour-long offering, "The Tales And Trials Of The Sky Weaver". Directed by Lauren Greer, this was a very loose reimagining of the life and work of Italian Renaissance physicist and astronomer, Galileo Galilei.
As we entered the auditorium there was no music playing, and the mood was quite eerie and ethereal. A dimly lit stage showed only a centrally positioned desk with a home-made cloth screen behind, and a row of assorted chairs on both sides of the acting space. The cast entered in dribs and drabs throughout the opening sequence taking their places on these chairs. Some were dressed in rehearsal blacks, whilst others had a semblance of costume, such as a nun, a peasant, or a court guard. Using a stick mic positioned on the apron front, the narration to each scene was given. Sadly however, all the other dialogue used throughout the piece was given at normal speaking level and as such was unsuited to a theatrical performance, as the actors were not articulating and projecting sufficiently in order to be fully audible and understandable.
Using much movement, mime, dance, and a little comedy, this somewhat fictional story of Galileo, as presented by the company, was played out. A strobe light was used to indicate the passing of time from one scene to the next, which although predictable, was a nice idea. Other lighting and sound effects were less effective; such as a long and loud buzzing noise played continuously over a female Galileo's speech; however I did appreciate the use of quasi-contemporaneous music throughout.
There were moments where the play descended into (almost) pantomime, as we are asked to boo Galileo when in court, or the comedy nuns and eggs scene; whilst other moments were actually quite thought-provoking.
Dynamically however, this was not a particularly satisfying piece, inasmuch as the play was given a similar pace and volume throughout. These are first year students and are obviously putting everything they have thus far leaned into practice, and as such, it did feel rather 'studenty' unsurprisingly but they are still finding their feet and their own voices, and to be able to pull together and bring about such a proficient and bold piece of theatre is in itself laudable.
After the interval, and we shift focus a little, and watch the third year students, again on the Theatre And Performance degree course, perform their devised piece, 'Sorry, I Didn't Catch That'. This was a reworking of the piece they devised and presented as first years, but now a little older, wiser, and more armed.
This is a commentary on modern society and our reliance on and our submittance to technology. We seem not to care that technology takes over our every thought and movement, and indeed harvests our thoughts and our behaviours too in a very Dystopian way.
Using long pauses of inactivity, minimal or even no dialogue at times, and extremely loud and long noises [which were so intrusive and overpowering that I simply wanted the noise to end, it went on for seemingly forever]. However, the message was delivered - we submit ourselves willingly to whatever technological advance is being pushed at us, as we believe it will make our lives easier (perhaps even happier), and yet with each "accept" on each App or device, we agree to our data being harvested, and we lose another connection with the real world. At nearly one hour in length, this message wasn't just given to us, but was, in fact, drilled into us continuously sans cesse, and this, combined with the loud noises, made it very difficult for me to connect to this piece in any meaningful way whatsoever. A very repetitive structure, combined with some interesting movements (dance) and effects. Sadly the show did not offer anything new or inciteful into our overuse of and reliance on technology - maybe that was the idea.
I did enjoy an original song towards the end sung by a young lady on a keyboard. This little relief from the audial onslaught was much appreciated.
Again, this piece, as indeed the first piece, was bold, brash, confident, competent, and assured, it just failed to engage me sadly.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 5.5.23
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