We are incredibly proud to currently be an associate company of The Point theatre in Eastleigh. As “home from home” artists roughfiction are developing a new play called (whilst in development) The Water Project, which will have its first development showing at The Point in 2011. More information will follow on this site.
This show was produced for the The Edinburgh Festival in 2009. Read more about it here
Reviews:
What’s On Stage, Saturday 22nd August 2009
****
by Corinne Furness
How far would you go to keep a promise? There’s something darkly thrilling about watching Killing Alan as its eponymous lead (Peter Stickney) walks into a wood, and into the very bottom of his psyche, to answer this very question.
An adaptation of the Arthurian legend Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Killing Alan is a modern fable for adults. Brothers Alan and Dale haven’t spoken for ten years, but after the death of their parents, they’re brought back into contact. At a disastrous baptism, they make a pact that sends Alan on a quest and into the wood, where he’ll find out who he really is and what he really believes.
The first section, with the chimes of economic excess, meanders along pleasantly enough. It’s when we leave the recognisable England of 2009, however, that the production really hits its stride. In the hands of director Simon Pittman, this fairy-tale world jumps out of your childhood nightmares and onto the stage, starker, harsher and more terrifying than you ever could have dreamt.
There’s a real sense of imaginative possibility about Killing Alan that’s impossible not to embrace. Puppet Alans fill the wood (and Alan’s head) while the ensemble, uniformly excellent, push the boundaries between movement and the spoken word to create the disjointed otherworld of the play. The tension builds deftly, Pittman expertly controlling the pace of Philip King’s script until it’s almost unbearable to watch as Alan makes his final choice.
As a reminder of what happens when you go into the woods, Killing Alan is hard to beat.
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The British Theatre Guide, 14th August 2009
****
by Corinne Salisbury
Phil King’s new work, an old piece of folklore given a contemporary retelling, produces a wonderfully atmospheric and suspenseful show.
The tale of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight becomes the story of brothers Alan and Dale: they are reunited after ten years by the death of their parents, for which Alan holds Dale responsible. Shaken by the tragedy, Alan is spouting drunken rhetoric about becoming a man of action, and insisting that losing everything he had would only make him stronger. Dale decides to put this to the test, and in a heated altercation, invites Alan to stab him on the agreement that in a year’s time he can return the blow.
The main meat of the story then follows Alan a year later, wandering the woods in search of a brother with a knife blow waiting for him. But instead he meets a mysterious farmer with an estranged wife: Alan must visit the wife and then give the farmer whatever she gives him. Of course it turns out to be not exactly sponge cake. The “wife” gradually teaches Alan what courage is, and what it means to free yourself from yourself.
The play’s very interesting about the possibility of heroism and self-sacrifice in today’s world, and the idea of a person’s character being tested – something most of us rarely experience. It also cleverly develops Alan’s attitude to women: on his initial hero trip he dismisses them as “dithering nay-sayers” but in the end it’s a woman that transforms him. The journey through the wilderness is nicely staged, and puppets – the creepiest I have seen yet – are well used: figments of Alan’s imagination whispering his own doubts into his ear. It’s a boldly original piece of work: fantastical, but concerned really with the monsters in our minds.
Three Weeks, 26th August 2009
****
by Ajantha Chandrasena
An Arthurian legend re-spun as a modern-day morality tale, ‘Killing Alan’ is topical, poignant and compelling. We meet Alan on the day of his parents’ funeral, where he makes glibly epiphanic claims of new-found immaterialism and blames his estranged older brother for his parents’ death. Unbeknown to him, his sibling has been watching and confronts him; a few bad decisions later, Alan is thrown down a path of self-exploration, challenging the ideas of worth, loss and existence along the way. Brilliantly brought to life by the production, which exploits striking physicality and innovative stagecraft to great effect, the professional cast give a first-rate performance. Polished and provocative, ‘Killing Alan’ leads us on a journey we all must travel.
Fest, Monday 17th August 2009
****
by Lewis Porteous
Only two scenes into Killing Alan, alarm bells go off among the audience. The play, purportedly a “radical reworking” of the legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, appears to have reinvented its source material through the lazy means of simply transplanting it to the present. The six-strong cast are introduced as affluent socialites, hanging out in what appears to be a grand function room, following both the baptism of their friends’ child and the funeral of the protagonist’s parents. It’s a potentially sterile set-up but the Rough Fiction production demonstrates great savvy in dodging the trap.
The play’s narrative sees Alan, a modern Gawain, accept an offer from the brother whom he blames for their parents’ demise, on the condition that the victim may stab him in retaliation a year later. The wound does not prove fatal and as Alan departs, fearing for his life, he is forced to put his emotionally insubstantial existence into perspective.
Aspects of the original tale, such as the disguise donned by the Green Knight, prove resistant to modernisation – yet this works to the play’s thematic benefit, flitting as it does from gritty realism to pastoral fantasia. If the world Alan first inhabits seems dramatically lifeless and staid, this notion is reinforced emotionally as the play’s actions unfold, with the character eventually eschewing his materialistic life.
Though the “bold physicality” promised by the play amounts to little more than the sight of two men kissing, the cast handle their multiple roles with aplomb, throwing themselves into an audacious work which is confident, poetic and deeply accessible.
Broadway Baby, Wednesday 19th August 2009
****
by Leon Conrad “Breathing New Life into an Arthurian Legend”
A highly challenging story which draws on the Arthurian story of Gawain and the Green Knight, and references many others. The central character, Alan, is challenged to a game by his brother after the death of their parents. Sibling rivalry emerges, which pushes both of them to the limits of acceptable behaviour and beyond. As others look on, Alan is challenged to stab his brother in a scene which deliberately references the story of Cain and Abel. The brother survives and orders him to meet him in a year’s time to receive a reciprocal blow which his brother says will kill him. Time passes and Alan travels to the appointed place. He has three days to wait. The story flows on. The blow falls. Blood is shed. The play ends.
Rough Fiction and South Hill Park, the team behind this production bring the varied skills of acting and puppetry together in this work. The puppets are manipulated expertly and are used to reflect Alan’s inner voice(s). It is an effective theatrical device. The ensemble work within the company is strong, enabling quick scene and costume changes to happen onstage with the minimum of fuss and maximum effect.
Whilst we continue to develop, research and make this production…
Tell us what your greatest memories of/links to water are.
Let us know about the best and worst uses of water in film and theatre.
Type your ideas below and continue the dialogue
Water unites us. (Almost) ever present it defines our lives and its presence, although often taken for granted, is a prerequisite for our existence. I touch a glass. You bathe. She swims out in the ocean leaving her troubles behind as she ducks under the waves and stares at the reef. Sun dances on water. Mosquitoes come of age there as their little flicking tails propel them forward in our stagnant water butts and limpid pools. My blood. My blood runs red and out over the bobbing waves, into the distance, diluted,the ‘multitudinous seas’ not ’incarnadine’ – they’re just too damn big.
Lyric N:Gage
Rough Fiction and Lyric Young Company
Lyric Hammersmith
Rough Fiction have teamed up with the Lyric Hammersmith to run a physical theatre project for the Lyric Young Company. It is a pilot scheme to offer workshops and classes in creating and performing physical theatre.
You can find more information at the Lyric’s website.
Click on the Creative Learning link opposite to find out more about our education work or download the information pack below …
Workshops and Residencies
Physical and Devised Theatre
Developed around stimuli or texts these workshops can focus on process work for developing new material, dramaturgy, composition, montage and finding new visual and physical performance language. The work looks at open and closed scores, processes of creating material and effective methods of refining devised performance. Simon Pittman is also Creative Learning Associate for Frantic Assembly and is a visiting lecturer in contemporary theatre-making at Royal Holloway University of London. Notable influences are practitioners such as Anna Halprin, Molshe Feldenkrais, Frantic Assembly and Théåtre de Complicité.
Speaking Shakespeare – Text and Acting
It’s all in the text. Lead by Rough Fiction’s director Simon Pittman, this workshop will help performers find ways to understand and unlock the power of words, and the voice in performance. Inspired by training with Patsy Rodenburg and the work of Declan Donnellan the session covers rigorous unpicking and analysis of text, and fundamental acting skills for working with Shakespearian text. Using active, on-your-feet exercises to reveal how alive and exciting words can be, the workshop culminates in a master-class style exploration of some short scenes. A great session for students who need to understand the dramatic and performative nature of a playtext. This workshop can also be tailored to alternative, non-Shakespearian set texts.
The Actor and Their Tools
Training workshops – Group and individual work on practical approaches to serving play-texts / preparing the body, and body awareness work for performers. These sessions have some cross over with the above Shakespeare workshops whilst focusing more on group and ensemble work, finding openness between performers and collaborative skills.
Relevant background: Simon has worked and trained at Guildhall School of Music and Drama including with the legendary voice coach Patsy Rodenburg, as well as the prestigious Birkbeck Directing MFA. He was resident director at the Library Theatre Manchester 2006 – 2009.
Staging The Text
This workshop focuses specifically on the processes we can utilise to discover the dramatic functions, structure and life of an existing play-text. We will explore concrete and practical methods of how to read, mine and breakdown a script in order to make the jump from page to stage. Participants undertake a number of exercises acting as both directors and performers and discover just how much we can glean from the page and unearth the hidden world of a play. What really is an event? How do we understand subtext through games? And why punctuation can transform your theatre-making… Nb. We can even work with you on your current set-text. This may of course require some additional preparation so rates may vary depending on the play.
Chorus and Ensemble
Working on group physicality and ensemble skills, these highly practical workshops look at ways of developing a group’s own unique performance language. Areas of focus include:
- musicality and rhythm and how this can breath new life into your theatre-making and control the momentum of your performances.
- ways of indexing and creating a common language by working together physically using tension and contact.
- collectively building material as an ensemble through scores and rules.
- preparing and training for physical performance and how to champion liveness in your work.
This show was produced under the name of Inform Theatre in 2005, read more about it here.
Metro, Friday, August 26th, 2005
Drawn To The Fire
****
As elliptical, strange and modern as the title might suggest, this production by InForm Theatre Company is a highly recommended slice of Fringe drama.
Written by Phil King … this piece fuses together diverse elements into a surprisingly coherent whole. Take some Radiohead-style alienation, mix it with some Douglas Coupland flights of postmodernist fancy, then present the whole shebang with the deconstructive flair of The Wooster Group playing Pirandello and you’ll start to get some idea of what’s in store.
Presented by a cast of four women and two men, the show is deliberately informal. Audience members are given name tags and invited to chat to the performers so that the fourth wall is not so much breached as forcibly demolished.
Some of the comic asides could easily detract from the sober subject of Hospitals, which deals with a couple struggling with their daughter’s illness, but somehow the relief helps you focus on their emotional plight.
The meaning isn’t always clear but when the presentation is this innovative, that’s hardly a problem. King’s play demands repeat viewings and a text is available from the Underbelly box office, so book your brain in for a full check-up for this incendiary hospital appointment.
Eddie Harrison
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The Scotsman, 16th August, 2005
No escape from Life’s questions. InForm Theatre push the boundaries of text and performance.
****
YOU have the feeling something unusual is going on here from the moment you arrive. Members of the cast are handing out name tags to the audience and a woman who says she is a nurse is offering massages, and cooing words of welcome, as she shows people to their seats. There is something over-solicitous about her concern, though, that puts you on edge rather than reassuring you. The boundaries of the stage are already being eroded. Playing with the limits of text and the dynamics of performance is an integral part of this piece written by Phil King … Actors share parts and disagree about how roles should be played. Two or three of the cast, or even all of them, will start chiming in with the script while performing awkward balletic movements in unison. It is as if the performers are trying to escape from the script and wrestle themselves away from the stage. I kept thinking of Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, in which three painted women seem to be trying to tear themselves from the canvas. Director Simon Pittman pushes these young actors to their physical and emotional limits, and the writing also makes the audience work hard, making us strain for narrative among the fractured fragments of the script. Nothing makes complete sense until the closing moments, but the themes of the piece are more important than any kind of linear story. At the emotional heart of it is a portrait of grief showing the way sickness, death and loss can scatter the human consciousness. The concrete buildings of the city where the action is set are like a secondary character that encloses the hearts of the people trapped within. I kept remembering a phrase an Indian wise woman said to me earlier this year: “Human beings have become so fragile. This is not the way human beings are meant to be.”
—
British Theatre Guide, 9th August 2005
Hospitals And Other Buildings That Catch Fire
**** (*)
Hours after leaving this haunting production, the melancholic hope inspired by Hospitals and Other Buildings that Catch Fire will remain with the audience. This is a painfully sweet and nostalgic work, examining tragedy and love in a modern city setting. The plot is a touch convoluted, with the intention (as stated in the programme, which also contains a copy of the script) being for audience members to follow the journey of Tom and Katie, a couple with a desperately ill child. The wounds borne by the two parents are reflected in a number of stories the company tells the audience as they lead their viewers through the struggles of characters who drift in and out of the city’s spheres. What could be a bleak and depressing experience is transformed into a modern-day fairy tale, despite the difficult and dark subjects handled. This is due in no small part to the actors’ efforts to involve and acknowledge the audience, drawing us gently into writer Phil King’s world. Under the direction of Simon Pittman, the entire cast, particularly Annabelle Morgan, infuse the production with warmth and care from the moment the doors are opened. Upon examination of the script, it’s clear that there is a spirit of genuine creativity and generosity suffusing Hospitals. It begins with the script but is also evident in the physical and puppeteering work done by the company. The various forms of theatre used in this production highlight and support King’s lyrical text. This allows audience to become involved in the piece without feeling threatened, as one often can when forced to perform in a theatrical piece, and makes Hospitals one of the warmest pieces of theatre I’ve seen so far at the 2005 Fringe.
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