The end of my second week in London and I’m getting to know the city a little better. Yesterday I was at Borough Market for lunch and then wafted about in the TATE during the afternoon (Matisse – tick, Giacometti – tick, Warhol – tick, oh, and discovered Victor Pasmore).
I wanted to see a show in the evening – but I also wanted to explore the Southwark area – but I still wanted to see a show – and see London at the same time. If only there were such thing as a travelling theatre piece that uncovers hidden treasures in the streets around the theatre and imbues otherwise urbane objects such as air vents and bollards lining a footpath with meaning.
Lovers Walk by Marcelo dos Santos and Gemma Kerr departed from Southwark Playhouse at 7pm and took about twenty of us on a one hour tour of all the places that were special to ‘Rosie’ and ‘Matt’ within a 1km radius of the theatre. A fantastic concept that left me wondering if it would work in other cities… It did in fact start life in Brighton and has been re-written for London. The actors telling the couple's story - sometimes in third person, sometimes in first, interacted with the audience (and the accidental audience) in each stop of the tour. It was a very special experience.
Not that I want to detract at all from the show, which I really enjoyed, but I did want to mention what a shame it is that people get killed while being entertained.
If people didn’t get killed while being entertained, the playwrights/producers wouldn’t have felt compelled to weave a disclaimer into the opening scene. It went something like this:
Matt: Matt loved her from the moment he saw her red umbrella. And he followed her across the road.
Rosie: (To Audience) As we walk around please make sure you don’t get hit by a car when you cross the road.
Matt: She disappeared around the corner.
Rosie: (To Audience) Please don’t trip over on the pavement.
OH&S is ruining our lives! I don’t want to harp on about it too much but I have experienced first hand just how difficult it is to make things happen in (Australian) public spaces and it comes down to the increased (perceived?) risk of being sued. The shame is, it's not only the theatre-makers who are risk-aware, but audiences are also attuned to risk as they encounter risk-mitigating measures every day in their work places and in public. So when something is set alight on stage, rather than enjoying the moment, audiences and theatre-makers alike are all looking for the bucket of sand.
Last week I read The Producers: Alchemists of the Impossible which presents a series of interviews with UK producers including Helen Marriage. It took her five years to arrange for a 12 metre high elephant puppet to walk down a street in London (The Sultan's Elephant 2006). The spectacle was a huge success: seen by an estimated one million people in London and highly acclaimed for its originality and appeal. This sort of thing should happen all the time and we shouldn't feel as though we're being done a favour when it does!
Of course, OH&S regulation isn't going to go away so it requires good problem-solving and negotiation skills on the part of theatre-makers if we want to make audiences believe they are taking their lives in their own two hands when the lights go down.
Of course, OH&S regulation isn't going to go away so it requires good problem-solving and negotiation skills on the part of theatre-makers if we want to make audiences believe they are taking their lives in their own two hands when the lights go down.
Now here are some flowers.
