DO I MEAN ANYTHING TO YOU...? To 25 November.

Edinburgh

DO I MEAN ANYTHING TO YOU OR AM I JUST PASSING BY?
by Gerald McInulty

Traverse Theatre (Traverse 2) To 25 November 2006
Tue-Sat 8pm.
Runs 60 min No interval.
Review: Thelma Good 22 November 2006.

Experiment alone is insufficient.
So here is the last in the Cubed3 season of pieces created by new-to-the-Traverse theatre makers: playwrights, composers and visual artists. Twelve Stars is a Glasgow-based theatre group with two core members, founded in 1999, while The Pastels, also Glasgow-based, drew fans from the 1980s on with ‘Something Going On’ and ‘Million Tears’. The Pastels’ musical contributions contain attractive relaxing tunes and arrangements – easy listening in fact.

Production values overall are high, but to what end? 12 Stars say they are trying to develop new theatre. Trouble is they are not on this showing doing enough to reward an audience. The piece irritates and confuses. Just lighting someone on a stage doing things does not a theatrical performance make, even when the company experiments by dimming the house-lights gradually through the performance.

There is a text and there are named characters but they are all given to similar quasi-profound pronouncements: “My life has to change”, “Pay attention to the signs” and “Do I mean anything to you?” (the temptation to say No to the last was strong). Fragments of individual stories are present but there is no sustained interaction between the four performers. Several use hand-held mikes but their audibility is not enhanced.

Too often there is little reward when paying audiences are lured into seeing a developing company testing the boundaries of theatre. I do wish these companies understood there is the world of difference between the audience watching you cause there is nothing else happening, and the audience being unable to look away because actors are riveting.

This is one for fans of anti-theatre, where no emotions are stirred, never mind shaken. But if we are to sustain a theatrical future we need to nurture better those who desire the unity of performance created when audience and actors are inhabiting the same inescapable theatrical moment. The Scottish Arts Council has been talking lately about supporting artist-centred theatre companies. With public funds drawn ultimately from our pockets and no performance complete without us the audience, theatre makers and funders should not be encouraged to ignore our contribution.

Performers:
Murray Wason.
Carolyn Allen.
Umar Ahmed.
Susan Swanwick.

Director: Gerard McInulty.
Music: The Pastels.
Lighing Designer Claire Ramsay.

2006-11-26 02:56:18