image: The Performance Reenactment Society
OK, so when it says the last post was written on 10 Nov 2007, what that actually means is that I started writing it on 10 Nov 07, but only finished writing it today (4 Jan 2008 - woo hoo! Happy new year etc etc etc), which doesn't exactly bode well for writing about all the shows I've not yet written about.
It's not quite what I intended, but in accordance with the words of Brian Eno I'm going to, "think of my mistakes as hidden intentions" and attempt to sum up each show I've missed writing about in 100 words or less. Preferably less. Don't all cheer at once. And don't all go on about whether I should be writing 100 words or fewer either.
Goat Island Book Launch event
Friday 26 October 07, Arnolfini, Bristol
So many people come out of the woodwork for Goat Island - like a family or, the cruel amongst you might say, a cult. Their work is wonderful, but so hard to describe. It's esoteric, but not ungraspable. People often read this as wilful obscurity, but I disagree. They never talk around the point. It's just that their point is rarely a tangible thing - more often it's a feeling; a resonance. It was the same in this event. They just read passages from the book, but these are not just passages from the book...(95 words - hooray!)
Lost Luggage: Brittle Secrets
Friday 2 December, Wickham Theatre, Bristol
I'm not going to dwell on this. It was a very bad show. It was a first collaboration and it would be unfair to judge the company on it - and I know they think that too, and have taken a lot of criticism on board. What really confounded me, was that I could not for the life of me understand how those artists could have made the decisions that created that show. Perhaps no-one fully took on that role, and no real decisions were made, and this is just what they ended up with.(95 words again - blimey!)
Blind Summit: Low Life
Thursday 8 November, Tobacco Factory, Bristol
Hoping to break through my, er, puppet prejudice, I had quite high hopes of this. Well, if you are going to bill the show as Tom Waits meets... Needless to say, I was monumentally disappointed. They were obviously great puppeteers, but as actors they were terrifyingly bad almost talking to camera like Playschool presenters. The writing was bland and made no attempt to delve deep into the stories of these puppet characters, despite the actors introducing each episode on that premise. There was a wonderful section where a crazy-assed film is played out using little blue interchangeable figures, with the puppeteers hidden behind a table. It was the one part of the show which was properly inventive, hugely imaginative and very very funny. The rest of it was pretty mundane and uninspired.(132 words - baaaaaaaad)
La Pocha Nostra: The New Barbarians Collection
Saturday, 10 November, Arnolfini, Bristol
Now this was one of the most exhilarating, extraordinary performance experiences I've ever had in my life. It was a magnificent rockandroll overload. Like all the best sci-fi, it reveals the here and now in wholly unexpected ways. There's a fabulous review of the show here.
(46 words - acecore!)
The Darkside presents: The Performance Re-enactment Society
Sunday 2 December, Arnolfini, Bristol
Another generous and surprising event in the Darkside series. This was a lovely experiment in turning memory into a tangible, fully archivable (and archived) thing. Working with archivists, costumers, performers and photographers we were able to bring to life a performance moment, as we remembered it. Without labouring the point, it was a playful, but sophisticated way of acknowledging that one of the great things about live performance is its ephemerality. Its legacy is often only in memory, but shouldn't make it any less valid (or valuable) than an object-document. It was also great fun to be encouraged to spend time with a memory, and have that nostalgia indulged. I heard so many great stories from people that I never would have heard because of this. It's put a smile on my face just thinking about it again.(138 words - oops)
Travelling Light Theatre: The Ugly Duckling
Friday 14 December, Tobacco Factory, Bristol
It had some magical moments and the actor playing the Ugly Duckling was fantastic - all gangly limbs and gurning. I think it suffered from being in space you just can't ignore (those goddammed pillars!) and didn't have the visual scope and magic it should perhaps have aspired to. It was aimed at 2-6 year olds, but I think the younger kids might struggle with it a bit. A lot of fun all the same. Smiles all round!(78 words)
Franko B in conversation with Jennifer Doyle
Friday 14 November, Arnolfini, Bristol
Franko always has something good to say, but sometimes he needs a bit of wrangling to keep the flow of discussion moving forward. Jennifer Doyle was great at this, without so much of the 'I am not worthy'-ness that sometimes surrounds Franko B - understandably, as he's one of the most extraordinary and generous performers I've ever seen. I always feel it's like he's holding my hand, reassuring me so that I can leap further into the experience than perhaps I would without him. He says some brilliant things tonight - touching on ideas of responsibility, sentimentality, expectation. Even when he's not on form, there's always something inescapably honest about what he says and he's always worth listening to, cos even when he's not on form, he'll still have one or two gems up his sleeve.(135 words... hmmm... I might come back to this one...)
Blimey - telly next I think. Doctor Who Christmas Special anyone?
images of The Performance Re-enactment Society and New Barbarians Fall Collection. Photos by Carl Newland
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