After Unlimited Theatre’s award-winning show Static, which explored the interface between conflicts, the media and ‘normal everyday life’ outside war zones, continued to tour after the 2000 Edinburgh Fringe, writer Chris Thorpe realised the depth – and potential – of the subject matter. ‘It [Static] went down really well, and people just kept asking us to do it,’ he recalls. However, as Thorpe continued to dig up stories from conflicts, he decided he was going to have to impose a limit on himself or he’d just never stop writing about it.
Safety, performed at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe and about to embark on a new season, is the second in a planned trilogy of works exploring stories arising from war. But that, Thorpe promises, will be it.
‘Maybe the whole trilogy thing – maybe it’s a self-imposed limit,’ Thorpe muses. ‘You know, “For ****’s sake there’s so many more things to say, will you please stop yourself talking about this and move on,”’ he says, in mock frustration.
Whether overtly referenced or abstract, stories emerging from past conflicts have been the subject of a number of recent fringe theatre shows. For those still playing, the current political climate makes for a formidable backdrop, and ensures the subject matter is still relevant in light of impending war in the Middle East.
Take Shunt’s Gunpowder Plot-inspired production, Dance Bear Dance, currently playing in London. Although created in the months before the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre, that event was influential on the work nonetheless. Blast Theory’s virtual reality theatre installation, Desert Rain, touring since 1999, was constructed around a misguided attack on a civilian plane during the Gulf War. Both drive the realities of the current political situation home, but in different ways: Shunt takes an abstract approach inspired by conspiracy theories, while Blast Theory’s is more fact-based.
But while Unlimited’s Static used the medium of television to explore the interface between conflict, reporting and actuality, Safety looks at the plight of the war photographer.
Thorpe chose photography out of a fascination for the potential for images not only to capture a moment frozen in time, but also, to be manipulated.
He takes, as an example, photographer Eddie Adams’ controversial image of a Vietcong being shot in 1968, during the Vietnam War, and the wider implications of the story that the image simply could not convey.
However, it’s the people who take on these jobs that Thorpe is even more interested in exploring. The central character in Safety, Michael, is a war photographer about to launch the first retrospective of his work (a concept Thorpe also views as problematic – taking photographs from a conflict out of context, and hanging them on a gallery wall). Since the show played at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2002, Thorpe explains that he has almost completely rewritten a number of scenes, including those in which Michael is interviewed by a young journalist – with whom he is also having an affair.
‘I think my attitude [to the character of Michael] was unsympathetic when I was originally writing,’ Thorpe admits. During the Edinburgh run, he met a number of journalists (not just reviewers), who came to see the show. Although the journalists engaged with the content, their feedback (coupled with time Thorpe spent with a photographer from a French press agency), was instrumental in the rewrite of a character he wanted to make ‘less of a bastard.’
Thorpe’s revelation about the third play in the trilogy – currently nearing completion – is a move away from the participants involved in reporting the story. In comparison, the impact of television reports on viewers is at the heart of this disturbing tale.
‘It’s based on a story I heard about a group of lads from the North of England who hitch-hiked across Europe to fight as mercenaries in Bosnia in the mid-’90s because they were bored,’ explains Thorpe.
It’s not all war stories with Unlimited Theatre, though. For an up and coming show at Sheffield’s Crucible theatre the company has collaborated with Chris Goode, of Signal to Noise, on Could it be magic? Harking back to Unlimited’s inaugural Fringe First award-winning show, Neutrino, it explores the cross-over between science and love – involving a short wave radio and small coastal communities. Still in development, the company is experimenting with ways to fill the theatre space, through sounds and visuals, with weather conditions.
If anyone can find the technology to fill glass-fronted museum cabinets with rain, hail or shine, it’s probably Unlimited. The company was one of the first in Britain to use SMS text messaging as marketing tool, in 2000.
But while diversity is important, so is social commentary, which is what sets Unlimited and other progressive theatre companies apart from the mainstream. The arts have always – and hopefully will continue – to be a medium through which to debate and raise awareness about issues of social, cultural and historical significance.
It’s safe to assume the general theatre-going public are not all history buffs – so if theatre companies like Blast Theory and Unlimited don’t bring the stories to popular culture, who will?
Unlimited Theatre will perform ‘Safety’ at the Manchester Royal Exchange Studio, March 6-8. For booking details call 0161 833 9833. The performance then tours to Rose Bruford College, London, Mar 12-13; The Bull, Barnet, London Mar 14 (020 8449 0048); Mac, Birmingham Mar 15 (0121 440 3838); Crucible Studio Sheffield April 2-5 (0114 249 6000);South Hill Park, Bracknell April 8 (01344 484123) and Darlington Arts Centre April 9-10 (01325 486555).
