Lone Twin Theatre play with types of narrative forms and structures, space and spacial relationships. The devising process they use for their work includes music, song and dance; some of the performers are more adept at than others, but all of them have an energy and commitment to this style of working that is palpable.

In THE FESTIVAL the action centres around a chance meeting of a man and a woman at an annual music festival that coincides with the yearly viewing of the humpback whale at this particular costal town in Australia.

The company use a Brechtian style of storytelling, which sets a tone of objectivity around the themes of relationships, friendships and family bonds. The effect, especially as the main female character of the piece appears to have a Danish accent, is a slightly off-the-wall Nordic feel, as if the characters are part of an IKEA ad. This, added to the space they work in, a simple traverse staging, and the use of the functional looking set - simple tables and chairs set at either end of the traverse, add to the sparseness of the storytelling and delivery.

Expressions of inner feelings and other emotions are shown through repetitive movements and dance steps which are both oddly moving and comical to watch. The group sing accapella to popular pop songs such as 'Everybody's Got a Hungry Heart' to express the universal longing of human beings towards seeking relationships. Both the characters feel an attraction when they meet and vow to meet again the same weekend the following year, but when they do, they both want different things; the male character wants the reunion to initiate a potential relationship and the female character doesn't and decides her life, her relationship with her mother, her colleagues and her friends is enough for her. What we don't feel however is any real investment in them as characters as they are not presented to in a way for us to care about them or get to know much about them. We are presented with 'information' and acted out scenes of their lives with their respective circles of contacts, but they are, like the set, purely functional.

The use of group singing is also both comical and poignant because of their commitment to it and to the message of the song more so than being 'note perfect', even though they can almost all hold a tune well. It is the intensity they feel for the songs they sing together that touches us and how they unselfconciously physicalise each nuance of the song. We laugh as we recognise ourselves dancing alone in our bedrooms to our favourite tunes or playing air-guitar to a favourite rock song.

Whether the subject of this episode of the Trilogy can really be defined a 'catastrophe' is questionable, but the approach and style of work which is compelling. The actors Antoine Fraval, Guy Dartnell, Molly Haslund, Nina Tecklenburg and Paul Gazzola are totally committed to the work and style of perfomance and it shows, and once we adapt to the style, we quickly accept the theatrical conventions they use for their storytelling. The lightness of touch and playfulness of the piece leave you feeling uplifted and intrigued.

2010

The Catastrophe Trilogy:
Alice Bell, Daniel Hit By A Train, The Festival

Three pieces shown either on consecutive
nights or back-to-back.
Please check websites for details.


1st - 13th March
Barbican, London
www.barbican.org.uk

16th, 17th, 18th March
Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield
www.thelbt.org

20th March
The Point, Eastleigh
www.thepointeastleigh.co.uk

22nd, 23rd, 24th April
The Studio, Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester
www.royalexchange.co.uk

26th April
Aberystwyth Arts Centre / Canolfan Y Celfyddydau
www.aber.ac.uk/artscentre

1st May
Studio 1, Dartington
www.dartington.org/arts

8th May
Nuffield Theatre, Lancaster
www.nuffieldtheatre.com

18th - 22nd May
Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Brussels
www.kfda.be

27th - 29th May
Festival Ad Werf, Utrecht
www.huisaandewerf.nl

The Festival

27th March
ICIA, University of Bath
www.bath.ac.uk/icia

28th April
Theatre 1, Roland Levinsky Building, University of Plymouth
www.peninsula-arts.co.uk

3rd May
Colcester Arts Centre
www.colchesterartscentre.com

6th May
The Civic, Barnsley
www.barnsleycivic.co.uk

11th May
Corn Exchange, Brighton
www.brightonfestival.org

The air of reverential expectation was almost palpable amongst the audience at the Barbican on Wednesday night for the opening of Peter Brook's latest offering 11 AND 12. In keeping with his tradition of simple staging, the vast canvas was spread out before us - colourful cloths and a few African objects effectively placing us within the setting for the story based on the novel by Malian writer Amandou Hampate Ba, adapted by Marie-Helene. Set in Mali during the French occupation it tells the true tale of the feud that developed over whether an Islamic prayer should be repeated 11 or 12 times and how the reprecussions of this tiny incident develop into bloodshed and controversy.

However, 90 minutes later, the audience are not even aware of it having ended and there is a prolonged delay before one brave soul breaks the silence and applauds and the rest of us as if woken from a trance, join in. There is a reason - the energy of the piece is sermon-like and deadening, the action is almost non-existent and the exploration of the central theme being largely narrated adds a further distancing. The performances are competent but somewhat stiff, the accents of the multicultural cast are heavy and there is no shape or change of pace to the storytelling.

It has a meditative feel, which in some respects is comforting and safe, like the folds of the cloths around the distinguished sages, but watching it as a piece of theatre ultimately makes you feel you are slowly being drugged into a state of catatonic amnesia.

Brook, it seems, is a great admirer of the writer Amandou Hampate Ba and has been wanting to create this piece for 50 years and this feels like his personal homage to him. At its centre is the absurdity of religion and religioius fundamentalism but the piece is full of truisms that take us nowhere new. What we are longing for is a learning or a realising of something new and profound and this offers us neither.

There are moments however, such as the final meeting between the two main spiritual leaders Tierno Bokar and Cherif Hamallal, where the two walk slowly together at the back of the stage in the way of deeply spiritual and actualised beings who are not of this world, that you really do feel you are in the presence of two such leaders. The tempo and feeling is one you would find on a spiritual retreat.

Whether or not this works as a piece of theatre is another matter; or maybe that is the 'experience' that Brook wants us to undergo with this production. It doesn't take us anywhere new or offers new insights, but is a slice of storytelling that does capture at times a true feeling of the essence of spirituality. It is both disappointing yet curious. Sometimes compelling in the beauty of its simplicity of staging and interestingly punctuated by the emotional music of Toshi Tsuchitori and yet at the end you are left wondering if you have missed something or if you have just been expecting too much.

It probably says a lot about the tone of last night’s show that Halloween was only briefly mentioned once, by Grizzly Bear’s Ed Droste. While London Symphony Orchestra’s performance with Antony and the Johnsons (performed in this hall a year ago) was given a bit of levity by their cover of  Beyonce’s ‘Crazy in Love’, there was no such relief this year. Indeed, Antony Heggarty’s triumphant shows with the LSO seem an appropriate benchmark for last night’s, and on balance the feminine crooner’s show surpassed the Grizzly Bear’s.                       

            While Nico Muhly’s arrangements for Antony and the Johnson’s songs was integral to the performance, tonight the orchestra often seemed surplus to requirements as in the inevitable highlight of the set, ‘Two Weeks’. The sense of anticipation as Daniel Rossen moved to the electric organ for the only time all night was tangible, the opening chords got a cheer, Grizzly Bear played a note perfect rendition of the album version all on their own bar some extra piano from Muhly, and the rest of the set was a bit of a come down. Before this, the mellifluous coda of ‘All We Ask’ demonstrated the Bear’s vocal abilities and provided a golden opportunity for memorable orchestration that wasn’t taken at all.  At the premature end of the following song, a slightly flummoxed looking Droste explained ‘…we had an orchestral ending worked out for this song, but you started clapping  too soon… so we stopped.’  I would have doubted him had the audience not done exactly the same thing during the best song of enjoyable/forgettable support act St. Vincent’s set!

            When the orchestra were allowed to open up I thought they frequently sailed a little too close to the wind, taking songs like ‘I Live with You’ into inappropriate ‘James Bond theme’ territory, but these moments of band/orchestra interaction were fleeting. Luke Turner’s embarrassingly gushing Pseuds Corner programme notes identified Muhly’s selfless ‘appreciation’ for Grizzly Bear’s music, but on the grounds of tonight’s performance perhaps he should reconsider any ‘surrender of the ego’ and make his orchestrations more prominent.

The Barbican’s contemporary Music programme continues with Richard Bona Band and Hindi Zahra on Monday 2^nd November, see www.barbican.org.uk for details.

It was not explained exactly why Elvis Costello and the Brodsky Quartet reunited to perform ‘songs from the last century’ alongside new pieces at the Barbican last night, but I’m awfully glad they did.

The chamber-pop quintet started with a new arrangement of Costello’s hit ‘Accidents Will Happen’, much to the audience’s delight, and it served to set the high standard and musical tone for the rest of the set. The performance was neither trashy G4/El Divo crossover nor highbrow classical concert, just good eclectic music with well judged humour throughout. Costello quoted from Tom Jones and Bobby Darin songs between numbers and joked that having been born in the same hospital where Penicillin was discovered he regrets he ‘hasn’t been as great a boon to mankind.’ I’m sure some of the more fanatical members of the audience would have contested that statement as he performed vocal gymnastics for the length of the set and sounded note-perfect throughout.

Highlight’s of the first half included ‘Rocking Horse Road’, where the Brodsky Quartet tapped their bows against their fingerboards for a nice flighty feel and Costello broke into ‘Wild Thing’ momentarily. ‘Almost Had a Weakness’ featured manic Hitchcock style ‘Psycho’ strings representing the madness of a virgin spinster while Costello very deliberately delivered a dry lyric despite some challenging phrasing and undulating lively rhythms.

Tellingly, despite such highlights, it was ‘Accidents Will Happen’ that I heard people whistling while they widdled during the interval. Tonight’s set was comprised mostly of pieces from the kind-of-concept album inspired by the real-life letters people have sent to Shakespeare’s eponymous heroine, ‘Letters for Juliet’. That album is over 15 years old now and sadly, whenever new arrangements by either Costello or Cassidy were played the quality of the show took a dip. ‘Raglan Road’, ‘My Three Sons’ and a hastily arranged ‘Sulphur to Sugarcane’ from Costello’s forthcoming album all fell a bit flat. A couple more pints and I’m sad to say maybe I would’ve been shouting for ‘Oliver's Army’. When an audience member did shout for ‘one we know’, Costello coolly replied ‘...I’d like to play you a new song now…’ and went into a self accompanied performance of new song ‘One Bell Ringing’.

This perhaps betrayed the fact that the collaboration is an unequal partnership; Costello sometimes seemed like a conductor and was clearly the main draw for the majority of the audience, the world renowned Brodsky Quartet just a side Attraction. The Quartet seemed more restrained than I know they can be from their collaborations with Bjork et al. Given a little freedom they opened up old hits like ‘Pills and Soap’ and provided counter-melodies, variations on vocal themes and freewheeling expansive crescendos that showed just why they are world renowned. The highlight of the second half of the set for me was the unstable, woozy waltz they constructed for ‘Romeo’s Séance’ that was given an extra sense of instability in performance that a recording cannot match. 
            A change in mood was felt towards the end of the set with the demanding combination of ‘I Thought I’d Write to Juliet’, ‘Bedlam’, and ‘Shipbuilding’, dealing as they do with the themes of the first Gulf war and the Falklands conflict respectively. Perhaps this was why the material has been revisited, the sentiments and in some cases details behind these songs all too relevant today as Costello lamented. Grouped together like this made the atmosphere a bit too sombre I thought, but for the Post Script the less austere ‘P.S. I Love You’ (not the Beatles’) and ‘Jacksons, Monk and Rowe’ lifted the mood. The show left me looking forward to looking both collaborators’ back catalogues up, but less enthused about their new input perhaps. Quite a show though.

The Barbican’s contemporary music continues at LSO St Luke’s with ‘Beijing Now!’ See www.barbican.org.uk or call 0844 848 8436 for more details.