Tonight, Thirsty by Paper Birds at The Garage's Curtain Up festival was brilliant! If the rest of the week is as good you should definitely get down there. Paper Birds is a company of three people currently (thought not originally) from Leeds, Gemma, Kylie and Shane - I know that doesn't conjure up the most sophisticated impression but hell, they were good.
The show, Thirsty is a study of the nation's drinking habits. Researched via a blog, a questionnaire and phone line they asked hundreds of people what makes them drink, what's the effect, why they drink and what are their stories. From this, they made a performance beautifully depicted through well-devised mechanisms showing the funny side, and the tragedy, that drinking can bring to our lives.
Set in three toilet cubicles, Shane permanently occupied one accompanied by his laptop, keyboard and various music-making gizmos and created music on the fly to suit the demands of Gemma and Kylie who related stories graffitied on the tiled cubicle doors and on toilet rolls. Costumes were simple and effective - two pairs of red shoes depicting an invisible character of the main story, an umbrella and a water sprayer, glasses lined up along a tiled floor.
Movements were choreographed in an 'almost' dance way - smooth, graphic, co-ordinated. They wanted to tell us the nice, happy funny stories of love and humour but eventually, inevitably were compelled to tell us about the young woman, paralytic and vulnerable, first year uni student, lonely and trying too hard left a nightclub with a man she didn't know, with fairly predictable and tragic results - a warning to all young women.
But this was not a moral tale, more of an astute observation and comment on the role of drink in British society. Bravo!
The show, Thirsty is a study of the nation's drinking habits. Researched via a blog, a questionnaire and phone line they asked hundreds of people what makes them drink, what's the effect, why they drink and what are their stories. From this, they made a performance beautifully depicted through well-devised mechanisms showing the funny side, and the tragedy, that drinking can bring to our lives.
Set in three toilet cubicles, Shane permanently occupied one accompanied by his laptop, keyboard and various music-making gizmos and created music on the fly to suit the demands of Gemma and Kylie who related stories graffitied on the tiled cubicle doors and on toilet rolls. Costumes were simple and effective - two pairs of red shoes depicting an invisible character of the main story, an umbrella and a water sprayer, glasses lined up along a tiled floor.
Movements were choreographed in an 'almost' dance way - smooth, graphic, co-ordinated. They wanted to tell us the nice, happy funny stories of love and humour but eventually, inevitably were compelled to tell us about the young woman, paralytic and vulnerable, first year uni student, lonely and trying too hard left a nightclub with a man she didn't know, with fairly predictable and tragic results - a warning to all young women.
But this was not a moral tale, more of an astute observation and comment on the role of drink in British society. Bravo!
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