My experience of Northern Creative’s “Museum of terrifying Example”at Theatre in the Mill on Saturday 20th October 2012.
Museum of Terrifying Example by Northern Creative Theatre featured two live exhibits preserved in a state of what they described as ‘existential crisis’ that are ‘competing perpetually for the audience’s attention in the forgotten corner of a hyper-real museum’.
This was the lead in to this work-in-progress, part installation, part performance, was performed at Theatre in the Mill last saturday, after three weeks of research and development within three rehearsal spaces: The Lowry, Carriageworks and Theatre in the Mill. This sharing involved a 30 minute piece of work followed by a discussion lead by Iain Bloomfield (artistic director of Theatre in the Mill). The purpose of this discussion was to gather ‘open and honest’ opinions from audience members. I will talk more about this later, but I found this whole process very exciting and a rich addition to my experience as a viewer.
So when we first entered the space we were invited to view the exhibits, and i was quite taken aback when I came face to face with a man wrapped in brown paper and tape with the words fragile handle with care on him: I felt like I was intruding and wasn’t quite sure where to look. Then we took our places behind the line and the performance began. I sat right at the front and watched the two human exhibits move toward us. Their struggle to reach us and drag their exhibit stand along was powerful, almost hypnotic. When they got quite close to us, they proceeded to bite the brown paper wrapping from each other’s bodies, tearing it with their teeth, which was very visceral. And compelling. There was an interesting melody in the soundtrack at this point too, and actually I felt there was even more room to draw this out, as this ritual biting and tearing, back and forth, was absolutely gripping and I think key in setting up the dynamic between the performers.
In this performance, we were taken into a world of ‘one upmanship’ – playful power shifts from one performer to another as they smeared make-up on goggled faces, stretched hosiery across their bodies and reduced themselves to strange creatures. It was a secret world of mayhem and bazaar exhibitionism, and I felt like a voyeur. What surprised me and struck me deeply about Northern Creative’s work was that it was a play that had no spoken word – yet it spoke very strongly – in the relationships between performer, sound and object. There was a conspiratorial feel to this – and I felt like we, the audience, were ‘in’ on it.What also resonated for me, was that every movement that occurred felt necessary. Like the stark set, the action had no frivolous embellishments: just the bare bones. Maybe this is what created such an engaged focus in the audience. This focus even stretched to the youngest audience member (at a guess about 10 years old) who actually probably ‘got the humour ‘ way better than the rest of us.
What was also quite wonderful was the sound – I can not quite put my finger on why this was, but I found it very interesting. For me, a soundtrack that is mainly mechanical or pedestrian sound, isn’t something I would expect to find so dramatic and draw me in. Yet I found this sound really told a story and I could feel myself listening intently to see what would happen next. In terms of a finished piece, this seemed like a promising beginning. A couple of things which I loved, and would like to have seen more of were: the swinging microphones (I loved the relationship between the sound and the motion of the microphones almost circling the exhibits and performers); and the fish exhibit in the publicity ( such a fascinating image that I hope appears live in the future); also there was definitely something in those footsteps we heard on the soundtrack…should we see the person behind the steps? Should the steps get even closer to us but not quite appear….? Who knows…
The second part of this viewing was the discussion, and the opinions of the audience or viewer is something that I find revealing. How much were people engaged? What did they experience? Is it meaningful or relevant to them? So the discussion after the show was very interesting for me. Iain Bloomfield opened the discussion by explaining that the company are open to our input and there is a collective belief that audience input is really really important. This whole way of presenting that Northern Creative’s work in progress has used is very interesting. This process explores the views and thoughts of the audience and this makes for a very interesting and ‘inclusive’ experience. As an audience member, I really felt a part of this process. Through this discussion, i found that the individuality in the audience members become more visible; their thoughts revealed little by little, as the discussion around what was seen and what it meant to each person was shared.
Two very important things about this process: the questions lead by Iain Bloomfield were open and transparent questions which really brought the conversation away from good/bad or my thing/not my thing. It encouraged implicitly moving away from judgement and toward new thinking and a deep look into what we as viewers really thought. Second, it gave validity to everyone’s views. It allowed an almost shared creation of thinking, as one thought layered on top of another. Most notably, the opinion of a young boy who stated what we saw so simply yet accurately that I actually gasped in delight. Not just his brilliance and confidence, but that there was a whole room of adults giving their full attention to him. Rock on!
In discussion with a few other audience members we talked about how intimidating it can be to have to voice one’s opinions about theatre – ‘what if I don’t sound clever enough?’ or a version of this. And breaking this taboo, hearing all sorts of people speak what they thought in all sorts of ways, was more than refreshing, it was empowering. It personalised the audience into a collection of individuals rather than a collective. All these voices sharing their thoughts, I learnt a great deal more about what I thought about this piece, through what they thought. One person reflected to me that perhaps it would be good to include this process within a performance. Given how useful I found it, it’s an interesting thought.
Zoe Parker is a choreographer and dance artist who blogs about culture, dance and wellbeing. She is one part of @yorkslifeaqua a dry land synchronised swimming team coming to a water feature near you.
*thanks to Joanne Hartley for the image.