THE SPACEMAN. To 27 March.
Young People
THE SPACEMAN
Blind Summit Theatre Tour to 27 March 2004
Runs 55min No interval
Review: Timothy Ramsden 6 March at Warwick Arts Centre
Innovative theatre styles are for young audiences too.Both Blind Summit theatre company and the Battersea Arts Centre-inspired touring package This Way Up have previously produced work for adult audiences. But the former's contribution to the latter's 2004 programme is this one-man lecture-demonstration storytelling piece. Let me explain.
Mark Down's white-coated scientist offers a space story, using the tried and trusted method of chalk and talk, drawing characters, spheres and other outlines on a series of boards, with a couple of sticks of talking chalk named Harry and Betty. OK, there's nothing magic Down does both their voices.
Art meets Science as his drawings take us through the story of an alien who first appears fuzzily on an old TV then meets our young hero who in a way only a child's imagination could conceive - becomes an instant rocket-propelled space traveller.
Science fiction, with wittily-produced drawings (a space-map turning into our alien, a rocket-bearing blackboard whooshing round the stage in Down's hands), is interspersed with scientific facts about space, the Big Bang and galaxies. There's a reminder, too, of how many chocolate bars bear heavenly-body names and a rather sudden ending.
The only limitation lies in the show's science elements being presented through factual presentation, rather than exploration of scientific methods of enquiry.
Down has a fine manner, brisk, unpatronising but friendly. He responds to comments from the audience, rather than ignoring them, bringing them calmly round to the path of his story.
A Saturday morning audience on a university-campus theatre may not be typical, but the attention of the young people listening seemed complete, and a good number enthusiastically took up the offer of helping with space drawings in the foyer afterwards. Good signs both.
Performer: Mark Down
Director: Nick Barnes
Lighting: Mark Dymock
Composer: Rupert Christie
2004-03-08 07:16:52