SLEEPERS: Restless Sleepers: on tour to 2nd December 2002

SLEEPERS
Restless Sleepers Theatre Company: www.reckless-sleepers.co.uk

On tour
2 Dec: 20:00: Exeter Phoenix, Brandninch Place, Gandy Street, Exeter
01392 667 080

Runs 1hr. No interval
Review Mark Courtice: John Stripe Theatre, Winchester: 27th November 2002A beguiling and interesting investigation that won't send you to sleep.

This intriguing show is an investigation of sleep, what happens before after and during, when you can't, and when you are deprived of it. This is very untheatrical stuff; the company are dressed in black street clothes, they speak with ordinary voices and the set is simple, five white gauze curtains creating a square, corridors and windows as they are pulled to and fro. Why then is this so beguiling and interesting?

Part of the answer is in the material - detailed notes and ramblings they call it, gathered from observation. The company simply describe the dreams, fantasies, and events that come from their exploration of an area of our lives that (as they point out) consumes one third of out time and about which we know nothing. The material is honest, and although much of it is about the small things, it is fascinating, and often funny in a quiet way.

Part of the answer is the telling of it, which in its flat artless way is of course artful, so sometimes it seems like poetry, sometimes like a friend's story, sometimes like a scientific report. There is a great section where someone's disjointed talking in their sleep almost becomes a narrative.

Part of the answer is in the presentation; the curtains are a great idea as the action is sometimes shadowy through several layers and sometimes clear as daylight as the curtains form a backdrop, the company, too, drape themselves with them. The lighting is excellent, subtle and helpful, and a found sound montage helps the text create the city at dawn. The movement is clever, too, as again the lack of artifice makes us concentrate on the everyday, and reminds us how beautiful that can be. At rest people sometimes take up their favourite sleeping position - simple but special.

At one hour this is a really neat show, as different from the normal run of theatre as you can get. There is no plot, the action repeats and wanders, as random as a dream, and nobody acts. However, it is sharp, clean and a refreshing change.

Devisers/Performers: Jessica Hoffman, Daniel Belasco Rogers, Timothy Ingram, Simone Kenyon, Sophia New

Creative Directors: Mole Weatherall, Daniel Belasco Rogers
Lighting Designed by: Daniel Belasco Rogers, Simon MacColl
Sound: Daniel Belasco Rogers

2002-11-29 21:58:00