Undercovered – The Show

We’re aware there isn't really anywhere that all the information on the show is all in one place, and with the rehearsal process on the verge of going all out, we thought this would be a good time to get this information out there.


Undercovered is the Royal Holloway University of London (RHUL) Drama Society's most recent physical theatre production, headed to the Edinburgh Fringe 2012.

So, the synopsis:

Based on the true story of Mark Kennedy, Undercovered uses physical theatre and media interaction to question identity misrepresentation. The main thread of the story follows Kennedy’s alias Mark Stone, an undercover cop assigned to a group of environmental activists. Working with the protestors for seven years Mark made close friendships and embarked on a serious relationship with one of the activists, simultaneously estranging his wife and kids. The proceeding events of Mark’s life affected him forever and are still being closely looked at by police and investigators to fully understand what happened. Overlaying this narrative are scenes that present other cases of alternate identities, these include con artist and imposter, Christophe Rocancourt; Dwayne Wilson, a convicted murderer diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder and David Pollard and Linda Brinkley’s online marriage-divorce case. With the fluidity of movement being intrinsic to our desired effect we intend to use techniques of dance and ensemble to create an alternative piece of theatre that comments on the misrepresentation of identity whilst sharing a gripping story we were instantly intrigued by.

We are now very excited to present our performance dates! Not entirely finalised but almost there (links will be uploaded soon):

Previews:

30th May, 7pm, 8:30pm, Royal Holloway Campus
Jane Holloway Hall
Egham
TW20 0EX

25th July, 8pm, The Firestation, Windsor
The Old Court
St Leonards Road,
Windsor
SL4 3BL
http://www.firestationartscentre.com/calendar?entry=436&display=month

Performances:

3-11th August (ex. 5th), 16:40, The Spaces on North Bridge
North Bridge
Edinburgh
EH1 1SD

We've recently uploaded onto wefund.co.uk, please follow this link to help this project:
http://www.wefund.com/project/undercovered

And the team presenting this is:

Cast:

Alex Lawson

Charlotte Cattrall

Eva Dahlqvist

Zahara Andrews

Eve Atkinson

Nat Horne

Kai Green

Production Team:

Producer/Assistant Director - Oli Back

Director/Dramaturg - Rachel Hartzell

Stage Manager - Eleri Owen

Deputy Stage Manager - Jemima Standen-Jewell

Publicity - Emily Spedding

Projection - Hannah Coupes

Sound - Christina Friis

Lighting - Wendy Haines

Production Assistant - Alex Wiseman

Production Assistant - Anna Hamilton

Rehearsal Photographer - Millie Appleton

Email us on:
undercovered.edinburgh@gmail.com

Stay fully connected:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/RHUL-Drama-Society-presents-Undercovered/176094855833269

https://twitter.com/#!/UndercoveredEF

http://www.youtube.com/user/UndercoveredEdfringe?feature=mhee

DV8 – Can we Talk About This?

So a couple of weeks ago I went to see Can we Talk about This? at the National Theatre. Since DV8 are a big inspiration for our show Undercovered I thought I might write a review style blog about it. Like I say it was a few weeks ago so forgive me if it’s not a particularly well written review.

                                  

Can we Talk about This? is a show by DV8, one of the leading companies who perform physical theatre. It explores issues of multiculturalism and the connotations that go with it. More specifically it is addressing Islamist ideology and its impact on Western countries over the last few decades. It made a fairly bold, and some might say, controversial standpoint on the issue, asserting that we, as a country, shouldn’t let events slide just because of their connection with religious beliefs. Perhaps that’s not the best description of the show but hopefully it gives you a vague idea. There is no particular narrative as such, DV8 present a montage of scenes that follows some of the Islam-related controversies through recent history (Western European). The whole play was physicalised, if I remember right. As you might expect there were some fantastic moments of physicality, even the more detailed rhythm changes in movement were quite impressive. However, it did lack some ‘pop’. What I wanted was a little more variation; towards the end of the play the dance style got a little but ‘samey’. It was mostly on one level – and that applies dramatically as well. The atmosphere was introduced and maintained throughout without massive variation. The main moment that there was a break in this, was when an ‘audience member’ threw something on stage exclaiming ‘This is Islamophobic shit!’ I thought this was a terribly organised moment. Perhaps it’s because I study theatre but I saw straight through it, clearly it was a plant: would the stage manager really walk on stage to pick up whatever was thrown (I was too far back to make out what it was). I doubt it. And in modern theatre I’d be surprised if anyone was outraged enough by anything to actually stand up against it (unless they are encouraged to like in immersive theatre production Audience by Ontroerend Goed). It felt like a gimmick to try and make us think more personally about the issues on stage. I might have interpreted it all wrong but I didn’t particularly like it.

 So overall, I really enjoyed it! Sorry, I know if you read back it might not look like that, I’ve picked on some specific bits which I didn’t like. Maybe I’ve been a bit harsh. But really, the movement and physical aspects were great! They present some interesting ideas (not sure if I necessarily agree, similarly not sure if I disagree, so I’m on the fence but it does make you think, I now feel like I should research this area to make a proper opinion of it all) and it is a decent piece of theatre.

Not sure if the show is running, but here is the trailer if you're interested:

Oli Back