Piece by Piece, Only Way to Make a Work of Art

So I did not post the day I meant to, but I went to the Shaw Festival instead, which means I have more things to blog about in future. Which is good. No one reads this, but I still feel devoted to updating it semi-quasi-a bit-regularly. In part because it makes me write, and also because it makes me think about theatre, about the line of work that I'm trying to do and wanting to do, and I can't do it all the time. So thinking and writing about it make me feel somewhat more connected when I don't have a gig. Which is far too often.

Anyway...

Inspiration.

I saw something inspiring when I was in New York. I'm inspired easily, I think, by things that aren't theatre, and rarely in the theatre. This was trancendent.


Ridiculous, real, whimsical, everyday, superb, physical, funny, self-referential, smart, and beyond beyond beyond.


I mean, look at this.

It's from a Cornwall company called Kneehigh Theatre. Their blurb about themselves says they 'tell stories'. I'm sold.

It's a staged version of David Lean's film 'Brief Encounter', which is a film version of Noel Coward's novel 'Still Life'. The movie, which I need to see, is apparently a testament to stiff upper lip British civility and under-acting. The stage version explodes this, and finds ways to manifest the inner world of everyone on stage. Really, its a manifestation of what being in love and doing things you shouldn't feels like.


It's technically very proficient. Fast, clean, great. Everyone onstage plays instruments, is physical, is talented, can sing. All the elements are perfectly in place.

It's incredibly creative. They use music, dance, film, puppets, circus, toys everything at their disposal to tell the story. It is profoundly theatrical, a true celebration of the medium and the possibilities therein.

It's deeply funny and incredibly sad.

And then there are two things that I think make it really special. One is the focus on watching. It takes place in a coffee shop below a train station, where lots of love stories take place and everyone watches them. There are often other actors watching the action, sometimes shyly, sometimes boldly, sometimes participating by making sound effects or contributing music, and sometimes just watching. But the genius of this is that it makes them one of us, one of the audience. This is literally represented by having the characters often sit in the audience, and jump in and out of it. It also incriminates us. We, as much as the other characters, allow everything to happen. We're a part of it.

And then, to further that, they somehow manage to create an amazingly community-like feel. At the end, the actors run to the back of the theatre and play songs for half an hour. They dance with the audience, and ask us if we liked the show. They wink at us during the show, never too much, it never destroys the alternate reality they are creating onstage, but it is a sly joke that lets us in. At the end, an enormous 'Good Night' quilt comes down. I felt like I had been kissed and put to bed. They took care of us. They held our hand and showed us something completely new. They took risks but never took advantage of us.

It's beautiful amazing theatre and I'm furious I didn't create it.


I want to be in it. Its going to Vancouver Playhouse, which is wonderful, and I hope someone who has power in Toronto theatre has the brilliant idea to get the rights to it and DO IT HERE. And then lets me be in it.

Because its beautiful. And it reminded me of why I want to be in theatre.

Jesus.