Prototype at The Tobacco Factory

I've just come back from a great scratch night called Prototype at the Tobacco Factory. I just want to say a bit about why I thought it was important and what, for me, it says about the strength of theatre in Bristol.

Right from the start, as the audience walked in, I was amazed at the number of people who turned up, I've done a mass of scratch nights across the country, including some of the most well know ones and i have never seen such a large audience, (later i found out that there were 148 people there!) 148 people, for a scratch night! I've been to scratches were there where only 6 members of the public in the audience and two of them were my mum and dad.

Seeing so many people supporting up coming, and unfinished work with their time and money (even if it was only £3 on the door) is really encouraging and it shows how committed and engaged the audience in Bristol is.

The other thing about the audience was the number of performers who were there. The abstract, and often unhelpful, idea of a 'scene' is really nothing much more complicated than people talking to one another and going to see each other's work. Bristol is the only place I've been to where I've seen this happening on such a large scale. From memory I can recall seeing 15 other people in the audience who make theatre, and those are just the folks I know. From my experience Bristol is a place where creative people come together and support each other, rather than working in isolation and competition.

Now all this means relatively little if the work is rubbish. I'm going to be honest at this point and say that I have seen some truly terrible work under the 'scratch' banner. You wouldn't want it to be different because, sometimes when you experiment: you fail. Sometimes you fail spectacularly. I have seen work which I sincerely hope never made it beyond the development stage.

I'm sure you won't be surprised when i report that in this respect Prototype was a winner. The standard of work from all of the companies and artists involved was exceptionally high. None of the work was perfect, that's not what a scratch is about, but I can honestly say that if you hear of any of the following people/companies doing a show then I'd recommend checking it out: Olypuppet, Fionn Gill, Liz Hart, Kettle of Fish, Precarious.

In short: Go Bristol!

The next Prototype is at 8pm on the 30th of March, here's link you can follow to the http://tobaccofactorytheatre.com page about it.