HOME OF THE WRIGGLER.

Coventry.

HOME OF THE WRIGGLER
by James Yarker devised by Stan’s Café.

Warwick Arts Centre To 2 February 2006.
Runs 1hr 25min No interval.
Review: Timothy Ramsden 2 February.

People power in more than one sense.
The wriggler is Chloe and at present her home is in her mother’s womb. When she emerges it will be into the post-industrial world of the West Midlands, where Rover cars went into receivership, and jobs were rescued, only to be lost again a few years later. With a script based on interviews with former Rover workers and others, Stan’s Café have devised a mosaic of memories and experiences about home, hairdresser and factory. Some reach back to the early part of the 20th century. Most are more recent, and the four performers interweave their stories, renewing acquaintance with former narratives. A bit like life itself.

As is the production itself, for 2 reasons. One is the low-key performance style. These performers talk to each other. While in practice taking care to be seen and heard, there’s no sense of deliberate presentation to an audience; no obvious acting. The other is technological. As if to reflect a post-industrial world of redundancies, people setting up in one-person businesses and a new ecological awareness, there is no conventional theatre lighting.

Everything is powered by the performers, who pedal and wind electricity-producing devices, sometimes while also finding breath to speak. With the limited energy this produces (though doubtless it takes a considerable amount of energy from the cast), every lamp has to be carefully positioned for each scene. Any waste or excess means extra strain on leg or arm muscles.

It makes the audience almost eavesdroppers into a world dimly visible and apparently spoken by the cast to each other, like a community developing a communal memory. It’s right for the material, if hardly a way forward for theatre (unless global necessity insists). Between the main sections there’s brief improvised chatting about setting-up the next scene, with the odd complaint about what has to be done. I found these brief interludes embarrassingly faux-naïve, like much pre-conceived ad libbing.

Otherwise the collage of West Midlands life is fascinating, if rather rambling in structure. After these initial performances in Birmingham and Coventry, it’s expected to tour later this year, or next.

Performers:
Heather Burton, Amanda Hadingue, Bernadette Russell, Craig Stephens.

Designers, Costume, Devices: Mark Anderson, Helen Ingham from Blissbody.

2006-03-14 10:23:11