In March of this year, fire broke out at the Battersea Arts Centre, engulfing the roof and destroying the beautiful old Grand Hall of the venue.
Amazingly, with support from the local community as well as the larger arts community, the venue has managed to keep going with the minimum amount of disruption but I was curious to see how it would all be when I went to see STAND at the BAC last night. Although work is still continuing to rebuild the Grand Hall brick by brick and there was some scaffolding around the outside of the building, the main front portion of the building remains intact and some of the other spaces within the building also escaped damage.
What a relief! The BAC is an independent venue much loved by artists, companies and visitors. I’ve seen many a good show there and their commitment to new writing through their Scratch evenings and providing a platform for radical touring productions remains undaunted.
Radicalism is at the heart of the Oxford Playhouse’s production of STAND (running till 9th May). 6 actors enter the space and take their seats to tell 6 stories. The stories were selected by writer/director Chris Goode for their acts of bravery, large or small. STAND celebrates people taking a stand, in whatever way they can, whether through climate change activism, fighting the council and government on local issues, or for just standing up to bullying.
The stories are interwoven and blended to create a powerful evening which gives you hope for our future as a species but at the same time despair at the way it is the big corporations and government, driven in the main by money and power, who hold our precarious future in their hands.
The actors each capture the “voice” and spirit of the people telling their story (a few of the activists were there after the performance so I got to make comparisons) and it’s a show that asks profound questions to do with how we live our lives and how we go about creating a more sustainable future for the generations to come. It is moving and thought-provoking and heart-warming in equal measure.
I had two mini gripes. Not really big enough to be gripes but small quibbles really. The first was that the scripts were on stands beside each seated actor. It was probably a conscious choice between the director and actors to keep the staging very simple and to make the audience aware perhaps that we were hearing real stories told by actors. But one actor referred to his script more than the other actors and whilst it didn’t hamper the direct communication between actors and audience, neither did the staging lift the evening to anything more than a very well presented set of moving stories.
Personally, I think the piece would have worked even better if it had been learnt and the scripts removed from the stage.
My second slight quibble was the fact that the actors were mic’d. I understand the thinking behind it. There was a low music/soundscape through-out, so the actors mic’d voices became part of that soundscape and it meant that they could also portray a level of intimacy, of quiet, reflective storytelling that drew us in to listening. I was struck by how it would make an excellent drama for radio. But the night I went, there was some mic interference – a few sounds I can only describe as sqkhckchkckhckkhk during some of the stories, which was distracting. Also for a small space, I felt there was no real reason for the actors to be mic’d.
These two minor things didn’t take away anything from a worthwhile evening but I just felt they didn’t really add anything to it either.
Both the production and the BAC itself deserve support so I would encourage you to go and hear these funny and heart-warming tales of bravery.
If you can’t attend the production but would like to show your support in other ways, either by donating something to the BAC phoenix fund or checking out some of the activists’ work, you can click on the links below.
BAC fund – https://www.nationalfundingscheme.org/BAC012#.VTpuxtJVhHw
BP or not BP – http://bp-or-not-bp.org/
theactorsguidetolondon 