So Here We Are... (by Steve Atkinson)

As part of my theatre project research I am making a conscious effort to go to the theatre at least one a week to help broaden my knowledge and understanding of performance; it puts theory into practice! This week, (30th September) I went to see a piece called 'So here we are', it is written by Steve Atkinson and written by Luke Norris whom actually won the 2013 Bruntwood Award Prize for Playwriting for this particular script.

It is a really well written and structured piece that comedically and rawly explores what happens when nothing really happens. It is based around 4 friends and a girlfriend over the space of 48 hours leading up to and after a funeral. Before going to this piece, I was actually discussing with my Dad how upset I was by the selfishness of people that I was succumbed to days and weeks previous to this piece; I couldn't believe the lack of thought and how self involved people had become in day to day life. Entering the space for this performance, I had no idea about the nature of the piece or what it was about but I can honestly say that it really hit a nerve with me and I can't honestly think of a better time for this performance to circulate. It is something that everyone needs to see.

The driving force behind the piece, was really the writing and strong characterisation that the actors brought to life with this writing. Like in real life today, it was quite difficult to place the age of the characters although you knew they were in there mid 20's/early 30's. Due to there fantastic characterisation and the writing itself, you were really drawn into there friendship group and jokes. Within the first 5 minutes you had a real emotional connection and yearning for each of the characters situation. What was interesting then, was how this yearning then turned to distaste in the second phase of the performance when it streamed through the events of the day leading to Frankie's death. You no longer felt sympathy for the other characters situations, that had been hinted at in the first scene, as they were so self involved with there own feelings they did not realise the repercussions of there behaviour on an already struggling friend. The little themes that tied up in the second half were extremely clever and is a technique I would love to incorporate into our theatre project.

The scenery and space they performed on was really basic but clever; it was a shipyards dock carrier which then opened up and turned into a rave in a second house before been used as lots of different spaces by the actors. I thought the use of lightning and music during the death scene was also very effective as it was subtle but completely encapsulated the car crash. This piece left the death open to interpretation; mine is that it possibly was intentional.

None the less, the piece really touched my heart and has really reinforced the importance of a dramatic intention. It is something I lacked last year but will definitely focus on this year.

Bibliography 

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• Wheatstone, R. 2015. 'The Pusher' professor stands by canal serial killer claims and says bereaved families share his fears. Manchester Evening News [online]. Available from: http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/the-pusher-professor-stands-canal-8450695 [Accessed August 15, 2015].