Welcome to allemptyspaces. Thank you for reading what I hope will be the first of many entries here.
As a student of literature and drama for a number of years going to the theatre had been a central part of my studies. My interests in theatre have ranged from performer to writer to stage manager. Whilst at Sheffield, I had the chance to get involved with the theatre company there. The high point for me was taking a play, Not Spain, to the Edinburgh Fringe last summer.
Not Spain was a fantastic opportunity and enabled me to experience the festival as a performer (playing a Bosnian man, no less) and audience member at the same time. Having now found myself in an office job, a creative outlet is hugely important – going to the theatre, reading novels and watching films are all essential.
I don’t really intend to be a traditional type of critic – this blog will be more discursive and if there’s something you agree or disagree with please comment below and create debates. Not Spain was contentious for some critics and we left Edinburgh with a mixed bag of subjective opinions, some positive, some negative. My review of a performance will focus on the techniques used by writers, performers and production teams and I will examine how those artistic decisions engage the audience.
Live theatre is a fascinating medium, a domain for great freedom of expression and experimentation. Peter Brook’s essays in The Empty Space talk about the method of taking a blank canvass, a black box – an empty space – and building on that with dozens of effects and practices to create what eventually is seen by audiences – the final performance. It is the idea of a multi-layered and multi-dimensional production which intrigues me and what I will be focusing on in future posts.
To the right of the page is a list of productions that have already caught my eye in listings and advertising. If you have seen any of them or have other recommendations please get in touch at allemptyspaces@gmail.com. I would appreciate any feedback and comments you have. Likewise, if you want to contribute to a blog post please let me know any ideas you have.
I’m planning a series of posts which will appear here twice a week. Friday posts will focus on theatre but on Wednesdays I will also tackle novels, poetry, television, film, comedy and anything else which has been of particular interest that week.
The first play I will write about is Enron by Lucy Prebble which is nearing the end of its run at the Noël Coward, London. Evidently, I’m quite late to the party in talking about Enron but it is a perfect example of how inventive a performance can be and deals with very contemporary issues. This post will be up this Friday. If you’ve already seen the play and want to comment, please use the email address above.
Thanks again for reading, see you on Friday.
