Beyond the Front Line, performance week one.

Ok guys, I've saved the performances deliberately for one big post because as is usually the case with theatre (barring stand-up) most shows are the same, but boy do I have a lot to tell about this week!

Lets start with Monday, the first performance of BtFL. I am going to say flat out, the first of the three shows of the evening; Blue Company was not very organised considering we only have about ten minutes exposure to the audience. This woke us up so to speak, we thought "oh right, well, this is damaging what we have worked for, so lets try a new angle." Its hard to organise a group of people who have essentially been thrown into a production together, particularly considering you have the 'thespian types' such as the bossy boots, the stubborn mules, the jokers, the coasters and the person who sits in the corner screaming "Its all gone horribly wrong!" which to be fair is usually the director. So we waited for the next chance to get it right, but when it was time to get up and do our bit, an atmosphere of total control came over the group, the idea that 'yeah actually, this is going to look good because we will make it look good.'

I have said this before but I am at this point going to reiterate it simply because it has grown truer over the course of the week: the biggest challenge of this production is keeping focus and maintaining enthusiasm. I consider myself as quite a sentimental person, I think you have to have some ounce of sentiment to you to be able to create, whether that be through theatre (which I like,) writing (which I love,) art (which I live for) or performance (which I'd die for!) So this project has really struck a chord for me, the fact that the motive behind this piece of amazing theatre is that of compassion and not greed. It is a chance to reach an audience of everyday (sentimental?) people with a morally provocative message that is not politically or economically driven, but simply discusses the concern of human life and simply pays mention to the sort of thing we prefer to push to the back of our minds...

Anyway anyway anyway, I'm rambling which is not good, now where was I...

Ah yes! so that was the Monday (oh god we have three more days to go through.) The Wednesday was more of the same really, except I was able to re-read and therefore properly reference a blog posted by the shows director Alan Lane on the subject of the thoughts behind BtFL:

If I am honest it is simply that this show was thought of in a different reality than we now exist. A reality where neo-nazis didn’t use the cover of troop support to start riots. Where the loss of our Army’s young soldiers was still infrequent enough to be arresting rather than the regular, too frequent sickening beat of grief.

And for the first time we find ourselves sitting in meetings demanding not just a specifity of action but a pin point accuracy to meaning. My enemy’s enemy is not my friend and I will not, no matter how accidentally stand next to the EDL and their petty little shams. And to wander, however well meaning, into the real life grief of parents coping with the very worst of events is not a line I want the show to cross.

- Alan Lane 2009†

I know I quoted a lot there but I really do not want to take any of what Alan has said out of context, it really get the messege across of what I was trying to say earlier (and if you are unfamiliar with the EDL or 'English Defense League', they are rather not nice people, and thats putting it in the mildest british witticism I could think of.) He is talking about some of the strange idea's people get in their head when they see something like this, it provokes certain thoughts in these people and they use it as propaganda for their cause "We wouldn't need to send out boys out there if the world was more like us" sort of thing, if you get the picture. What you can draw from the directors post on the subject is that this show is stepping so far away from being fuel for a political flame and saying "No, this is why we are here, and this is the only reason we are here!"

Sorry I just realised I started doing it again, I'll stop now and concentrate on my reflection of the past week. The only problem is that all I can say for the week is; the closer I got to the last show on Friday, the more my enthusiasm waned, and as a result, my focus started to slip... until something totally unexpected happened...

Out of the blue (and in hindsight I suppose it is actually quite a likely thing if you were looking for things relating to BtFL) I imagine when the people of Slung Low were looking into reviews (I'll write a new post soon on the reviews of the show) that BtFL has been getting, they found my blog. I have been totally honest in writing my blogs on the subject of BtFL (mostly due to the idea that nobody reads it, so I have no reason to be dishonest,) and so I was a little bit shocked that Alan even knew my name let alone mentioned that others from the company besides himself have read it, and I have to say I am very flattered. I don't know if any of the other cast has blogged on the subject besides what is already on Slung Low's website but I'd certainly be interested in what the other soldiers and nurses are taking from the experience. I will continue to blog, and continue to be honest as is a sentimental soldiers nature (har har) but I was so completely blindsided by the thought that more than two/four people read this thing, so thank you to Slung Low for showing an interest in what even I dubbed "Just an extra", I can safely say that my focus and enthusiasm has only been this peaked when I first heard the words "You will be performing at the Lowry".

† Lane, A (2009) - "Specific Meaning" http://web.me.com/slung.low/Slung_Low/newthoughts/Entries/2009/9/14_Specific_Meaning.html