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SUBMIT! Magazine editor: Richard Jevons | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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LIFE�S A GAME AND THEN YOU ACT... Charades for Philosophers. Improbable Theatre Company at the West Yorkshire Playhouse presents LIFEGAME: A Theatrical Biography.Tuesday 21-Saturday 25 April.Performers: Niall Ashdown, Angela Clerkin, Guy Dartnell, Stella Duffy, Olly Fox (music), Phelim McDermott, Lee Simpson and guests.Direction: Phelim McDermott & Lee Simpson.Design: Julian Crouch.Lighting Design: Colin Grenfell.Consultant Director: Keith Johnstone.Producer: Nick Sweeting.Administrator: Ghislaine Granger.Press: Sharon Kean Associates.Graphics: Steve Williams & Julian Crouch.Improbable Theatre begin with a very simple idea: an interview with a �special guest� which takes fragments from their LIFE and turns them into an improvisational GAME. This idea is informed by a multifaceted approach to theatre, or as Keith Johnstone states IT �invent theatre from scratch�. Phelim McDermott comments that the creative urgency of the piece is �the thrill of storytelling in a theatrical space charged with both the mystery of the unknown and a curiosity and desire to know about each other.�Barry Rutter, the press night guest, is a deft interviewee: whimsical and often nostalgic (for a time that never was?) He is exceptionally personal and at the same time personable. But in revealing his own past through the work of actors who play out key scenes and odd moments we are also sucked in to compare our own memories of school, family, work: indeed our own �dreams and aspirations�. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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This theatre is radical and exceptional not just in form but in the mere fact that we are witnessing a creative act: raw, passionate and sometimes excruciatingly vivid. For example, the childhood scenes: the inherent bullying and status roles, the unspoken suffering of the mother and grandmother, the stiff creaky old grandfather and the massive divide between father and son. All have a tendency to touch raw and tender nerves without being stereotypical or simply going for the jugular.This theatre is both specifically hilarious and startling whilst always, more generally, poignant and even profound. God appears to look over the young Barry and prophesies his development of musical talents. The truth of the matter is that Barry can�t sing and his hopes are dashed by a stone cold reality. But it is also a reality that Barry, as an actor, has overcome through discipline.IT avoid being merely a narcissistic form of bio-onanism or inflation of their guest�s ego by being questioning and investigative, though not intrusive or over-cynical. They seem particularly concerned with identification rather than alienation, exploratory while still possessing that all-illusive compulsion that theatre - as a form of beauty - possesses. Artaud would not be happy with IT as they are far too psychological - based on the mind rather than the psyche. Brecht would have asked for a far more social realism. The territory that IT tread is closer to a tele-hybrid fantasy that, given its proximity and immediacy, is breathtaking. For me the tingle factor really came when Barry is describing his own last moments prior to death, looking forward to his last words. Ironically secluded in a sauna, pampered and humoured by his grandchildren, Barry extols the meaning of life: �rock�n�roll with words�. He leaves this mortal coil with a bang (not a whimper) with quotes from Shakespeare, A.A. Milne and a golden oldie ballad, with the common factor being the words� rhythmical power. The tentative, discursive and experimental nature of the work is supplemented by quickfire humour, ultra-expressive performances and a fluidity that almost trickles off the stage. Olly Fox�s music creates the subtlest ambience and conjures up long-locked memories and distant dreams. A slow-motion sequence provokes a flashback to Un Chien Andalou or a thousand surrealist images that combined with the earthy materialist scope of Barry�s memories is utterly subversive. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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During the interview itself the actors are archetypal audience: enquiring, suggestive, both amused and amusing. Barry�s actor-double is poised half-embryo, half supremely confident actor with a dash of the merely embarrassed. Phelim McDermott�s interview goes close enough to psychoanalysis without the couch, the long words and sexual indulgences. However, the gender war is seen graphically in the impros as powerfully as the status and power games.Visually and conceptually simple, but then, as Derek Jarman says, simplicity is often the most difficult thing to achieve. If you are seeking a defined and delineated text look elsewhere. If you are interested in seeing reality as it appears to be (LIFE) transformed into an improvised everchanging amorphous mass (GAME) and then the two concepts (LIFE + GAME) blended into wonderful, if momentary, blasts of theatre then go see LIFEGAME. Tingle, laugh and reminisce. | Richard Jevons For further information about Improbable Theatre contact Nick Sweeting c/o BAC Lavender Hill, London SW11 5TF. Tel: 0171 9784200 Fax: 0171 9785200. E-mail: [email protected]. For details of West Yorkshire Playhouse Summer Season contact Philip Meeks, Press Officer or Ruth Hannant, Press Assistant at West Yorkshire Playhouse, Playhouse Square, Quarry Hill, Leeds, LS2 7UP. Tel: 0113 2137272. Fax: 0113 2137250. For similar theatrical reviews and features contact Richard Jevons at Submit Magazine, 1A Russell Street, Keighley, West Yorkshire, BD21 2JU. E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.fortunecity.com/victorian/museum/226/
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