The music in devised theatre is always the same, isn't it? I went to some of the Light Night entertainment in Leeds library and art gallery earlier this evening, and there was a super burlesque-cabaret-bunch of stuff going on. But I've heard it all before. Chris Goode's mooted moratorium, mentioned earlier today by Andrew Haydon really ought to incorporate the whole musical aesthetic implied by the dreaded accordion.
Don't get me wrong. There are episodes of The West Wing that I've seen a dozen times or more without my geekery thinning out. I like this stuff. But will someone please create a piece of devised physical theatre using something else?
Who's to blame? Brecht? Shockheaded Peter? Answers on a postcard.
It must be possible to create a piece of theatre using a different musical tradition as its pulse. I'd like to see a show soundtracked by Vin Garbutt, if it has to be folksy, or maybe, radically, something involving neither guitar nor accordion. My next show for Strange Bedfellows is going to be a sort of life of Will Kemp. Part of its artistic mission, I've now decided, is to make the lute cool.
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4 comments:
Heh heh. I saw a physical theatre piece last night, set in a train station (bus station?) and - guess what! It had a lute!
Nothing new under the sun, eh?
I maintain that if you want to do a physical montagey sequence, you can do a lot worse than sticking to late-70s new wave. In "The Space Race" we used "Dot Dash" by Wire to mark America putting its first rocket into space - cheerfully incongruous, and yet still kicking much ass.
Who's to blame? The French, Eastern Europeans, Gypsies - usual suspects really. You ought to read the Mail more often :-)
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