Punchdrunk: The Drowned Man

The Best Theatrical Experience.

The Drowned Man, by Punchdrunk has become somewhat of a legend among aspiring theater students as it is not only entirely unconventional, but is also an entirely interactive and immersive experience. 

From before you even enter the studios where the piece is set, you feel the buzz and excitement all around you from the other audience members, all apprehensive, nervous and yet strangely excited. You have to queue to get in and they require you to leave all bags in their bag storage area, for reasons which become obvious once you enter the main stage performance space.

The studio is built up of four different floors. You enter the performance via the elevator after being given a mask which you are to wear for the duration of the performance. The Gatekeeper gives you a bit of an idea of what you are about to experience whilst encouraging you to stay away from friends and experience this performance by yourself. This may seem daunting, given the creepy music and dark hallways, however I found it to be highly beneficial to split up from my friends as this helped add to the realistic feel of the performance. 

The first floor, from what I could see was only props which you were allowed to touch and examine as you liked. The belonged to the characters of the play and every detail was absolute perfection. You could spend hours trawling through the different rooms, exploring the lives of the characters through their possessions.

However the main action happened on the upper floors. Characters were scattered around the building in different rooms and each of them had their own, highly detailed story. There were two 'main' storylines, the William and Mary story, and the Marshal and Wendy story, one of which was an inversion of the other. 

The characters all interacted with each other at one point or another, using a mixture of dialogue and contemporary dance to convey the emotions and aims of each scene before they would split off. The wonderful thing about this was that you could follow any characters you liked!

After examining the first floor for a length of time, I then found William and Mary and decided to follow their story line for a while, swapping between following William and Mary and some other of the main characters until that storyline was finished (each story looped 3 times). After that, I followed random characters, which turned out to be highly confusing at first, as I had no idea who they were in relation to anyone else, but somehow found Marshal, entirely by accident, and managed to catch the end of his story with Wendy before everyone was gathered together for a truly haunting ending.

The experience was entirely amazing. Props, set, costume, performance... everything was done in so much detail that the world and stories truly came alive in that space. I would say that it is not only one of the best performances, but also one of the best experiences I have ever had and has also given me an idea for a new project I would like to do! (When I eventually get money that is...)

Anyway, The Drowned Man is only on for another few performances, so if I were you, I'd get down there straight away!

Tickets can be found HERE.

Other than that, that's all from me for today. Catch you soon :)

xxx

CYAC: Advent Avenue ~

(CYAC dress up)

Phew! Almost the first weekend of December! After two weeks of daily five hour rehearsals, we are almost in the last stretch of rehearsal for our CYAC (contact young actor's company) and boy, are we excited!! 

Advent Avenue, directed by Contact Theatre's very own Paul Mayers, is about 

'Christmas Eve on Advent Avenue, and all of the children have been banished to the attic, where they gather amongst the spider-webs, boxes and broken TVs. It’s a place where their imagination can come alive, but someone is watching from the shadows. Tonight something is going to happen that will change everything...'

'In a performance that blurs the boundaries of the real and the imagined, Contact Young Actors Company will show you the secrets of Advent Avenue, from the awkward office party and the cosy family feast to a banging drunken brawl. Until, finally, the future of Christmas is revealed.' 

A predominately naturalistic performance,  Advent Avenue is, so far, an entirely new experience for me, providing me with such great acting skills! The whole show is entirely self devised and as there were no 'set characters' like there are in Commedia, I originally found this project to be very difficult. With only the poster and some very cryptic hints from Paul as to what our performance will include, we began to imagine what would happen onside the different buildings, how the relationships between the different characters function and from little snippets of scenes that we create, we can deduce the bigger picture of what life is like on Advent Avenue. Slowly but surely, we are starting to shape our characters, initially having only a few vague characteristics before moving on to figuring out why they have these character traits. Essentially? What makes these characters tick. 

My character, Ruth, is from the 'Big House'. She lives with her dad, mum and you get brother. She is roughly 14 years old in the play and is so far proving to be a very fun character to play. At first I was worried that I was just going to play myself as I felt that I didn't know who my character was. However, last week, something 'clicked', and I found a personality for her. She still shares some similarities with me, however it's by focussing on her differences and aims that I managed to finally cultivate this darker-than-I-could-have-imagined character. And I absolutely love the role! 

It is also very interesting to see how other people's characters and scenes are developing as having been there from the beginning of the process, to see the progress that everyone has made and how everyone is working together to create such truly wonderful pieces of theatre is just.... It is trip inspiring for me to be able to witness, and of course spurs me on to do even better. 

Once again, I am hit with an overwhelming realisation that every time I go into rehearsal, I am surrounded by such a wealth of raw theatrical talent, and I am thankful that I managed to be a part of this theatre troupe! It is one of the most rewarding experiences of my life this far and I find myself already worrying about how fast I seem to be going through the terms! 

And now, all I can say, is that I am so very excited for this show!!! Bring on Christmas!! 

(For more information and tickets, please go here: http://contactmcr.com/whats-on/6634-cyac-advent-avenue/ )

Xxx