Treasured – A Secret Journey: Theatre Review
As a finished piece of work, ‘Treasured – A Secret Journey’ (performed at MAC, Birmingham 9-27 June 2010) is dramaturgically convincing. Having previously seen ‘Treasured’ (The Other Way Works, 2006), from which the current performance has been developed, I particularly appreciated the introduction of a narrative thread to accompany the jewellery which nevertheless remains the real star of this show.
In its new form, the show has come to be structured around the promise of a story. The audience member happens upon an isolated yurt on a stormy evening and is welcomed in. Tea is made, and one is invited to choose a story.
Already at this point the theme of choice comes as a shock. To choose one story is to reject another (although there is nothing to stop you from going around again, if you enjoy the first one). But to choose is also to embrace a limitation and to celebrate a thing in its particularity.
Whichever piece of jewellery and corresponding story one chooses, one still gets to see the other pieces. And this is both frustrating and exciting, because it heightens one expectations for the piece one has chosen. Next, the audience member is led through an enactment of their chosen story. Each of these has been specially written for the show, and while each has its own ‘feel’, there are commonalities.
Depending on the story one has chosen – and without wanting to give too much away – the audience member experiences another choice, but this time it is not their own. Standing in the place of a girl or a young man, whichever is the main protagonist in the chosen story, the audience member witnesses a moment of decision and its consequences. The decisions enacted all seem to have a moral, although in one case this is darkly ambiguous. The effect is to see desire and temptation ‘in slow motion’, as it were, and from the outside. This is both troubling and cathartic. It helps that one is encouraged to linger and reread ones story again at the end of the performance.
Alongside the narrative core of the show are powerful nonverbal elements. At one point one is mesmerised by a flower opening, or by the sound of distant thunder. One runs in pursuit, or is chased, hunted down. This is exhilarating. Lighting, set, and soundscape work together to create a magical atmosphere, while the cast use touch, voice, tone, and movement gently and persuasively. The effect of the whole experience is to make one feel immensely privileged – treasured.
Filed under Arts, Birmingham, Narrative, Theatre | Comment (0)Social Criticism at the Theatre (Play Review)
Joe Orton, ‘The Good and Faithful Servant’
Black comedy is what Orton is famous for, and this play has its fair share of dark humour. It also succeeds as a social satire on two counts.
First, it reveals the hypocrisy of each generation’s criticism of the next, especially in the area of sexual morality.
Secondly, it reveals the gradual co-opting of every aspect of people’s lives by a corporation. Perhaps the best candidate for the title ‘good and faithful servant’ is the HR manager of the firm, who oversees literally everything from birth to death. She replaces the priest as pastoral adviser, while all the time promoting the needs of the company.
The other good and faithful servants in the play are the employees who give their working lives to the firm. A faulty toaster that administers dangerous electric shocks and a clock that runs backwards are a poor reward for fifty years of service and a work-related injury. Worse still, the firm’s employees are dehumanized, not recognized or remembered, and alienated from one another by the sheer scale of the enterprise.
It is by no means clear why anyone would want to work there in the first place, yet the retired employee is tireless in encouraging his lazy but pliable grandson to sign up.
Naturally, the firm depicted is paternalist in the old-fashioned way. Labour has not yet been outsourced to the developing world. The company offers a job for life. There is a benevolent fund and in-house childcare provision. Things are, if anything, worse today!
Whatever one might think of the recent production at the Corpus Christi Playroom (short scenes interspersed with appropriate music from the Sixties), the text certainly stands up to criticism and is itself a powerful critique of the corporate world and its co-opting of our humanity.
Filed under Theatre | Comment (0)The Kings of England – Theatre Review
The Kings of England have made a pleasing yet thought-provoking show about time, the experience of growing old, and the relationship of a father and son.
Filed under Theatre | Comment (0)Avon Calling – Theatre Review
Evoking a whole host of personal associations, popular stereotypes, jokes, and cultural memories in just two words, ‘Avon Calling’ invites us to come and laugh at the early marketing materials of the international cosmetics giant.
But this is only the beginning. The show then invites us to explore a more private side of the Avon story, by looking at the life, and home, and personal relationships of an Avon sales representative.
The story is all the more powerful for being true. It is based on the mother of the performer, Lou Platt, who has taken the gonzo step of becoming an Avon representative herself. A must see! (On in London this weekend!)
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