Category: Practitioners and Performances

Although it wasn’t a solo performance, Caroline Horton is primarily a solo performance artist. I saw Mess at Lincoln’s Drill Hall on the 17th of  April. I was not sure what to expect from the performance. My preconceived idea was that anorexia was something people explored in GCSE or A Level drama performances, and nothing ever changed.

But Horton’s performance was fresh and inspirational. Alongside Hannah Boyde and Seiriol Davies, Horton explores anorexia. Horton herself has been anorexic and had been hospitalised for 4 years. The performance was moving, funny, awkward and enthraling. They approached the subject with honesty and awareness, which added to the emotional aspects in the performance. Horton didn’t shy away from difficult subjects such as death or the reality of the illness. Horton played Josephine, a girl who was anorexic. Boyde played Boris, the male perspective in the play and Josephine’s best friend. Davies played music, and various characters.

There was points in the performance in which I felt that I wanted to intervene. Mainly because Boris who so oblivious to Josephine’s illness that it was uncomfortable to watch. But this highlighted the nature of the illness and how people don’t understand the control which the sufferer has over their eating habits.

The performance was one of the best pieces of theatre I have ever seen in such an intimate space. I learnt a lot about tackling difficult subjects from the performance and hope to use these in my performance.

“I want the pieces to conjure for the audience a site for the placing of memories, hopes, and dreams of gay people’s extraordinary potential for love.”

 Tim Miller

 

 

Reflecting on the solo aspect of the module is the first step in the process of devising performance.

Reading the preface to Extreme Exposure: an Anthology of Solo Performance Texts in the Twentieth Century by Jo Bonney, threw up interesting points of solo performance work. Reading the introduction to the anthology, gave an overall impression of what solo performance could be. Although solo performance is ‘not standup comedy, not cabaret, not one-character play, not lecture or reading or poetry’ (Bonney, 2000, p. xi) it can be an emulsion of all of these things, or not anything like these things at all.

The place in which the performance takes place is also important as this can vary from ‘mainstream theatres, alternative performance spaces, clubs, galleries and museums to abandoned storefronts and street corners.’ (Bonney, 2000, p. xii) This threw up more interesting ideas about where solo performances could take place. Although the final performances will be studio based, they could take place in other places. During the discussion about the text, the idea of making invisible theatre in a space such as a club would most likely go unnoticed due to the atmosphere of the venue and how others perceived the performance.

This discussion sparked ideas about performance style and areas in which we could research. Talking about our own lives also bought up points about the areas of our own lives that we could explore during the research and devising time.

 

Works Cited

Bonney, Jo (2000) Extreme Exposure: an Anthology of Solo Performance Texts in the Twentieth Century, New York: Theatre Communications Group

Small Talk by Wendy Houston, staring Antonia Grove was performed at Lincoln Performing Arts Centre on Thursday January 31st 2013.

The piece was a solo performance, presented to a small audience.

Grove’s accent was dire, switching between American dialects as she spoke, as well as often reverting back to her native English accent. This made the performance confusing as it wasn’t clear if she was meant to be American, or an English woman playing an American. Her repetition of the story line of a film was also confusing as it was, again, not clear what was happening.

Grove also changed costume on stage which was never explained as it didn’t fit with the rest of the performance. Her constant interaction with the technical team was also distracting as it seemed as if we were watching a rehearsal and not a finished performance.

The performance didn’t challenge or provoke any sort of discussion. It was difficult to watch because it wasn’t enthralling and because of Grove’s poor performance, it didn’t keep me interested.