These are both one-man shows about personal histories. And both make use of the same device - at the end they break down the drama they’ve established in favour of something more ‘real’.
The introduction is a treat in itself, but things step up a notch when the lights blow and a black-hooded figure orders us to sit down while a Victorian ghost story is acted out before us.
In an industry where nepotism is truly rife, it seems that unless your parents are celebrities, or rich, it’s getting tougher to get a foot in the door. But for most people, art is something to be done during down-time, with the ‘McJob’ acting as an inconvenient yet altogether necessary cover for an alter-ego as a zeitgeist-defining fashionista or future Rock God.
Together, the texts collated in the Almanac cover myriad ideas and areas, some are firmly grounded in their sense of the performative and what ‘Live Art’ as a strategy includes, others cross and expand the borders of what it means to be ‘Live’ or even what it means to be ‘Art’. But happily the Almanac has much more to offer than a definition of Live Art.
Weirdly, this play is somewhat like a feminist Fight Club, without the blood and fists, but with a lot of the same quixotic elation.
Both Motherland and The Idiot Colony are woven from the stories of hidden women. Both plays at their close leave these women as respondents and victims, placing them back behind a net curtain or a veil of hair.
While recognising that some Olympic disciplines have more prestige than others, I have no time for those who ridicule people from any social background who have devoted their life to mastering a sporting discipline.
Stuart Simpson reviews two books that made a splash last year, in a retrospective of the debate they provoked over free trade versus state-led development, and argues that far from being the exclusive terrain of experts, the issue of economic growth is one to be considered by society as a whole.
Is China modern? The difficulty is in deciding the criteria. The beginning of the book dealt with a vague mix of secularism, individualism, self-awareness and equality, but Mitter is aware it’s unsatisfactory to equate modernity with ‘the West’.
Crucially, the improvement in information dissemination had nothing to do with the Olympics or human rights campaigners, and all to do with technological advancements. The ownership of mobile phones and access to the internet was made possible through economic gains.
Chloe and Jacob are teenagers lost in a world that doesn’t value them, searching for ways out. And their experiences pose questions - do we only exist if other people are watching us?
All three plays deal with violent deaths and share a penchant for the kind of dim, sinister mood lighting usually seen in a psychopath’s basement. Terminus, Fall and Pornography - the titles alone are gloomy.
These days we seem to play down the creative side of humanity, and focus on the dark side of human relations. We see the child who may have been abused by his or her coach, or worry about what the person has been through to reach success, but in doing this we ignore the skill and creativity it takes to win a gold medal.
This show is so full of life and exuberance that the audience have to be shielded with plastic to protect them from the life and exuberance.
In their form, and some of their content, Shitty Deal Puppet Theatre’s two shows aren’t original, but they are fun.
