Culture

Theatre As Is. Jimmy Currin, Luke Agnew, Feather Shaw and Hahna Briggs, (4/5).

As I arrived at Allen Hall Theatre, joining an already eager audience in the foyer, My First Attempt was giving nothing away. This latest piece from the Theatre As Is was devised “using chance operations by the Theatre As Is” according to the simple yet intriguing programme and this again gave nothing away!
 

In terms of reviewing the piece, where do I begin? After entering the (clean and dry) theatre and taking our seats, the audience was left in total blackout for almost half a minute. At this point my “fight or flight” reactions kicked in, as unnerving, dull tones filled the space and were soon joined by footsteps. Lights up.

 
On stage were Feather Shaw (wearing a very complimentary pair of large “grandad pants”) and Luke Agnew (in a fetching floral dress). The pair looked interesting, with their outfits supposedly reversed, as they indulged in some rather intriguing dance moves. Agnew and Shaw were on one side of the stage and Jimmy Currin and Hahna Briggs complimented their visual offers on the other. Currin’s costume reminded me of A Clockwork Orange and he deeply moved the audience with his variety of facial expressions while Briggs, an excellent dancer, weaved her way around the stage, intermittently grasping all of our attention.
 

For those of you who also saw this piece, I’m sure you all left debating its symbolic meaning. The giant light stick entering Currin’s mouth, grass cuttings falling from the roof and the mud fights. Was the teddy bear versus golf club sequence a distressing dream for Currin, as Shaw and Agnew taunted in the background? Was Currin, in fact, victim to all of their mischievous games in some sort of drug trip? Or, was it a piece of performance art that everyone can enjoy and leave feeling enlightened? One could read into this for hours.

 
The lighting complimented each scene (the fantastic work of Martyn Roberts) and the music (Jimmy Currin and Ray Off from Ghost Wolf) set a perfectly eerie atmosphere. Currin did a fantastic job of holding the audience’s attention and keeping them wanting more. All senses were craftily attacked by the actors, with the smell of mud and orange zest filling the theatre. After being advised to sit in the front row, I left with red juice on my legs and shaving foam on my bag from Agnew’s slippery close encounter with the seats. That alone spells out a great show, does it not?