Battersea Arts Centre Archives - Page 4 of 9

Autoreverse

Battersea Arts Centre

Reviewed – 5th February 2020

★★★★

“the raw emotions being experienced by Cordeu as she performs are something that we can tune into whoever and wherever we may be”

The importance of remembering – and forgetting – and identifying where you truly call your home are key themes in a fascinating and powerful audio-visual theatrical experience at Battersea Arts Centre as part of an impressive Going Global spring season.

As much a general plea to listen to the stories of our forebears as it is a personal journey through her family’s life in South America (and, indeed, the tale of the country itself), Florencia Cordeu has created a captivating piece of performance art in “Autoreverse.”

Using extracts from cassette tapes stored at her family home in Chile, Cordeu learns about the past and rediscovers her present as she reflects on what she hears on the tapes, featuring voices of various family members who escaped the cruel Argentinian regime in the 1970s but were forced apart as a result.

An array of cassette players in a living room are used to play the various tapes (all credit to Elena Pena at the sound desk for making this so realistic), which stirs recollections of growing up, and evokes memories of a bygone age, feelings of safety and home.

The set (Rajha Shakiry) is so convincing the audience feels it has mistakenly wandered into someone’s apartment rather than into a performance in the Centre’s Members’ Bar.

What is poignant is that to anyone else these recordings mean little – as Cordeu herself admits they “capture the banal, the everyday.” But we soon come to realise the importance of these tapes – love letters between family members living apart which capture moments in time to be played on other days in other places.

Director Omar Elerian allows the personal essence of the story to develop and flow naturally as Cordeu shares centre stage with the voices of the past, though references to the analogue reality of old cassette tapes (which have a limited life span) seem odd when it is clear that CDs or digitally recorded versions of the tapes are being played.

But it is easy to look beyond that as we picture a natural flow of thoughts and images falling onto the iron oxide of the tape, which allows a sense of “being there while not being there and seeing things with the ears.”

Not only do the recordings – and, by extension, the show – attempt to rescue and make sense of everyday life but serve a purpose of remembering what may have otherwise been forgotten.

A recurring motif of a tree – Cordeu brings on a bonsai, which she wishes could be planted outside rather than sitting on a table in a pot to allow it to grow freely and unconstrained – serves as a significant metaphor. She tends it with the notion that it is important to try to keep things alive, as important for plants as it is for memories.

With the first recording played serving as a narrative (the performer recorded it in her flat last year) there’s an intriguing question posed about looking to the future and being what you want to be – a publicity image for the production of a little girl dressed as Wonder Woman has relevance as the play continues.

The closing scene, which considers what is truly our home and how we build it up, adds depth to a show that is already thought-provoking.

The overall impact is touching, even where there’s a feeling another culture might find it difficult to share the experiences and fully understand the implication of all the memories. But the raw emotions being experienced by Cordeu as she performs are something that we can tune into whoever and wherever we may be.

Reviewed by David Guest

Photography by Helen Murray

Autoreverse

Battersea Arts Centre until 22nd February

Previously reviewed at this venue:

How to Survive a Post-Truth Apocalypse | ★★★ | May 2018

Rendezvous in Bratislava | ★★★★★ | November 2018

Dressed | ★★★★★ | February 2019

Frankenstein: How To Make A Monster | ★★★★★ | March 2019

Status | ★★★½ | April 2019

Woke | ★★★ | June 2019

Now Is Time To Say Nothing | ★★★★ | October 2019

Queens Of Sheba | ★★★★ | November 2019

Trojan Horse | ★★★★★ | November 2019

Goldilocks And The Three Musketeers | ★★★★★ | December 2019

Click here to see our most recent reviews

Goldilocks And The Three Musketeers

Battersea Arts Centre

Reviewed – 4th December 2019

★★★★★

“absurdly nonsensical but utterly brilliant – and definitely a case of all for fun and fun for all!”

A madcap mash-up of popular stories becomes a seasonal rib-tickling romp in the hands of a talented trio who could have walked straight off the set of The League of Gentlemen.

The insane Goldilocks and the Three Musketeers is the third Christmas show of its kind from Sleeping Trees and it’s worth trekking to Battersea Arts Centre to catch this energetic, daft and delightful production.

Within minutes the fairytale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears gives way to an imaginative saga in which an evil Alice (now Queen of Wonderland) has stolen the happy endings from lots of familiar stories, embittered by the fact that she doesn’t get a decent conclusion to her own book but just wakes from a dream.

Along the way to saving the day Goldilocks meets a host of well-known characters, from a remonstrative Mad Hatter (fresh out of tea-hab), a BFG reduced to size, a musical Greatest Snowman, singing elves and boyband Musketeers.

The story shoots off in many directions, yet never loses its way. Indeed, it’s a very well-crafted plot which – like good pantos – has plenty to appeal to the children yet remembers there are also adults wanting to be entertained in the audience.

Writers James Dunnell-Smith, Joshua George Smith and John Woodburn are an indefatigable trio bringing it all to life magically and confidently, aided by composer and performer Ben Hales, about whom we learn some fascinating facts which may nor may not be relevant to the unfolding drama.

Smith has more than an air of Christopher Biggins to him, “eggshelling” at playing a cracked Humpty Dumpty and others with an impish glee. Dunnell-Smith is an innocent but feisty Goldilocks, while Woodburn is a truly wicked Alice as well as channelling Hugh Jackman extraordinarily well to play the singing Snowman on a hunt for a carrot to give him a nose.

The three work together exceptionally well, showcasing to stunning effect their surreal, physical and pacey comedy credentials. So relentlessly engaging and entertaining are they that adults are more than likely to want to see their touring shows for the older audience during the year.

It might be a show for children but there is no playing down to anyone. All of the audience are drawn in to participate somehow and the trio all manage to handle any reaction from young watchers.

Director Kerry Frampton holds the reins, seemingly working on the basis that the barmier the better and the result is a happy ever after story that makes Shrek look like Andy Pandy.

Set and costumes (Zahra Mansouri) are creative and awesome, with moveable furniture able to transport viewers from South to North Pole, Wonderland through the rabbit hole and a backpack pocket. Lampshades become mad hats, porridge bowls are turned into helmets and a wardrobe becomes a portal to all manner of worlds (take that, Narnia!).

The costumes are works of art in themselves, none more so than Alice’s split personality blue pinafore dress blended with a Red Queen of Hearts outfit.

Battersea Arts Centre has a pleasing “relaxed performance” ethic, which is good when tinies get bored (though there’s little chance for that in this show) and need to be taken out. Or perhaps when they get restless because they need – as do the French Musketeers – a “Yes!” (think about it…)

It’s absurdly nonsensical but utterly brilliant – and definitely a case of all for fun and fun for all!

Battersea Arts Centre

Reviewed – 5th February 2020

★★★★

“the raw emotions being experienced by Cordeu as she performs are something that we can tune into whoever and wherever we may be”

The importance of remembering – and forgetting – and identifying where you truly call your home are key themes in a fascinating and powerful audio-visual theatrical experience at Battersea Arts Centre as part of an impressive Going Global spring season.

As much a general plea to listen to the stories of our forebears as it is a personal journey through her family’s life in South America (and, indeed, the tale of the country itself), Florencia Cordeu has created a captivating piece of performance art in “Autoreverse.”

An array of cassette players in a living room are used to play the various tapes (all credit to Elena Pena at the sound desk for making this so realistic), which stirs recollections of growing up, and evokes memories of a bygone age, feelings of safety and home.

The set (Rajha Shakiry) is so convincing the audience feels it has mistakenly wandered into someone’s apartment rather than into a performance in the Centre’s Members’ Bar.

But it is easy to look beyond that as we picture a natural flow of thoughts and images falling onto the iron oxide of the tape, which allows a sense of “being there while not being there and seeing things with the ears.”

Not only do the recordings – and, by extension, the show – attempt to rescue and make sense of everyday life but serve a purpose of remembering what may have otherwise been forgotten.

The closing scene, which considers what is truly our home and how we build it up, adds depth to a show that is already thought-provoking.

Reviewed by David Guest

Photography by Helen Murray

Autoreverse

Battersea Arts Centre until 22nd February

Previously reviewed at this venue:

Battersea Arts Centre

Reviewed – 4th December 2019

★★★★★

“absurdly nonsensical but utterly brilliant – and definitely a case of all for fun and fun for all!”

A madcap mash-up of popular stories becomes a seasonal rib-tickling romp in the hands of a talented trio who could have walked straight off the set of The League of Gentlemen.

The insane Goldilocks and the Three Musketeers is the third Christmas show of its kind from Sleeping Trees and it’s worth trekking to Battersea Arts Centre to catch this energetic, daft and delightful production.

Along the way to saving the day Goldilocks meets a host of well-known characters, from a remonstrative Mad Hatter (fresh out of tea-hab), a BFG reduced to size, a musical Greatest Snowman, singing elves and boyband Musketeers.

The story shoots off in many directions, yet never loses its way. Indeed, it’s a very well-crafted plot which – like good pantos – has plenty to appeal to the children yet remembers there are also adults wanting to be entertained in the audience.

Writers James Dunnell-Smith, Joshua George Smith and John Woodburn are an indefatigable trio bringing it all to life magically and confidently, aided by composer and performer Ben Hales, about whom we learn some fascinating facts which may nor may not be relevant to the unfolding drama.

The three work together exceptionally well, showcasing to stunning effect their surreal, physical and pacey comedy credentials. So relentlessly engaging and entertaining are they that adults are more than likely to want to see their touring shows for the older audience during the year.

It might be a show for children but there is no playing down to anyone. All of the audience are drawn in to participate somehow and the trio all manage to handle any reaction from young watchers.

Director Kerry Frampton holds the reins, seemingly working on the basis that the barmier the better and the result is a happy ever after story that makes Shrek look like Andy Pandy.

The costumes are works of art in themselves, none more so than Alice’s split personality blue pinafore dress blended with a Red Queen of Hearts outfit.

It’s absurdly nonsensical but utterly brilliant – and definitely a case of all for fun and fun for all!

Reviewed by David Guest

Photography by Adam Trigg

Goldilocks And The Three Musketeers

Battersea Arts Centre until 31st December

Previously reviewed at this venue: