Published by METRO
I've just started to write a preview for a piece of theatre that's currently being performed at the Fringe. The words I choose will represent a unique mixture of nouns, verbs and other lexical categories. I also intend to employ a number of literary devices including metaphors and imagery, and I'll be doing so in the first person, primarily because readers can better relate to a story that has someone else in it.
I'm 24-years-old, my star sign is Virgo and I enjoy travelling, watching certain sports, and a few other things. I hate to see people fail to stand up for themselves. I don't very much like spiders, either. Today I ate a new kind of cereal for breakfast, and went to work wearing a shirt I'd never worn to work before. This made me feel differently for a while, beyond a purely cosmetic level, which was odd as I'm not usually so introspective at that time of the morning.
No, I'm not having a breakdown, I'm just trying to give you some idea of what to expect from a piece of theatre unlike any other you'll encounter this month.
You see, just like you, I'm a complex human being. You have your life and I have mine, but we don't tend to share them with one another. You're interested in what's going on at the Fringe, and I'm writing about it. That's our relationship, I understand. I guess I just thought it would be interesting to peer over this barrier between us, just for a moment.
That's the very logic behind Entitled. Its architects, a Salford-based group called Quarantine, create works that deconstruct the boundaries between performer and audience, and its previous efforts have involved shared meals and journeys in the dark for one spectator at a time.
This time around, you can't be sure when the acting starts and stops. In fact, you can be forgiven for thinking you've arrived at Summerhall too early. Cast members and technicians casually hang around the stage and explain their roles in the production, take us through rehearsals and sound checks, and talk about their personal lives.
As we are 'entitled' to see both how a piece of theatre is put together in a practical sense and know something of the people involved in it, there's nothing really separating us from the performance. This is a show that illuminates the gulf between our expectations and our disappointments, both in our own lives and as an audience watching a play.
Yes, this piece is experimental, avant-garde and audacious, but it's certainly not bonkers, and its messages will stay in your thoughts long after curtain call.
