Introducing ‘Thrash’
‘Thrash’ is RoguePlay’s debut digital piece. RoguePlay is a UK based highly physical theatre company, creating a unique style of narrative theatre using aerial and ground based circus, dance and spoken word.
‘Thrash’ by RoguePlay Theatre
‘Thrash’ is an autobiographical piece written by our Co-Creative Director Lorna Meehan a few years ago in an attempt to capture what was going on in her head in response to trauma after a bereavement. She wanted to keep the piece raw and disjointed with moments of calm, ultimately leading towards acceptance and healing. The loose narrative takes the form of a stream of consciousness monologue interrupted by voices, some of them real and soothing, others imaginary and invasive. All of them having a role to play in pushing the protagonist to understand and move on after a catastrophic loss and the unpredictable nature of grief. Lorna wanted to make a candid and emotive piece of aural theatre that opens up discussion about grief and mental wellbeing and creates solidarity.
We produce both large scale outdoor family friendly spectacle and intimate autobiographical indoor shows centred around talking openly about difficult subjects and empowering women.
We originally saw it as a live performance but as time went on it became clear that it made more of an impact as an aural piece that the listener engages with on an individual level through headphones. We want to instruct the audience member to perform an everyday task whilst listening, to explore the idea that you can look as if everything is fine to other people while there is a mental storm raging inside. Putting it out into the digital arena not only allows us to present the piece in the most accessible format in terms of its concept but it also allows us to potentially reach a whole new audience.
As Lorna and RoguePlay Theatre’s Artistic Director Kim Wildborne (formally Kim Charnock) have got older, had different life experiences and hit milestones we have become more interested in creating work around our personal experiences. Often these subjects have been ones that aren’t generally talked about as much as they should be. Maternal and postpartum health, sexuality, environmental issues and overcoming challenges by connecting with others are intrinsic to our creative process. Finding new ways to engage with audiences who might never go and see live performance about these subjects has made digital work as lot less daunting and a lot more accessible. The restrictions of this year gave us new parameters to work in. We think this way of making work specifically for digital platforms will serve us well in the future for our live work too in terms of seeing the possibilities of engaging with the audience beyond the one in the live venue.
We have a number of other digital/live performances touring from next year including an adaptation of Greek tragedy ‘Women of Troy’ that will be filmed as a series of episodic monologues and outdoor circus show ‘Taking Flight’ that gently introduces children to issues around climate change and is made specifically for people with visual impairments.
We are really looking forward to showcasing our first piece of digital theatre with Living Record Festival and look forward to making more digital work that is accessible to everyone.
To keep up to date with our shows you can connect with us via these links:
RoguePlay: www.rogueplay.co.uk
Mailing List Sign Up: https://www.rogueplay.co.uk/contact
https://www.facebook.com/rogue.play
https://twitter.com/_RoguePlay
