Rapley Reviews: Prototype- Experiments in Theatre

Again the good people of the Tobacco Factory Theatre have given us a stormingly successful Prototype. In case you don't know this is a night of work in progress with feedback at the end and you can read what I've said about all the others here.

A welcome development this evening was that a good 50% of the feedback was detailed and informative, with very few totally unhelpful comments. This is something that I've talked about before and it's great that it appears to be getting better, with none of the 'it would be better if you made it more like the work i make' style comments.

The first piece of the night was Muse by Fecund Theatre. This aimed to explore the intellectual, emotional and instinctive choices made during a creative process. I had a powerfully wretched hangover which I think contributed to my difficulties with this piece because there were just so many words and I couldn't engage with the work.

What it highlighted for me is that with work in progress showings there are some mistakes you can make before you get on stage, in terms of the selection of the material you want to present. In this case there is an hour and twenty five minutes version of this show and what was presented tonight was essentially extracts woven into a more or less seamless piece. I think that it is often better to stick to showing the material just as it is, not remaking it for scratch shows, so if you only have 20 minutes on stage don't give us a 20 précis, just run 20 minutes of the show as is. Or just show us 20 minutes of discreet sections, and don't be afraid of showing the nuts and bolts, you can just introduce each bit rather than playing it like the scratch is a proper show- it really shouldn't be.

Otherwise it creates a misleading impression of the work and can hamper the audience's grasp on the show. As the director acknowledged in the feedback at the end he and the actors realised immediately that something was wrong, that there was a distance from the audience, an isolation, that did not benefit the work. Perhaps this came from how the work was condensed.

Next up Foulisfair Theatre gave us Inside Out, the beginnings of a piece about living in a bubble. This is a one woman show and it involved a plastic greenhouse. The best bit was the destruction/transformation of the greenhouse. The work is at an early stage and I think that there are some interesting possibilities, and certainly the premise of the show is far reaching and apt.

Next up was Residence's own Tom Wainwright, performing for his second consecutive Prototype material from Pedestrian. This is a one man show about a nightmare that involves being chased down a never ending pedestrian shopping centre by a seriously gamy-eyed fish. An outstanding bit of work with great physicality and tight scripting. Tonight's section seemed less coherent more fully confused and dreamlike.

I notice now that Soap Soup Theatre don't appear to have a website because making that link there involved typing a very long address to reach their Theatre Bristol profile. So if they or indeed you, dear reader, want a good website cheap drop me a line because I build them. Click here for more details. Crass plug over and onto the work- Sir Gregory's Hutch, this was like a live action section of a puppet show in which an actor plays the role of the central puppet of the story. My feedback was that there needed something to be at stake, the action, as presented didn't appear driven by plot, although it was engaging and playful.

Angus Barr the man behind Publick Transport offered up a two hander with Toby W. Davies called The Dept of Smelling Pistakes. Set in the Russian bureaucracy it involves a civil servant and his unexpected visitor. Great comic timing brings to life this piece about paranoia, control, and status. Both are really strong performers and i look forward to seeing more of this show.

The final piece of the night, The Glass Mountain, was presented by Trestle, who are a pretty big and well known company. Based around the story of The Glass Mountain and modern migration this work was at a very early stage, with physical movement and song driving the work. It draws on the Eastern European/Grotowski tradition of theatre, it was playful and the technique was good, but it wasn't either narrative enough or totally imagistic. Plus as I mentioned I'm not a massive fan of using the shorthand of archetypes, unless you really are telling a fairy story very well or have found an interesting way to subvert them.

Looking forward to the next one already, and who knows maybe I'll show something myself?