Games in the Park.

Jo Throup (@Jojiebean) is a little underwhelmed by her trip to Bradford’s Cartwright Hall last weekend . . . she leaves soon after the speeches . . . personally, I’d travel miles to listen to half an hour of stupefying self-congratulation, that’s what Sundays are all about.

Last weekend my Culture Vulture assignment took me to Cartwright Hall, Bradford for the preview of the exhibitions Games in the Park and Silk: Bradford and the subcontinent. “Join us for drinks and canapés!” said the invite, so I happily accepted.

On arrival, we wander into a very full room unnoticed and are immediately offered canapés. I restrain myself from taking the plate, because that sort of behaviour is frowned upon at an art exhibition (and indeed, everywhere else). We head into the Silk exhibition for a wander round. The exhibition is a varied mix of pictures and fabrics – all interesting in their own right, but I find myself feeling a little puzzled as to what the connection is to Games in the Park.

We wander back through crowded hall (I snatch another canapé en route) and cross the building to the Games in the Park exhibition. Inspired by the painting Children’s Games by Bruegal, which shows 200 children playing 80 different games. There’s a mix of contemporary responses to the painting. I’m drawn to Tim Smith’s photographs which show children playing in the park and wonder if they are a glimpse into the afternoon’s ‘outdoor programme’.

Across the room is Joe Brook’s interactive piece – a game which involves sitting on coloured chairs in response to the corresponding coloured light. Unfortunately, the game has no takers, and after surreptitiously waiting around for some confident fun-loving person give it a go we are called into the Sculpture Court. We hear poetry from Raj ‘Silverfinger’ – who performed a lively contemporary games chant “Kabbadi” and Char March who performed her poem “Wheelchair Archery”. These are followed speeches from six different people. Thirty minutes later, I’m feeling a bit bored. Finally, when everyone is done making speeches some music plays and I wake up. The audience divides, making way for Devika Rao, who performs and absolutely fascinating dance that I take way too many pictures of.

At the end of the performance the audience follow Devika outside to the Carriage Porch, where another (completely different) dance is taking place in the beautiful Moghul Garden. This dance (by the Northern school of Contemporary Dance) combines “athleticism with feline grace as they perform responses to the various movements embodied in games” (so it says in the blurb) but for some reason I’m getting a sense of Parisian romance, (maybe it has something to do with the accordion).

After the performance, we return to the Carriage Porch to see what else is going on. There are two people skipping and others playing hand-clapping games (we always called them pat-a-cake) where poet, Char March, reads an accompanying game chant “Mama’s Clapping Game” (by Rommi Smith). Whenever I played these games at school, our chants were less sophisticated (and always involved rhyming words like ‘France’ and ‘underpants’).

I start to feel a bit lost, I’m no longer part of the audience and I’m too old to participate (I’m also wearing heels, which makes skipping problematic). We wander around for a while wondering what to do – we head back to the exhibition to wangle some more canapés look for answers, but the exhibition is wrapping up. We decide that maybe there isn’t much more for us to do – and without an outline of the outdoor programme to give us a clue, we decide to leave.

This was an event that I wanted to enjoy more than I did. The idea was there (and it’s a great idea) but the execution of it was slightly confused. I understand the combination of a static exhibition with performance and movement, but overall I felt there was too much separation. While both the exhibitions were interesting in their own right, I was unsure how they fitted together. The outdoor programme didn’t integrate with the exhibition and generally seemed a little sparse. Devika Rao’s dance and the poetry readings were excellent and worked in conjunction with the exhibitions – but the half hour of speeches was tedious and unnecessary. Overall the event seemed a little fragmented and sadly, I left feeling a bit disappointed.

There are other Games in the Park events taking place all over the region. Click here for more details, and here to watch a video about Games in the Park.

Programme dates and locations

28 July to 2 December:
Exhibition Cartwright Hall, Bradford

Sunday 19 August:
Ryedale Folk Museum, York