Hard Times - Preview Blogging

Gosh - Well I've got a bit behind again haven't I? I have had a busy old time, and quite a few things to blog about, so expect a few updates over the next week in an attempt to catch up.

Right then, where to start? Well in my last update over a month ago I promised to post my second blog for the Library Theatre here - so here it is......

Hello again! They let me come back and tell you all a bit more about Hard Times.

Monday night saw me attend a preview of the show. The experience starts as you approach the building. Murray Mills is an impressive sight in the evening sunshine, rising up above you. At your allotted time on your ticket you are escorted into the Mill down some steps and are immediately plunged into the sights, sounds and even smells of Coketown. You are free to move around in this area and can observe the townsfolk going about their lives. This brilliantly sets the scene for the play. It’s dark, dusty and oppressive. You see glimpses of poverty, disease, revelry and despair. Bits of machinery left over from Murray Mills’ former life lie abandoned, adding to the atmosphere.

After a while we are taken up to the main performance area. This is a long gallery with a number of ‘sets’ and we do have some time to look around before the performance starts. The detail is amazing, clocks tick in parlours, someone has been practicing their alphabet in the schoolroom, paperwork lies on desks. The set designers and builders, lighting and sound have done an amazing job. It all helps to create this feeling that you are an integral part of the play.

The scenes of the play transfer between various sections of the large performance space and the audience moves freely to surround the action. As an audience member it was a very intimate experience, almost like you are an invisible observer, eavesdropping on developments. I remember there was one scene where the haughty Mrs Sparsit (Lynda Cooke) is peering through some trees to spy on a meeting between two characters, and I felt like I was across the other side of the clearing secretly watching her watching them.

One of the things that struck me, seeing the play in full, was that the sections I saw at rehearsal just gave me a snapshot of the overall journey each of the characters take. For example, the Louisa I saw at rehearsal seemed very cold and unemotional and a bit unlikeable. Across the course of the play I came to understand why she behaved in that way, how she had been shaped by her upbringing, and by the treatment of her loved ones, and then saw the complexities of her character emerge as she fights to understand her conflicting emotions. Alice O’Connell gave a wonderful performance as Louisa, and I was on the verge of tears at one point seeing the level of her pain and confusion.

Similarly, the snapshot of Tom (Gareth Cassidy) I saw in rehearsal, made me think he was a bit of a loveable rogue. But, when seen in the context of the play, in the way he treats his sister and others, he is an unpleasant and extremely selfish character, constantly focussed on his own gain, and not caring who he hurts along the way.

This truly was an unforgettable night at the ‘theatre’ for me and I am so glad I had the chance to experience it, I only wish I could do so again. I noticed on the Library Theatre’s website they had given you their top tips for enjoying your visit to Hard Times, so, in a blatant act of plagiarism, I thought I would round off by giving you Alison’s Top Tips for a Good Time at Hard Times

• Make the most of Coketown – some of the people in our intake did the ‘museum walk’ - down to the end of the walkway, glancing at the tableaus, then gathering at the far end near to exit door and just watching what was going on there. You’ll miss a lot doing that. Take your time, revisit some of the areas you have already seen, especially once the mill workers return from their toils. Things change, people move about, there is so much to take in just hang about and absorb it.
• Once you enter the main performance space there will be a little gap before the main action starts. Have a good old nosey round, take in the detail, it’s amazing.
• Flat comfy shoes are good! As are comfortable and practical clothes. You might want to perch on a bench, lean against a pillar, sit on the floor – you want to be able to concentrate on the action, not worry about snagging your best silk!
• Use the space, surround the action. There is plenty of room for everyone to see, you don’t have to watch things from a specified place.
• Don’t be all reserved and dawdle from scene to scene, keep up with the action or you might miss something. But equally keep your eyes open, sometimes there may be characters away from the main point of focus that you might want to keep an eye on!
• And finally, give yourself a massive pat on the back for being lucky enough to secure a ticket for this amazing event, they are like gold dust. If this is the standard of the site specific work the Library Theatre Company have in store for us we are all in for a treat. I hope you all love it as much as I did.

Hard Times at Murray Mills

Hello blogosphere! Or maybe just me – not really sure who reads my self- indulgent ramblings. I have this week discovered the dichotomy of blogging – when you have things to talk about, it probably means you have very little time available to update your blog!

Loads has been going on this week, but I suppose I better try and start chronologically. I told you in a previous blog that I had been given the opportunity to be a guest blogger for the Library Theatre Company’s production of Hard Times at Murray Mills in Manchester. I observed a rehearsal a few weeks ago and blogged about it, and then this Monday I got the chance to attend a preview of the show and see how it all came together. It was a fabulous experience, as you can read in my Blog on the Library’s website. I’ll publish it here in a separate post, but I would encourage you to go to the Library’s site as there were four other bloggers and we all picked up on different aspects of the production.

I’ve been to see a few ‘promenade’ performances in the past, but this was different as you were not herded around, the action started, and the audience were free to surround it as they felt fit. It really made for an extremely involving experience, I felt completely immersed in the action, and the setting of the Mill really added to that. I would encourage you to go and see it but tickets are like gold dust. On the day tickets are available and if you are in Manchester it would really be worth a visit to the Midland Hotel to try to get some.

I was really nervous writing the blog as I didn’t know whether I would be able to find an angle to talk about that would be of any interest to others. I hope I did it justice, it really was a unique night at the ‘theatre’.

Parade Preparations

Well as I mentioned in my last post, I was off to the depths of Castlefield last weekend to volunteer at the WOW workshop which was getting some of the entries ready for the Manchester Day Parade, on Sunday 19^th June.

The theme this year is Voyage of Discovery, and everything has to have a connection to both the theme, and to the city. Walk the Plank organise these weekends for a few of the artists and community groups to get together and work on their entries, although there is also activity happening around the community as well. Last year there were 1700 people involved in the parade I think, and this year it is nearer 2000. Looking at some of the designs that were posted up in the corridor it looks like it is going to be even bigger, more colourful, and noisier than last year.

I had a bit of a nosey round the workshop and some of the things I saw being prepared were a huge Gulliver, a massive headless torso that I think might have been going to be a footballer, Amnesty candles, a massive dragonfly, some dark satanic mills and a gigantic recycling monster!

The main group I helped out with, Chatterbox, with the help of their artist Sarah, are making a large and colourful Lancaster Bomber. I did a lot of drilling (great fun) and securing, and was let loose with a glue gun. I have decided I want both a power drill and a glue gun now! I also helped make a frame for a steam train, and parts of a humongous dandelion seed head (out of plastic bottles!). The whole weekend was great fun and I’m hoping to go back and help again before the actual parade.

Lots to Look Forward to

There are lots of exciting things ‘culture’ wise going on in Manchester this year, and I am lucky enough to be involved in a couple of them – the Manchester Day Parade in June, and the Manchester International Festival in July. I am sure I will be blogging about them more in the coming weeks but I thought I would tell you a little bit about the first of them.

The first Manchester Day Parade was held last year. It’s a carnival style parade through the streets of Manchester, and its all about celebrating Manchester and its people. Its organised by a fabulous company called Walk The Plank, and supported by a number of sponsors, but one of the key features of it is getting various community groups and individual volunteers, involved in its creation.

In short, there is a theme for the event, and groups are invited to submit their ideas for what this could mean to them. Then, for those entries that get chosen, artists work with the community groups, and other volunteers, to turn those ideas into elements of the parade. Last year’s theme was ‘Out of This World’ - have a look at some of the amazing pictures in the gallery to give you an idea of the diverse ways in which this theme was realised.

Last year I helped out with some of the making of the entries – I made a 9 foot beekeeper’s, thighs, his hands, some cabbage hats and helped with a huge Wicked Witch’s hat! It was really good fun, I had never done anything like that before, the other people I was working with were great fun, and it was exciting to see all the elements of the parade that were being created at the workshop. And that was just a tiny part of what came together on the day.

On parade day I helped out with dressing one of the groups, and then joined the parade as a marshal (in an extremely snazzy high vis jacket!!) . Walking round with the parade was amazing, so many people lining the route, and all of them smiling and having a good time, as were the participants; it made me so proud of my city.

I’m off to a workshop this weekend to help with the entries for this year’s theme ‘A Voyage of Discovery’ – I can’t wait to see how that has been interpreted.

I really would encourage anyone that can to come into Manchester on 19^th June and experience the Manchester Day Parade for themselves; it’s a spectacular event, and an amazing atmosphere.