Out of Joint – between the acts

There are times when I go to the theatre and at the time I realise that I am watching something special and something that I’ll remember for some time. Seeing Robin Soans’ Crouch Touch Pause Engage is going to be one of those plays. It is an excellent piece of theatre which is both harrowing and hopeful.

This is the story of the Welsh Rugby player, Gareth Thomas (Alfie) and the town of Bridgend. The story of Thomas and his professional and personal story, is juxtaposed alongside the story of young people self harming in Bridgend. Thomas as he grapples with whether to come out as gay,

The real strength of the piece is Robin Soans‘ lucid storytelling and the excellent acting from this Out of Joint Cast. Written after interviewing participants, Soans clearing captures the voices, and personalities of the people being portrayed. The observation is precise.

The set is a locker room, but it also becomes many locations such as the rugby pitch, hospital, night club, school and homes. All the actors play Thomas, who is known as Alfie in the play. This approach is enormously effective and is signalled by passing the rugby ball and putting on Thomas’s rugby shirts. I really believed that a young woman was Thomas the way this was done was done so well.

It felt like every word contributed something. There is no padding or cliché. Crouch Touch Pause Engage are the actions before a scrum, but also reflect the physicality of the piece. One where thought is important.

The production is touring before arriving at the Arcola in London in May.

Further Information

http://m.nationaltheatrewales.org/crouch-touch-pause-engage

Lauren Roberts as Alfie.

The outsider seemed to be dominating the theatre in the performances that I have seen over the last few weeks. I had listened to David Hare’s radio play Murder in Samarkand on iPlayer, and following this saw several theatre productions which had the outsider as an ongoing theme. Murder in Samarkand told the story of Craig Murray (played by David Tennant), who was the United Kingdom’s Ambassador to Uzbekistan until he was removed from his post in October 2004 when stood up to the British establishment. This seemed to set the tone for the week which ended with watching Paul Duckworth solo performance in the studio at York Theatre Royal in Beating Berlusconi. I also saw incredible performances from Mark Rylance as John ‘Rooster’ Byron in the spellbinding Jerusalem and Antony Sher as Tomas Stockmann in Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People at the newly opened Sheffield Crucible.

Connections have been made between An Enemy of the People and Murder in Samarkand, and listening and watching the two productions so close together it is impossible not to miss the similarities of the two men standing out against society and standing up for their beliefs.* In the Out of Stock Company production of Anderson’s English at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, the outsider Hans Christian Andersen observes the domestic life of Charles Dickens, as he stays with him and his family at Gads Hill Place in Kent. Andersen does not fit in well with this English world, and in many ways Andersen does not pick up on Dickens’ cruelty to his wife and children, but he presents the household to the audience who can clearly see this. The Out of Stock production is thoughtful and surprising as well. With its pretty domestic set, we think we are in for a comfortable evening, but without laying it on, the production subtly reveals Dickens’ rejection of his wife and lack of understanding of his children.

I addition, the theme of the outsider, Anderson’s English and Beating Berlusconi and Jerusalem explore nationality and specifically what is to be English. Paul Duckworth plays a Liverpool fan, Kenny, who desperately tires to get a ticket for the 2005 European Cup Final. Though this trip to the match in Istanbul is the focus of the show, the play actually tells the like of Kenny Noonan, a lifelong Liverpool against the political background of Thatcherism and Blair. it is clear from which political perspective Kenny comes from as invites the audience to boo at an image of Margaret Thatcher. On the other hand, Jerusalem explores what it is to be English now, and deals with many issues which we are uncomfortable in discussing. In his portrayal of Byron, Rylance takes the audience on his side. We laugh so much, but at the end I was left shocked. It felt like a the destruction of a man, an individual, but also a way of life and to make choices in life.

Further Information