3way night

Just got home from the ‘3way show’ at the Birmingham Rep with Yusra Warsama, Malika Booker and RT….. it was a ’script in hand performance’ of scenes from the show and it was brilliant:)

I was squished on the back row where there were 12 of us fleshpressed against each other on just 6 seat spaces – interesting ticket allocation and boiling hot with no air con and with sweat reminding you of hidden places on your body you’d forgotten about – it was still a great night. I had to leave before the question and answer session to pop into work, otherwise I’d have more behind the scenes stuff to report back. But if you hear of a showing of it near you, get there and put plenty of deoderant on – these summer shows in small spaces can make you melt.

The show featured a strong & serious storyline with believable characters who made you laugh at times, and shed a tear by the end. Inspiring to any of us writers/poets/performers as it always is seeing fresh work from such talented people and great use of minimal costume detail – just a splash of red over black costumes. For Malika’s old woman character it was a red shawl she’d tie round her head, Yusra would wrap her red shawl around her head, and RT used a simple red scarf tied 3 ways to represent 3 different characters and it worked so well. Simple can be so effective. Each character dipped out to share bits of narration – removing the red splash of costume to mark this. It’s part of the incubate programme you may already know about.

The other thing I’ve been moved by this week – did you see the ‘Imagine’ programme on BBC1 on Tuesday night, forget smug Alan Yentob’s presence and don’t let it put you off….. it was about a project at Sadlers Wells where they have a group of ‘elders’ as a dance group doing contemporary dance with proper choreography….and when they say elders, they mean from 61 – 84 and mostly people who didn’t dance when they were younger. The impact on each person was explored briefly and all spoke of how they loved their few hours a week when they got to hang out with each other, making new friends, and just to feel free with movement and creativity…. and how mostly they’d not had the opportunity in their previous life for anything artistic.

We’re used to watching perfect, young lithe bodies in dance companies and to watch people who contradicted that trend was so powerful. I love the way poet Billy Collins talks of how ‘the body is autobiography’ – and you really could read each person’s story in every inch of their resilient bodies. Like a life drawing class, older and  more distinctive bodies are much more fascinating and have greater potency. Then I read in a magazine how apparently young women are now not just having ‘boob jobs’, but having ‘nipple jobs’ to get the perky fake ‘nipple as coat peg’ look that people like Victoria Beckham seem to sport – that’s when you really do despair about how some people obviously have so little going on in their life…..

Anyway, forget the nipples, but check the Imagine show on iplayer – and when they’re doing the improvised movements the choreographer requests about evacuation in the war – you’ll need a tisssue for the tears…..x