Workshops were held in a number of schools
and colleges in Hackney and Islington.
A company of forty young people aged from 14 to 25 assembled to work with
professionals over six weeks to develop a piece of site specific work as part of
the Almeida Theatres Shakespeare in Shoreditch initiative.
Using the direct experience of the participants; dreams were a
starting point to explore the possibilities of making Theatre from themselves in
response to different spaces. Story
telling skills through movement, puppetry using found objects, animation of
usually inanimate objects and dealing with archetypal imagery were framed by a
dream day, a wedding, in which the arrival of a jilted lover has catalytic
consequences.
A chance to embrace and explore cultural diversity yet the group were unified in a visual language taken from their surroundings and experiences. A room of broken glass over which a waiter was suspended, a room where tree roots hung from the ceiling, a room full of 147 toasters, sinks filled with blood, corridors of beer cans, famous people's faces and a goldfish in a urinal. A corridor of moving feathers as a final link to the outside world.
Director: Ben Harrison
(Grid Iron)
Designer: Fred Meller
(Resident Artist, Year of the Artist)
Lighting: Natasha Chivers
(DV8, Frantic Assembly)
Emma Cater (David Glass
Ensemble)
Matt Cullum (Berkoff’s
East and the Messisah)
Cait Davis (Frantic
Assembly)
Paul Hunter (Told by an
Idiot)
Chris Allen (The Gogmadogs)
All images © Fred Meller - unauthorised copying/downloading prohibited.