Tag: Ira Mandela Siobhan

Can We Talk About This? by Lloyd Newson, DV8, Lyttelton Theatre, 17 March 2012

Verbatim Theatre and Physical Theatre don’t seem, on the face of it, to be complementary genres.

But this piece, conceived by Lloyd Newson and performed by physical theatre company DV8, tries to combine the two, around the tricky subject of Islamic extremism, Islamophobia, multiculturalism, censorship, freedom of speech and hate crimes.

It sort-of worked, in that it got me and Janie talking about those subjects afterwards, but it didn’t really work for us, in itself, as a piece talking about those tricky subjects.

In truth, verbatim theatre about such tricky subjects would need more words and less dance.

I think the critics pretty much concurred with our view – here is a link to a search term for the reviews.

The vid link below gives you a reasonable idea of what this production looked and sounded like:

Can We Talk About This? by Lloyd Newson/DV8 Physical Theatre, Lyttelton Theatre, 17 March 2012

I remember surprisingly little about this evening.  I do remember it being short, physical and interesting, but nothing tangible about it really sticks.  I’m not sure that the complex subject matter and verbatim style lends itself to this sort of  physical theatre – the issues get buried or confused in the performance and visuals.

Still, you can read all about it here, the RNT resources on the production.

It seems that the Daily Mail got it and liked it; perhaps that explains my confusion.

Charles Spencer in n the Telegraph liked it too.

Michael Billington gives the show a fair review, I think.  I’m starting to remember it a bit better.

I might chat it through with Janie, see what she remembers and edit in some more thoughts.  If you are reading this paragraph, then I haven’t yet done that or drew a blank from Janie too.

Fela! by Jim Lewis & Bill T Jones, Olivier Theatre, 11 December 2010

We don’t normally do musicals. But this one sounded interesting and different so we booked it.

Set in Nigeria in the late 1970s, it is basically a tribute to the life, music and politics of Fela Kuti.

It was at the National, so of course no on-line resource to help navigate all the whys and wherefores of the show. This search term – click here – should find the (mostly rave) reviews and other resources you might want.

I’m not sure we need a subsidised National Theatre to import this sort of hit show from Broadway and make a hit of it in London, but anyway I’m glad it was on there and I’m very glad we saw it. This was just the sort of boost we needed so soon after Phillie’s passing. A life-affirming show, but with real grit too.

Here’s the trailer vid: