Kneehigh Theatre are just fabulous!! not much more I can say really......
I whizzed down to the West Yorkshire Playhouse to take in the latest Kneehigh Theatre touring production 'The Tin Drum' - an amazing interpretation of the book by Gunter Grass.
To say it was riotous would be an understatement- in true Kneehigh fashion it was truly splendid, combining the chilling horror of a war torn landscape with humour and poignancy. Written by Carl Grose, directed by Mike Shepard, with a sound track by Charles Hazelwood - it was loud and crazy manic and very entertaining. It retold the story, in a totally engrossing way, of Oskar growing up - or more to the point Oskar 'not' growing up surrounded by war and chaos, and his evidently complicated family life - overseen by a dominant granny. The cast, as always, danced, sang, acted, and romped with non stop energy and Oskar, portrayed using a puppet, added a further blank chilling aspect to the proceedings. Yet as the play progressed Oskar, in spite of his banging the drum and glass shattering screams became less alarming, less androgynous and more like another cast member. Clever manipulation turned this slightly sinister expressionless bland puupet into a real character. Soon he no longer looked quite so odd and uncomfortable, but excellent puppet skills had almost humanised him - a clever lesson on how familiarity lay seeds of complacency and how 'normal' situations might develop and condition without us seeming to realise. The whole 2 hour plus performance was lively yet melancholy, fast and loud but quiet and tragic, it was gleeful yet chilling.....
I love that Kneehigh use these sometimes rather surreal serious deep texts and develop them to remain meaningful with a strong message but are delivered in such a engaging manner. There is a definitive style and the use of quirky acting, quirky props and quirky effects means there is so much to see and look at, I feel I need to see the performance again now I've got over the initial storytelling and I might now concentrate on some of the less obvious but cleverly constructed effects. The book must be a school text as the theatre was full of school students - it was really good to see so many young people in the theatre.
Several years ago I was lucky enough to see Kneehigh perform in the touring tent Asylum down in their native Cornwall- we saw them do 'The Red Shoes' an entertaining and gruesome depiction of the grisly Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale. It was classic inventive off the wall Kneehigh and very very excellent.
I could waffle on but figured I'd just put the Kneehigh link for further reference but I do say if you can catch any Kneehigh performance do so - they are by far one of my favourite theatre events ever!!!
http://www.kneehigh.co.uk/page/about_kneehigh.php
I whizzed down to the West Yorkshire Playhouse to take in the latest Kneehigh Theatre touring production 'The Tin Drum' - an amazing interpretation of the book by Gunter Grass.
To say it was riotous would be an understatement- in true Kneehigh fashion it was truly splendid, combining the chilling horror of a war torn landscape with humour and poignancy. Written by Carl Grose, directed by Mike Shepard, with a sound track by Charles Hazelwood - it was loud and crazy manic and very entertaining. It retold the story, in a totally engrossing way, of Oskar growing up - or more to the point Oskar 'not' growing up surrounded by war and chaos, and his evidently complicated family life - overseen by a dominant granny. The cast, as always, danced, sang, acted, and romped with non stop energy and Oskar, portrayed using a puppet, added a further blank chilling aspect to the proceedings. Yet as the play progressed Oskar, in spite of his banging the drum and glass shattering screams became less alarming, less androgynous and more like another cast member. Clever manipulation turned this slightly sinister expressionless bland puupet into a real character. Soon he no longer looked quite so odd and uncomfortable, but excellent puppet skills had almost humanised him - a clever lesson on how familiarity lay seeds of complacency and how 'normal' situations might develop and condition without us seeming to realise. The whole 2 hour plus performance was lively yet melancholy, fast and loud but quiet and tragic, it was gleeful yet chilling.....
I love that Kneehigh use these sometimes rather surreal serious deep texts and develop them to remain meaningful with a strong message but are delivered in such a engaging manner. There is a definitive style and the use of quirky acting, quirky props and quirky effects means there is so much to see and look at, I feel I need to see the performance again now I've got over the initial storytelling and I might now concentrate on some of the less obvious but cleverly constructed effects. The book must be a school text as the theatre was full of school students - it was really good to see so many young people in the theatre.
Several years ago I was lucky enough to see Kneehigh perform in the touring tent Asylum down in their native Cornwall- we saw them do 'The Red Shoes' an entertaining and gruesome depiction of the grisly Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale. It was classic inventive off the wall Kneehigh and very very excellent.
I could waffle on but figured I'd just put the Kneehigh link for further reference but I do say if you can catch any Kneehigh performance do so - they are by far one of my favourite theatre events ever!!!
http://www.kneehigh.co.uk/page/about_kneehigh.php
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