☆☆☆☆
National Youth Theatres ‘The Fall’ used young, fearless
actors to advocate the issues surrounding growing old. Dark subjects that are
usually tip-toed around such as euthanasia, renting, growing old and sex are
explored in a fresh new way in which dazzles the audience and educates them on
the unspoken. It propels the future back to the present; making the audience
perplexed at this exquisitely directed and performed piece of theatre.
To begin there was a bed placed centre stage; washed with a
dark purple light which intrigued the audience that filed in. It later became a
solid prop and part of the scenery throughout the whole performance. The bed moved
in position and changed the direction in which it was faced to represent both
scene and mood changes. However, it remained in the centre. This infers the
idea that the bed is a solid structure throughout everyone’s life. It is there
when you are born and then when they die. It is where people have sex and where
people sleep and many day-to-day occurrences happen here now. This sets up the
themes of the every-day and things in which we can relate to and which are also
uncontrollable. This makes the whole piece even more personal and makes us
therefore more emotive towards it throughout.
****
The play consisted of three different story lines each
focusing on common themes. The first saw a couple winding up finding an elderly
man dead after searching for a spot to have sex. The second saw a couple grow
older over time- displaying the issues around finance and whether it is morale
to help someone die if they plea you to. Finally, the last sequence saw young
actors acting as elderly people in a care home and their decision on whether to
have euthanasia or not. It ends with one of the actors, or elderly women,
passing. The fact it started with the act of sex and ended in death connotes
the circular structure of life cleverly to the hooked viewers.
During the final sequence the actors did not use physical
movement or body language to change their age. Their voices didn’t change
either. It was purely the things in which they spoke about which displayed the
fact that they were elderly. This connotes how older people are sometimes
viewed as different to us. However, we are all the same and the issues that
face us may be different but we still have an internal combat which tags along
with that. This was a clever way to convey to us also that this is a play and
not real life; but that the issues conveyed can be transferred into our own
lives, as we knew that they were not elderly people and this was not hidden
from us. It told us a tale rather than showed us one which made the whole
performance more personal as we felt as if we could trust the company of
actors.
****
Although many of the methods used in the performance were
successful, as explored above, there were a few moments in which I felt the
performance lost track of itself. In between each section, or story, there was
a set routine of vicious dance moves with harsh vocal sounds such as ‘huh’. In
my opinion, this did not add to the performance but left me bewildered in a confused
rather than excited way. Voice overs of people’s personal experiences of the
modern world were heard over head but were indistinguishable above the loud
movement and noises the actors were making. Although the idea possessed hope
for an exciting display of modern day opinions and physical symbolism, I was
left underwhelmed and felt as though the moment ruined the artistic ambience of
the rest of the piece.
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