It’s welcome home to Sheffield theatre ensemble, Forced Entertainment who are back in town ahead of their latest production, The Thrill of It All, which takes place next week at the Lyceum Theatre. Known for their challenging, experimental pieces, the company have been pushing the boundaries of theatre and theatre etiquette since 1984. It’s also a rare performance on home ground, as the group spend a lot of time touring in Europe, so I caught up with one of the players, Terry O’Connor while I had the chance.
Lucy: The thrill of it all – is there a touch of irony in the title?
Terry: Absolutely, we’re an antedote to the traditional play format, we’re more of a spectacle that you don’t know how to read.
Lucy: The duration of your theatre partnership is quite something, how does that affect the way you work together?
Terry: I guess we’re not afraid to talk at cross-purposes, to be scattershot and pluralistic. That kind of confidence, to challenge and to go off at tangents, brings creativity.
Lucy: You’ve got three new recruits just for this production, why?
Terry: We auditioned three dancers because we wanted to find a new physical language through movement. We wanted to find a way of talking outside of dialogue. That’s why dance features, but its chaotic and its relentless. It’s crazy dance, hard to place and content free. The performers are pushing to be noticed and it challenges the eye because there’s too much to look at.
Lucy: Tell me about your character?
(Terry looks at me and laughs knowingly)
Terry: I’m an experience, not character. I’m a version of myself, naughty, stupid and a mockery of myself.
Lucy: I’ve heard you do some crazy things with voices too?
Terry: Voices are really important for this production. The women have really high voices, they make women sound like kids, bitchy, superficial and destructive towards men’s serious projects. Men are ponderous and anarchistic, but in a comical way. All the voices are jumbled with several people pitching at once making the performance hard to listen to.
Lucy: So is the performance total anarchy?
Terry: Not really but anarchy goes into the making and the structure. It’s not improvisation either, but the dance is loose, the fights are for real and there’s some flexibility with the lines and language, although the shape of the show is set. Lighting’s important too, there’s lots of colour and movement. The audience have to read and interpret the meaning for themselves. It challenges how we experience theatre and how we understand the story and the message. It’s not always chaos, sometimes there are long monologues too which challenge the audience’ attention and current TV and media experiences. It’s like they can’t change channel.
Lucy: If you had to sum up The Thrill of it All in just three words, what would they be?
Terry: A kind of unruly technicolour confection, a crazy delight of confusion.
(She says with one last pop at breaking the rules!)
Date: Fri 15 and Sat 16 October at 7:45pm
Book tickets online or call the box office on 0114 2496000
Tickets: £12 or £16
Venue: Lyceum Theatre