503 Fusions

Theatre 503

EXCERPT: "The gentleness of Karis Halsall's delivery belied the force of the issues explored, or the poetic beauty of some of her writing. Totally enrapturing, it was a brilliant start to the evening."

Summary

A city that screams –

I want to trim the fat,

I want to be meek,

I want to go back to being slight

And hungry.

Four Mini Plays set in One City take you from dusk to dawn and back again.

Blurring boundaries to create cutting edge new writing, our playwrights and poets turned performers will collaborate with a director and a musician to create an innovative synthesis of storytelling, spoken word, playwriting, performance and live soundscape scores.

503Fusions is a unique and experimental series of provocations to playwrights and theatre makers in which they are challenged collaborate, push the form and create fascinating fusions.

Thoughts

Karis Halsall, who also curated the whole evening, opened it with a performance of her monologue Night. Accompanied by Sam Organ, it was a sensitive, poetic and intelligent exploration of a personal struggle. The gentleness of her delivery belied the force of the issues explored, or the poetic beauty of some of her writing. Totally enrapturing, it was a brilliant start to the evening. 

Tommy Sissons, performing Day with Normanton Street, gave a performance that felt slightly wannabe rapper at moments (perhaps just because he acted differently to how he looked). Although there were moments where the piece's lack of cohesion was more obvious and he felt like he went off on one on his own, for the most part it was a well written diatribe about the issues that the youth face, with a good energy that complemented the more softly spoken Karis.

I really liked Gemma Rogers' Day II: she and it totally engaged our interest, and was charmingly naturalistic and kooky. I enjoyed her songs and the personalities that shone through from accompanying musicians Nick Rogers and Dominic Kennedy. Again, this was perfectly placed after Tommy Sissons' piece; bringing us back into the fold as participants in the evening's drama and preventing the night from taking itself too seriously.

I found Deanna Rodger and Tuesday Born's Night II disappointing - it didn't have enough shifts in pace, dynamic or content to keep me engaged in the same way the previous pieces had done. But the rest of the night was so strong that I still came out with a strong sense of it having been a great night, even though I missed having the exit-the-auditorium-buzz.