Fun and frolics with Fanfared

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In a fitting addition to the  40th birthday season at the Crucible, Fanfared takes its name from the very first performance on that famous thrust stage – Fanfare, a piece improvised by some local children. Indeed, Invisible Flock, the concoctors of this immersive piece of theatre are rather like mischievous children, delighting in taking their select audience of twenty on a merry dance in which we drink Babycham, don some faintly ridiculous costumes and embark on a quest through the labyrinthine  corridors of the Crucible backstage. The framing narrative to these theatrical japes takes us back to the Crucible on its opening night in November of 1971 when the stage was graced by a then unbeknighted Ian McKellan. The great man delivered a monologue of Chekhov’s Vasili, a raddled old actor who finds himself locked in the theatre one night. It is the ghost of Vasili, we are earnestly told by our narrator Ben Eaton, which haunts the Crucible to this day, and it is this ghost which we the audience must go  a-hunting over the next two hours.

This is where the fun really begins since the true joy of Fanfared is the opportunity it affords to have a good poke about in areas of the theatre normally kept well behind the red curtain – the wardrobe, the props store, even the open plan offices of the administration staff.  This compelling voyeurism is heightened by the fact that while Fanfared runs its unconventional course, in which each audience member is free to wander and shape their own experience, the Crucible continues to present Lives in Art on the main stage. This means our own drama is interspersed with actors coming and going, crew calls and quick changes in a rather wonderful symbiosis which characterises the theatre as a living, breathing organism.

The dramatic action is propelled by the fact that each of us are given a quest –  to find a set of matches, musical notes or pages of a script – much like a thespy crystal maze.  These tasks compel us to interact with the eccentric inhabitants of this backstage world – an undertaker, a dance marathon caller, a hirsute archivist – and open the door to a series of intriguing rooms – the Cabaret-esque Kit Kat Club, a starlet’s dressing room and a low rent bingo hall. Like a theatrical treasure hunt there are treats every way you turn – ‘the walk out chair’ which tells the story of controversy at the Crucible, a collection of old programmes in 70s graphic design which has just about become cool again, and best of all a costume rack which seems to sing to you with the voice of Artistic Director Daniel Evans.

A great deal of work has gone into this performance from the legion number of props to the gamely ad-libbing of our backstage guides to the invisible walky-talky project-managing which must go into such a complex event. The result is as cheeky, bubbly and intoxicating as the complimentary Babycham. This is just the kind of new work the Crucible should be celebrating with.

Fanfared runs at the Crucible until 12 November.

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