Last night I had the absolute pleasure of haphazardly filming two actors ply their trade with words I had written
Back in 2020 and yet ‘freshly’ locked down, David Woods offered we performers of ‘A Normal Child’ the chance to be playwrights contributing to the birthing throes of what eventually became ‘This’.
So lucky to have chanced upon him yesterday interviewing the artists in residence at the Sofitel, the opportunity to attend one of the last angst driven performances of ‘This’ resulted.
Multi faceted/layered/peopled and staged, the experience was a ride upon which which the audience was taken, mostly unawares of performances taking place alongside their every step.
Multiple vignettes (of which the one shown is but a segment) took place interspersed in the crowd viewing a discombobulating but entertaining stage show whilst sipping our drinks. This all hinted the experience embarked upon was to be unforgettable.
Then led up stairs, we sat, shoulder to shoulder facing one another lining two catwalks. With a chance to catch our breath, perhaps get another fortification in a cup strangers were met who became fast friends. They also felt the slight panic of not knowing what was going on.
Having being issued with a yellow sticker to stick on our jackets, or not, I was reminded of those stars, also yellow, that branded the outcasts of WW2. This added yet another layer to the wonder when some were led one way and the others of us led another.
Taking place in the decrepit, abandoned power station in Richmond, the apocalyptic overtones were impossible to miss. The cavernous bowels of the structure aptly featured a huge mound of mud ringed by other accoutrements of disaster.
We then met desperate characters, wizened by horror, and were gifted by layers of story falling quite literally from far above. Betelgeuse-style talking heads regaled us from a bank afar and crazed litanies spilled from hollowed out lips.
In closing I can say this show sticks with cloying discomfort. In its second and less socially distanced iteration, ‘This’ is what theatre is.
