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My Sisyphus Merry-go-Round |
Evolution and revolution in Sprint to the finish line
JUNE is the month to be a fly on the dressing room wall of the Camden People’s Theatre.
The vast array of experimental shows at this year’s Sprint Festival, sometimes several per night, prompts one to wonder what pirates talk about with pregnant men backstage, or if the ghosts and members of the underworld have any tips for the theatre collective preparing to leave this world behind.
Companies from all over the globe descend on the Hampstead Road venue to take part in this season of organised madness, innovation and avant-garde, now in its 12th year. Ridiculusmus, Shunt, and Fevered Sleep are all former contributors.
This year, audiences are invited to explore the backwaters of the Regent’s Canal, accompanied by live music and storytelling, in Vagabond’s Voyage. Agoraphobics might prefer Harriet Poole’s (in)visible exchange, a one on one performance held in a small, pitch dark room. And who could fail to appreciate PREGNANT?!, a treatise on the problems of having your body colonised by rabbits, performed by a pseudo-pregnant man guilty of “overly intimate relationships” with bunnies. It could happen to anyone.
In The Gathering Storm, two pirates recount a story that grows with every rendition. It goes on for 12 hours. Viewers can leave, take in a marathon, and return to find the tale still going, gigantic and delirious.
There are more accessible pieces too, such as Kings of England – a real life father and son describing family experiences in a series of charming vignettes – and a workshop performance from South Camden Community School and Complicite Education.
Many of the performance pieces this year are interested in the process of memory. But Matt Ball, the artistic director who has organised the festival for the last three years, insists there is no overarching theme to the plays.
“We look for anything challenging, different and playful with form,” he says. “When themes crop up it’s just a coincidence, a tapping into a zeitgeist between the artists. For instance, there’s a man taken over by rabbits and a piece celebrating Darwin’s 200th birthday. They link quite nicely in terms of evolution and bizarre animal revolution.”
Simon Wroe
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