Dazed New World Festival Archives

Clown-Hearted – Dazed New World Festival

25Oct

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

Clown-Hearted – Dazed New World Festival

ClodHopper Theatre’s Clown-Hearted is an exploration of mental health and self-care in the modern world, devised and performed by Leonie Spilsbury and Owen Jenkins. A dialogue free piece of original and funny physical theatre, the show is both surprisingly deep and deceptively poignant. The show opens with Spilsbury sitting on the stage in her pyjamas surrounded by cardboard boxes featuring labels of various emotions and mental health references. A ticking clock echoes and subtitles for the sound effect are provided, a feature which is present throughout the show. Spilsbury pulls the hood of her pyjamas up in an attempt to create a sense of safety and looks through the various boxes. Her facial expression is excellent and the reality of the boxes is increased through creating a sense...

22Oct

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

Meek – Dazed New World Festival

“I’m just a woman who works in a factory, I don’t want any of this!”. These are the words of the heroine of this play, Irene, (played by Maria McColgan) and seemed to me to sum up what the play was all about. A part-time songwriter who is unwittingly drawn into a confrontation with the regime running the country when a love song she has written and performed takes social media by storm (somewhat of an obsession of the character) but is misinterpreted by the country’s religious leaders as a blasphemous attack on their devout beliefs, resulting in Irene being thrown into a prison cell, where the vast majority of the action takes place. Set sometime in the not too distant future in a country not too far from our own, the play centres around the conversations between Irene and her long-time...

18Oct

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

Imaginarium – Dazed New World Festival

This imaginatively named theatre is part of the Dazed New World Festival, put together by Applecarts Arts, based in East London. The festival will explore other themes of social injustice and mental health. A festival that aims to explore some of the more difficult conversations we’re having with narratives that challenge you to think out of the box and try to make sense of the current climate which is giving live theatre some of the biggest difficulties it ever has. It’s live streamed on Vimeo, and apart from a series of instructions received preshow there’s no indication of what to expect from tonight’s performance. Although it does say your bedroom will be transformed into a new playground which sounds very enticing. The creatives behind Imaginarium are Out of the Blue Thea...

17Oct

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

The Fall – Dazed New World Festival

Coracle Arts’ The Fall, written and performed by Sarita Plowman under the direction of Alex Howarth, is a poetic and unique exploration about how we are shaped by tradition, particularly religion, and how this effects the place of women in the world. A simple set with one chair and a table represents the detailed, and often overwhelming, world that Plowman creates. The lyrical language of the piece is captivating from the beginning and emphasises Plowman’s switches between herself in adulthood and her childhood memories, which are emphasised beautifully by a change of voice and body language. Sound effects such as loud, but incomprehensible conversations, are also used to recreate the sense of being a child in an adult’s world, something which everyone is familiar with. Plowman’s...