THE final night of BE Festival 2015 was a
fitting culmination of a roaring week of theatre and dance, celebrated
in one hub.
The REP was buzzing with a party atmosphere and
performers and audience alike were excited to celebrate and find out who
had won the Audience and Judge’s Awards.
The winners of the festival gain support and
guidance through the festival to put their show on tour. Here is a round
up of performances from the final evening.
(Don’t) Trust Me – Danielle van Vree
The unique piece by students from Amsterdam
Theatre School dealt with the topic of eye contact. Their individual
dance piece crossed the boundaries of art and explored a topic that we
often think about, but never analyse deeply.
Their fascinating technique of mime and ensemble
work paired with great technicality was a source for a strong production
of thirty minutes.
The company made sure that the audience were just
as much part of the production as they were. A live camera feed was used
throughout the piece governed by performers as they filmed audience’s
eyes to gain the reaction in the exact moment.
Their performance was charged with high intensity
and incredible detail, never letting the audience forget about the
importance of eye contact.
Filled with research, the company made up of
members Hidde Aans Verkade, Zoë Demoestier, Dennis Tiecken, Johanna
Krueger, Ritzah Statia and Simon Van Schuylenbergh demonstrated a
creativity that was a treat to the imagination and very true to the
psychology of a relationship between two people.
In an interesting sequence, the company showed
their strength of togetherness which resulted in some beautiful scenes.
As a reflection to the impact of the actions of others around us,
performers would fall to the ground randomly and others would catch them
before the fall. Impressive acts of trust highlighted the strength and
ability of the whole company.
The piece was daring and showed a concept that
was as equally interesting as it was entertaining. Danielle van Vree is
a fearless director who gave a remarkable amount of faith and trust to
her performers to create a showcase that the audience trusted in too.
They are memorable, thrilling and bring a unique voice to the genre of
mime.
Quintetto – Tida – Theatre Danse
As the title of the play suggests – it would be
expected that five performers were involved in this production. Actor
Marco Chenevier however performed this piece as a one-man show. In a
raucously funny example of how every role in theatre is as important as
the other, Chenevier from Italy created a remarkably distinctive piece
that had the auditorium thundering with laughter from start to finish.
Chenevier took the role of actor as director,
including the entire audience in this piece that presented surprising
creativity. He addressed us with a sense of honest truth that it was
hard to remember that it was a performance.
As a reaction to the financial crisis in Italy,
we found out the reason why Chenevier was the only performer. He could
not pay the rest of the company and they refused to work for free,
leaving Chenevier with no choice but to perform his piece with
volunteers from the audience to fill their roles.
There was a lighting rig at the side of the stage
and audience members were ordered to work the technical elements of his
production without any prior knowledge. He also asked others to become a
chorus, instructing them on what to do when the performance started.
When it did, a plethora of hilarious chaos ensued.
Those on stage tried their hardest to remember
what was being asked of them but failed to execute the right lighting,
leaving Chenevier to improvise around it.
As a bold statement to political and social
injustice, TIDA presented their voice in the most powerful of ways.
#sobrejulieta – Grumelot
Romeo and Juliet is possibly Shakespeare’s most
popular play. Many audiences will be knowledgeable of the plot and the
character of Juliet. In this presentation by Grumelot from Spain, she
explores the character in the most intricate of ways to allow the
audience to explore her soul and mind together with performer. This
one-woman piece brings Shakespeare to a new level and tests the
boundaries of love and art.
Grumelot plays the part of Juliet and the
audience are her Romeo. In a clever retelling of the famous story, she
builds the bridge between science and art and demonstrates the science
of love.
This is a thirty-minute piece, and Grumelot’s aim
is to fall in love with the audience within that time. She does this by
involving us in every scene. In the party scene, she plays a ping-pong
game with an audience member, as they try to land the ball into a drink
with once bounce. She uses the words of Shakespeare to cast a spell on
us. Speaking the Bard’s words in Spanish then reverting to English when
addressing us was a fabulous way of making the piece truly distinctive.
It was an impressive and funny piece, using every
tool she could to create a world to fall in love with. One moment that
was particularly memorable was when after meeting Romeo, she leaves the
auditorium and we are left watching her walk around the building through
an on-stage projection, making it look as if it was a live feed.
Her play took the classic role of Juliet and
Shakespeare’s work and fed it into the contemporary world. It was a
thoroughly entertaining piece to ignite the audience’s imagination and
fall in love with her.
Game – Unstable King
Taking the role of characters in a video game,
artists Michael Bell, Louis Lamprell & Ryan Murphy show their skills as
circus performers to create a piece both daring and thought-provoking.
Game is a reaction to the way in which the
current generation have become obsessed with the world of computers and
video games. Weaving their circus skills to a piece of high
entertainment, Unstable King was funny and incredibly visual.
Each character had individual characteristics and
all had one aim; to win the game and defeat evil. Throughout the piece,
they provoked questions as to ‘who made them’ and if their fates were
already mapped out.
Playing against each other, tensions were seen
with each character and in sequences of conflict, they eventually came
together for their universal purpose. The result was that the audience
saw fantastic choreographed circus sequences of juggling with hats and
an impressive finale of climbing up ladders without assistance or
support.
Unstable King are a remarkable new company from
the UK with awesome talent and aim to entertain audiences whilst
presenting underlying questions of how technology has become an integral
part of people’s everyday life.
their circus skills to a piece of high
entertainment, Unstable King was funny and incredibly visual.