Still Lives
NASDA Theatre, E Block, CPIT, Christchurch
24/11/2011 - 27/11/2011
Production Details
Different Light Theatre Company presents:
STILL LIVES
In Still Lives Different Light Theatre Company presents a unique snapshot of disability performance work developed in Christchurch over an extraordinarily eventful year. The company met to continue working post-earthquake on March 13th (at the Christchurch Buddhist Centre). Since then, a small group from the company has performed at the Society for Disability Studies Conference in San Jose, California, and the wider company has performed in The Earthquake in Chile, a collaboration with Free Theatre Christchurch, TV chef Richard Till and Richard Gough from the Centre for Performance Research in Wales. Still Lives, a culmination of this year’s work, will be presented this November as part of CPIT’s Creative Festival.
The current company of Different Light (made up of actors categorised as having intellectual or physical disabilities) has worked together for seven years. Director Tony McCaffrey describes the objective of the company as “finding new ways to give actors a voice within the framework of the performance.”
Still Lives is our response to the challenges and difficulties of living (and performing) in Christchurch during and after the earthquakes in the city. Christchurch, now a disabled city, can be re-constructed to be more vibrant, accessible and inclusive – but will it be?
This performance consists of three sections: Still Lives (a piece premiered in San Jose), Air Precario, and Other Voices.
“This production was by far the most original and far-reaching I have seen in some two decades, and the capacity of Still Lives to change minds – about the nature of theatre, the nature of community, and human nature – cannot be underestimated.” Audience response from Society for Disability Studies Conference, San Jose, California.
“…a quite radical political disability company” Richard Gough, Centre for Performance Research, Aberystwyth, Wales.
Dates: Thursday, November 24, 2011 to Sunday, November 27, 2011
Time: 7.30pm
Venue: NASDA Theatre, E Block, Madras Street Campus, CPIT
Tickets: $20/$15
DIRECTOR’S NOTE
Despite a difficult year Different Light is still here. After the February quake we had classes and rehearsals up and running again by March 13th, thanks to the generosity of the International Buddhist Centre.
In fact, despite all the difficulties, this is the third performance by Different Light this year. In June, with help from the CPIT Foundation, Christchurch City Council and the Society for Disability Studies, we were able to allow Glen Burrows, Ben Morris and Isaac Tait to perform at the Society for Disability Studies Conference in San Jose, California. This was a great experience for all concerned and a great success. In October, we were pleased to collaborate with Free Theatre Christchurch, TV chef, Richard Till and Richard Gough from the Centre for Performance Research in Wales, on The Earthquake in Chile, presented in and around St Mary’s Church in Addington. This gave the performers the chance to work more collaboratively and to explore site-specific performance in the wider community.
Some ongoing projects have had to be put on hold this year: a tour of Christchurch secondary schools and the further development of the weekend course at CPIT into a more extensive full-time course with a meaningful qualification. For 2012, though, we have received invitations to performance festivals in Leeds and Denver and the offer of a cultural exchange with Mind the Gap Theatre Company in Bradford. We are currently seeking funding to allow us to accept these invitations. Downstage Theatre in Wellington are also keen for us to tour a performance there later in 2012.
Tonight’s performance is not like our previous performances in that it is really a snapshot of where the group is. Much of the work done this year by Paul McCaffrey, Stuart Lloyd-Harris and Kim Garrett has been developmental work with the larger group. The first half involves all the members of the group. . The second half is a presentation of the performance by the three actors first staged in San Jose and now brought back to Christchurch.
With help from a lot of people, Different Light is still here: Different Light still lives.
PERFORMERS
GLEN BURROWS
ANDREW OSWIN
ISAAC TAIT
MATTHEW PHELAN
LOUISE PAYNE
MICHAEL STANLEY
ALAN BARNES
JOSIE NOBLE
DAMIAN BUMMAN
ANDREW DEVER
BEN MORRIS
JOHN LAMBIE
THERESA KING
PETER REES
REBECCA FLINT
CREW
Technical Designer and Operator: STUART LLOYD-HARRIS
Assistant Director/Stage Manager: KIM GARRETT
Stage Manager: CONAN MOUNTAIN
Producer: GRETA BOND
Engaging, thought provoking and worthy of a much wider audience
Review by Erin Harrington 28th Nov 2011
A Different Light Theatre Company has been developing and presenting performances with its mixed ability company for seven years, and Still Lives acts as a snapshot of where the company currently sits.
The performance consists of three short works and is very indicative of the sort of exciting and challenging work that the company is developing. It engages directly with the implications of the Christchurch earthquake within the wider context of issues surrounding intellectual and physical disability.
Other Voices deals with issues of agency, subjectivity and the cast’s experiences during the earthquake. The company bring on their chairs then look directly at the audience. They are accompanied by a voiceover, the internal monologue of another watcher who makes such well meaning but ill-considered and derogatory comments as “they always seem so happy!”
One by one, the company speak back to the audience, challenging the presumptions of the invisible speaker, taking ownership of the space and controlling the way they choose to define themselves. The piece challenges the division between ‘us’ and ‘them’ and draws on the rhetoric of the Occupy movement – we’re here, and you can’t pretend we don’t exist.
Air Precario is a humorous take on an airline safety video and looks to the precarious positioning of people with disabilities. The company sits in rows, as if seated in an airplane, as a voiceover begins to take them through the plane’s safety procedures, but it becomes apparent that the plane is plummeting to the ground and the crew have totally lost control.
The piece nudges against political issues in a humorous and engaging manner – the left wing of the plane is nonexistent, John Key and Paula Bennett are dismantling the right and the oxygen masks are made of orange safety cones. The company don their hi-visibility vests as they plunge into the unknown, ironically only ‘visible’ when things are heading towards disaster.
Still Lives is the most developed of the three pieces and was presented this year at the Society for Disability Studies Conference in San Jose, CA. The three performers – Ben Morris, Isaac Tait, and Glen Burrows – discuss their experiences with their disabilities and those around them; their relationships, their anger and frustrations; the problematisation of sex, the impact of technology upon their lives and the ways that they are pigeon-holed based on their appearances.
This piece too engages with the political, highlighting the real world implications of wider economic decisions such as the outsourcing of the manufacture of ANZAC poppies that cost Ben his job.
Still Lives is very artfully articulated and like the previous two pieces combines live performance with projected video and pre-recorded sound to great effect. It also frames post-quake Christchurch as a disabled city, and asks how the landscape – physical, political and social – might change to accommodate all its citizens.
I have seen a few productions by A Different Light and they are invariably engaging and thought provoking. They are also worthy of a much wider audience. The performance’s programme indicates that they have many opportunities available to them at the moment, both in New Zealand and overseas. Here’s hoping they are able to find the funding and support to share their voices.
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