Brighton Festival (May 2008)
Staged in Basement, 10 Brunswick Square, Hove.
Working in collaboration with the Regency Town House trust the performance, was a sequel to Look Now (Brighton Festival May 2007). This was staged in the basement of 10 Brunswick Square, Hove and explored the space inhabited by the servant class in the Nineteenth Century.
The passage is lit by a naked light bulb. The signs on the doors – Housekeeper’s Room, Wine cellar, Butler’s Pantry, Meat Safe, Kitchen – indicate working lives. But the doors are shut, the wine cellar is empty, the dust has settled: only the sea gulls continue to beat their wings against the glass-roofed kitchen, their angry cries echoing through the deserted rooms. This is the setting for WIRED THEATRE’S latest site-specific performance, LIKE CAGED BIRDS. It is inspired by the diary of William Tayler, footman, who wrote:
“A servant is like a bird in a cage, deprived of the benefit of air”.
The audience is invited to view the cage, see the doors open, hear the voices raised, the footsteps shuffle and perhaps uncover some secrets of the servants
who worked below stairs two hundred and seventy years ago. A sequel to last year’s work LOOK NOW!, this piece continues the company’s commitment to making performances in non-theatrical spaces. Other works for the Festival include PARK PLAY, GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN (2006), AH YESTERDAY (2005), GET UP THOSE STAIRS (2004), Maybemurder (2003).
Performers
- Ellen Capron
- Gillian Eddison
- Angela Ferns
- Judith Horth
- Robin Humphreys
- Michael Sabbatin
- Jackie Thomas
Director
- Sylvia Vickers
Flyer Design
- Zoe Gallagher
Many thanks to Nick Tyson and The Regency Town House Trust (please visit rth.org.uk for more information)
and to supporters:
- Dignity
- Clean Dimensions
- North Laines Solutions, Metropolis
- Pelham Associates
- PJF Solutions
Successfully weaves it’s way around and through us, as if we were the ghosts; observing and unseen. Flickers, residues and half-stories are pieced together through overheard conversations and chance encounters. The various dimensions of relationships between the characters are revealed in detailed and artfully specific work by the performers; sometimes obvious and theatrical, sometimes private, subtle and only revealed by a curious glance through a window. These subtleties were beautifully placed and orchestrated, contrasting with set pieces and wide-ranging soundscapes.