Delightful. Intriguing. Resonant.
THE CLEANSING OF CONSTANCE BROWN presented by STAN'S CAFE
@ A E Harris, 1st - 19th March, 18.30 & 20.30 (running time 70min)
(no perfs. Sundays or Mondays)
TICKETS FOR ALL SHOWS ARE NOW AVAILABLE VIA THE MAC BOX OFFICE
Simple Maths started life as a theatre game designed for the Birmingham Federation of
Youth Theatres; it became an hour long show in which five people change the order in
which they sit on six chairs facing the audience.
The piece has no conscious narrative, no text and no mime. Stripped of so
many possibilities for dramatic expression Simple Maths forces theatre to
reveal its fractal quality. There remains drama in Simple Maths but it lies
at a detailed level, in a range of personal ticks, smiles, glances and yawns
carefully placed through the show.
With no obvious models to follow audiences are left to develop their
own viewing strategies, most developing a series of fragmentary narratives
from the juxtaposition of details they are presented with. This process is
reminiscent of the text device in Ocean of Storms,
but here the fragments are not designed to contribute to any master narrative.
The delight and risk of Simple Maths is that it contains no mechanism for
self defence. If audiences make a connection with the show they find it highly
rewarding, packed with incident, personal resonance and intellectual stimulation.
For those who fail to make the connection, perhaps watching the same performance,
there is little conventional 'entertainment' to carry them to the end.
Possibly the most successful performance of Simple Maths was at Preset,
in Nottingham, as part of the "Body, Space, Image" season where the dance
setting appeared to contextualise the performance to good effect.
No video available - yet.
Devised and Performed by
Sarah Dawson
Amanda Hadingue
Jake Oldershaw
Craig Stephens
Nick Walker
Directed by: James Yarker
Composer and sound operation: Jon Ward
Design: Miguel Angel Bravo
Lighting design and operation: Simon Gowan
Publicity photos: Mark Taylor
Production photos: James Yarker
Graphic Design: Simon Ford
Simple Maths received financial support from:
Arts Council of England, West Midlands Arts & Birmingham City Council
No Reviews
Video: Simple Maths
DVD
£18.00 including postage
DVD
£18.00 including postage
Script: Simple Maths
£3.00 including postage
£3.00 including postage
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Diary
Shop
- 5th - 7th November 1997:
Belgrade Studio Theatre, Coventry - 8th November 1997:
Music Hall, Shrewsbury - 12th November 1997:
University of Essex, Colchester - 14th & 15th November 1997:
New Victoria Theatre, Newcastle-Under-Lyme - 18th November 1997:
The Green Room, Manchester - 19th November 1997:
Roadmender, Northampton - 20th & 21st November 1997:
MAC, Birmingham - 22nd November 1997:
Prema Arts Centre, Dursley - 26th November 1997:
Portsmouth Arts Centre - 28th November 1997:
Fairfield Arts Centre, Basingstoke - 29th November 1997:
Pegasus, Oxford - ? March 1998:
Melton Mowbray College - ? March 1998:
Preset, Nottingham