Lots of activities fall victim to Manchester’s infamously wet weather. But theatre performances aren’t usually one of them. Yet last week, I found myself in a stormy Salford Quays, being told by a soaking-wet stage manager that the play I was supposed to review was off because the actors’ umbrellas kept threatening to break.
Unlike most plays, Contact is performed outdoors – and fair weather is an unusually important factor in the play’s success. Thankfully, the second time I ventured over to Media City, the clouds had parted and the sun was shining: creating the perfect climate for outdoor, immersive theatre.
As I arrived, the group that became the play’s audience were sprawled across the steps in front of the BBC building, sorting out the smartphone app essential to how Contact works. This tech provides the audio for the play, which is synced across each of the audience’s and actors’ phones. The actors never speak aloud – we hear their voices in our ears through a pre-recorded soundtrack.
Audio-walking theatre has been growing fast due to the pandemic, as theatres have been closed and social distancing measures enforced. It’s something that Manchester has embraced, with two audio-theatrical offerings launched this year already.
The elements that make up these plays – listening through headphones, being outdoors, walking around, engaging with passers-by, the weather – are all distinct and unusual things to bring to theatre under any circumstances. Combining them all into one performance seems ahead of its time.
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The experience of being both watcher and watched, audience and performer, is very strange. It’s the sort of thing that would fit brilliantly in the arty, edgy Edinburgh Fringe. However, participating in such immersive live theatre definitely requires a confidence (which I’m not sure I have).
Contact, originally a French play written in three weeks at the start of lockdown and now brought to Manchester, is about Sarah, who, when out on her daily walk, meets her guardian angel. Her deepest fears and anxieties then start to bubble to the surface. The audience follows Sarah as she sits, walks, and thinks. It’s a strange experience, as the clearly demarcated lines between reality and fiction blur. Walking past people drinking and eating, the audience becomes part of the performance, and creates its own spectacle for passers-by.
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Manchester-based theatre company ThickSkin have created an audio-walking play series called #WalkThisPlay, with the first episode ‘Keep Going then Vanish’ set in a big loop around central Manchester. The play physically drives you around the city as you search for something you’ve lost, that you keep forgetting, that you know you need to find. As you walk, your location triggers the next part of the story.
What’s most exciting about these plays is the opportunity to experience theatre again after such a long time. #WalkThisPlay doesn’t involve any live performance from professional actors, but as you walk around, listening to the evocative voices of Danielle Henry and Esme Bayley, you become the live element of the experience, immersing yourself in the world of the show. This is heightened in Contact by watching actors perform live in front of you: I couldn’t help but shiver with anticipation as the play started. There is no substitute for live performance.
Aliveness becomes all-encompassing in outdoor theatre like this. Smells, the breeze on your face and in your hair, a spot or two of rain: all become noticeable. As you walk, directed through your ears, you take in your surroundings in a different way. ‘Keep Going then Vanish’ directs you through the “black and white alley” of St Ann’s Passage, to stop in front of the old Theatre Royale, and to listen to the voices of those buried beneath St John’s Gardens.
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The technology surrounding the experience is both simple and complicated. The #WalkThisPlay series uses GPS tracking on your smartphone to map your movements, and when you reach a hotspot, the next part of the story plays. Contact relies heavily on very tight syncing of the audio in the audience’s ears to the actors’ performances. It’s possible as well to listen to the show in a different language, but still exactly synced with the performance (just as foreign language films are dubbed into English and vice versa).
These plays are very different experiences. #WalkThisPlay, simply an audio play with technology enabling you to interact with the story, is more internal and more personal. You aren’t sharing the experience with anyone (although it would be easy to do the walk with friends, each listening on their own phones). Contact, with its live performance, seems an elevation of #WalkThisPlay, pushing the concept further (perhaps than is comfortable).
They exist as a way to experience theatre in a year without it, but more than that, they’re charting a path forward in what theatre could be in the future. This is what I’m excited for.
Contact featured images: Phil Tragen 2021
Contact is running until 27 June in Salford and central Manchester. For more information and tickets, head to the show’s website.
#WalkThisPlay’s first episode is available for free on the Echoes app. The second play, ‘Monuments’, will be available from 30 May.Click here for more details.
Theatre
Blood Brothers at Palace Theatre, Manchester – a timeless classic
Greg James
Bill Kenwright’s production of Blood Brothers surpassed 10,000 performances in London’s West End making it one of only three musicals ever to achieve that monumental milestone – and now it’s visiting us here in Manchester.
“Oh Bright New Day”, Blood Brothers has just landed back at the Palace Theatre. This musical written by Willy Russell is a British piece of theatre that is a staple in the musical theatre tapestry of our country.
For anyone who is unfamiliar with this iconic story, it is an emotional tale of two twins who are separated at birth and grow up on opposite sides of the tracks, only to meet again with the most fateful of consequences.
The story’s central character, Mrs Johnston is the linchpin in this whole story and carries us through the show.
This role has been played by many superb women over the years including Mel C, Kiki Dee, Barbara Dickson and nearly all of the Nolan Sisters. This time, Mrs Johnston is performed by Vivienne Carlyle who provides a lovely maternal performance.
The other two lead roles are Mickey and Eddie, played by Sean Jones and Joe Sleight respectively.
These are really complex roles to play as the actors have to portray the characters from early school years to grown adults.
Sean Jones has been playing the role of Mickey now for nearly 25 years and so he is no stranger to this character. And I must say, he still fantastically plays the part, even when playing young Mickey, and the show really takes off when he enters the stage.
Joe Sleight is someone who I had not seen in the role of Eddie before and he gave just as strong a performance as Jones. He offered a real contrast to his counterpart with a really beautiful, touching performance.
The whole ensemble did a gorgeous job of helping to carry these characters throughout the musical, showing a real flair for multi-roling and beautiful musicality in the group numbers too.
Something which elevates this already gripping story though is the music. There are many recurring musical motifs throughout the show that on the surface may come off as repetitive but they offer perspective on how things can evolve and change over time.
Of course the song though that everybody is perhaps familiar with is the power ballad, ‘Tell Me It’s Not True’. This is the climax of the show and what a climax it is. There’s not a dry eye in the house when we reach this point of the story, I can assure you!
So, whether you are returning to watch this show again, perhaps know the story from studying it in English GCSE or seeing it for the first time, it will always be an absolutely timeless classic.
Blood Brothers is on at the Palace Theatre in Manchester until Saturday 30 November. Tickets are available HERE.
Chicago the Musical razzles (and dazzles) at the Palace Theatre in Manchester
Clementine Hall
A story of murder, greed and corruption was performed with style, ease and flair; Chicago is the longest-running American musical in Broadway and West End history, and it’s easy to see why now that it’s arrived in Manchester.
The jazz-fuelled fiasco is filled with catchy songs that you can’t help but click along to, funny one-liners, and likeable characters such as Miss Roxy Hart herself.
Best-known for appearing as Kate Connor in Coronation Street, the opening night in Manchester on Chicago‘s UK tour may have been a daunting prospect, but it’s one Faye Brookes pulled off seamlessly.
Here’s our full review…
Image: Press Images (Supplied)
Brookes is fantastically expressive and brings new energy to a classic, complemented throughout by a sultry cast dressed in buckles and mesh that really bring the ‘Razzle Dazzle’ to the stage.
Her co-star, Strictly Come Dancing‘s Kevin Clifton, struts through the show transformed into Billy Flynn – a flamboyant 1920s American lawyer who has the desperate inmates in the palm of his hand.
The opening number, ‘All That Jazz’, is spearheaded by Djalenga Scott as Velma Kelly and she does it brilliantly.
Image: Supplied
The cast slink their way across the stage with Scott at the forefront, who undoubtedly delivers a faultless performance and complements Brookes as Roxie Hart perfectly.
A highlight of course included the hilarious‘Cell Block Tango’, the audience were laughing along as the women sang the stories of their murderous deeds whilst performing sharp and sultry choreography.
Not even a toe out of place.
Image: Supplied
The set is minimalist, dark and simple, but is simply brought to life by the wonderful expression and lively musical numbers performed on stage by the live band.
The live band sits on a staircase centre stage and their playful use of instruments throughout is truly impressive.
Neil MacDonald, the show’s musical director, even got involved with a few on-stage conversations which was a fabulous touch that made the show feel bespoke to us.
Other notable performances included Brenda Edwards as Mamma Morton, whose powerhouse voice left the audience in absolute awe, and Joshua Lloyd as ‘Mister Cellophane’ caused a couple of pitiful “awws” from the auditorium.
Overall, this was a fantastic production of the Broadway classic – the standing ovation at the end proves I wasn’t the only one who thought that too.
Chicago the Musical is playing at the Palace Theatre Manchester until Saturday, 9 November and you can grab your last-minute tickets HERE.