• Advertise
  • Request Review
  • Write for Us
  • Privacy
  • Login

Theatre Bubble

The UK Theatre Network

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Reviews
  • News
  • Features
  • Spotlight
  • Opinions
  • Interviews
  • Guides
  • Tickets

A Series of Increasingly Impossible Acts- Tricycle Theatre

January 14, 2015 by Verity Healey Leave a Comment

Review of: A Series of Increasingly Impossible Acts
Price:
Monday: £13 Tuesday – Saturday: £16 (£13 conc) Trike tickets: £10 (available 12 - 18 Jan & limited from 19 - 31 Jan) Concessions:Over 60s, Registered Disabled, Brent Residents, Unemployed

Reviewed by: Verity Healey
Rating:
4
On January 14, 2015
Last modified:January 15, 2015

Summary:

Exhilarating and provocative theatre

More Details

The words ‘Being Authentic’ are scrawled in  thick black marker on the back of the stage in Secret Theatre Company’s ‘A Series of Increasingly Impossible Acts.’ One feels the idea behind the show though, is exactly not that– i.e. the cluster of actors aren’t being asked to be authentic, rather they spend- or the protagonist chosen by the audience spends, the next 75 minutes exploring what that might mean by being put through a series of devised exercises and tasks.

I

The Secret Theatre Tour, photo Helen Maybanks

If anyone spends anytime at all in a rehearsal room then they will feel at home here, not that this is to the detriment of the show, rather it is the point to be so intimate- contrary to what Fiona Mountford says in the Evening Standard, I think that this is what is meant by intimacy. The audience is closer to a performance than they ever have been before by feeling as though they are being exposed to that most sacred of all spaces- the rehearsal room- and the sense is not that dissimilar to Peter Brook’s The Valley of Astonishment.

And in a way this show is very similar to that one. It begins with the protagonist, in this case Steven Webb, donning the gold cape and, by using his body as an instrument, trying to bend a steel pole, shut himself into a suitcase and overcome other physical challenges. The process is timed and the cycle, which involves extraordinary fighting bouts with other cast members where the winner is the person who defrocks the other- a metaphor for the stripping away of stereotypes anyone? begins again. I think I counted 3 cycles in the performance I saw.

Not much happening you might think, but the spectacle- for that is what it is – is strangely exhilarating and clever. Clever because we are given a quick tour of the various forms of entertainment which involve a performer and an a audience, exhilarating because, even though we know some of these things have been rehearsed, we feel the freshness of something not performed before and not only that, a something that asks us the audience to look, in minute detail, at the action on stage and at the talented performers and the characters they may inhabit. Now Marat quotes ‘The important thing is to pull yourself up by your hair and see the world with new eyes.’ I can’t help thinking that this entirely represents what Impossible Acts is trying to do. I also found myself thinking about Peter Brook and his experiments and looking at life in a more concentrated form. Of course I never saw his play set in a drug den in a small room where the audience watched actors playing drug addicts where not a lot really happened, but this show got me thinking about it. It also got me thinking about Lyn Gardner’s recent article in the Guardian which was reacting to David Edgar’s worry that Britain is currently experiencing an anti-writer trend in theatre [the rendition of a scene from Romeo and Juliet is obviously there as a contradiction, contention, as a complication, given what is going on around it].

The show’s obviously a provocation. In a way which asks us to see life in a very crystallized sense. We get fragments of dialogue, memories, and very real experiences from the actor’s real life perhaps, or may be they are made up, we don’t know. And we get into these bits of scenes in between the physical exercises only for the other actors, who read off scripts, to screw them up and throw them away, exclaiming, ‘What’s the show about Steven?’ This is not 6 Characters in search of an author but one, and Elizabethan in its execution as with rude skill, Steven Webb moves freely between the inner and outer world, the world of emotions and thoughts and the world of the physical body and takes us with him. As an audience, we are at once objective, subjective, repulsed and drawn in and our sympathies; depending on the challenge enacted before our eyes, fly back and forth.

Another critic implied that the show’s values- i.e. everyone working together, helping each other to overcome obstacles, is too obvious and simple. But the ensemble must be admired for coming to such a deep and telepathic awareness of themselves with each other. And the message is not trite, the things we most need in life, the things we most want and need from each other, are exactly that, obvious and simple and sometimes it needs to be pointed out in this way too.

Provocative, challenging, an intimate essay on what theatre is or can be, but most of all fun and exhilarating, A Series of Increasingly Impossible Acts, directed by Sean Holmes continues at the Tricycle until 31 Jan

Author: Verity HealeyI write about theatre, I write short stories/ poetry www.verityhealey.blogspot.com, I also sometimes make films.

Filed Under: Review Tagged With: A Series of Increasingly Impossible Acts, Sean Holmes, Secret Theatre Company

Join the discussion Cancel reply

INTERVIEW / Richard Vergette on Leaving Vietnam

We spoke to Richard Vergette, writer and performer of Leaving Vietnam. Richard plays a war veteran who feels ignored and [Read More]

Review / The Journey To Venice at the Finborough Theatre

Bjorg Vik’s play The Journey To Venice is a delightful production, entertaining yet full of pathos. A play with a [Read More]

INTERVIEW / Tzarini Meyler talks KITES at VAULT Festival

We spoke to Artistic Director of LipZinc Theatre, writer and performer Tzarini Meyler about her upcoming show at VAULT Festival [Read More]

INTERVIEW / Naomi Westerman talks BATMAN (aka Naomi’s Death Show)

We spoke to writer and performer Naomi Westerman from Little But Fierce about her upcoming show at VAULT Festival Can [Read More]

INTERVIEW / Angharad Jones on The Swearing Jar 

From New Perspectives, The Swearing Jar is a comedy about love, heartbreak, living with the past and accepting the future. We spoke to director Angharad [Read More]

Top Posts & Pages

  • Tim Edge talks Under the Black Rock
  • 5 Stage Elements to Consider for a Rousing Theatrical Production
  • Writing the Perfect Press Release
  • The Donmar Warehouse's Julius Caesar at the King's Cross Theatre
  • Is this the real location of Ambridge?
  • The Further Adventures of the Owl and the Pussycat
  • Art of Believing at The Space
  • The Bacchae - National Student Drama Festival 2015
  • A Midsummer Night's Dream at Brasenose College, Oxford
  • Abel Law on becoming a musical theatre student during COVID
  • Verity Healey
    Author

  • January 14th, 2015
  • comment iconNo Comments
  • FacebookTweetLinkedInEmail

    Newsletter

    Enjoyed what you've read? Get even more great content directly to your inbox - Completely Free

    About Theatre Bubble

    Theatre Bubble is the news, review and blogging site created by Blue Pie Media and run by a dedicated team of outstanding editors and writers: we're always looking for new contributors - to find out more click here.

    Contact Us

    News: news@theatrebubble.com
    Reviews: reviews@theatrebubble.com
    Website: webmaster@theatrebubble.com

    Privacy Policy

    Copyright © 2023 · Blue Pie Media

     

    Loading Comments...
     

      Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

      Email sent!