Two of my school pals ended up in Leeds, conveniently giving me a double excuse to brave the 6am Megabus and head up North. Anna studies Theatre and Performance and the last weekend of November saw the showing of her final piece. That weekend also happened to see in Alice's 21st birthday and, with all my official assessments for the term handed in, the decision to pay them both a little visit was a no-brainer.
As I've previously mentioned, I have a bit of a flair for the dramatic (whether that be conventional or unconventional). Anna described their piece as an immersive adaptation of Spanish dramatist Federico García Lorca's play 'Blood Wedding'. I'm all for immersive theatre as it often gives each audience member their own individual experience, meaning that everyone takes away a little something from the performance which is personal to them. On entering the foyer of the theatre, stage@leeds, one of the cast approached us asking if we were with the bride or groom and bustled us all together to take a photo for 'the wedding album'. Immersive indeed! The 'groom' then appeared at the top of some stairs and the other cast members dotted through the crowd erupted into applause, soon followed gingerly by the rest of us.
The rest of the performance saw the audience become more and more involved in the action, from speaking with the cast members in the 'church' about how much we loved weddings whilst fruitlessly waiting for the bride to arrive, to binding the bride into her dress in a sort of dark maypole dance, which felt more like encasing her in a shroud than a celebratory dress. The piece was hauntingly atmospheric, played out under the interwoven spotlights and dark shadows. One of my favourite moments was when each member of the cast was framed in their own little square of light and, as if partaking in different workshops, the audience wandered around the performance space engaging with them.
One girl knelt in her little box of light with clippings of bridal magazines scattered around her; another spritzed herself with perfume and coyly flirted with the male members of the audience, whilst a particularly frantic character drew audience members into her box, tenderly embracing him/her before screaming at them to get out. Yikes. I'm probably the teeniest bit biased, but my favourite performance was Anna's; holding out two types of cakes, she divulged funny little anecdotes about losing weight for her wedding and her pressurising mother in a humorous and witty monologue with wickedly dark undertones, addressing the issues surrounding ideals of bridal beauty.
Next came another element which took the audience by surprise. We were plunged into darkness and a frantic 'search for the bride' ensued, led by flickering torchlight. When the light gradually appeared once more in the centre of the performance space, long swathes of material and hoops hung from the ceiling. The cast appeared and, one by one, took to the material and hoops and began a stunning aerial performance. Using these props to spin, flip and hang, the sequence was eerily hypnotic. Lord knows how the girls managed to manoeuvre themselves around the material and through the air with such grace and elegance. I don't even want to think about how I would maintain even a shred of dignity doing the same thing, but each element of the aerial echoed and heightened the haunting atmosphere established throughout. This sequence set up a sort of tranquility, ready to be shattered when the two male characters took over the space and, in a violent and fitful representation, used the material to depict a bloody and exhausting fight to the death. The final, lasting image of the two men, lifelessly hanging from the tangles of material, was utterly chilling and moving.
I defy anyone to have been bored during this piece of masterfully executed immersive theatre. Huge congratulations must go out to the cast and crew, and a big thank you for making it worth my spending 6 hours on a Megabus which featured concrete-hard seats and a gentle aroma of urine. I hope you all enjoyed the wedding as much as we did!
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