Created by MA Collaborative Theatre Production and Design, Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Directed by Abigail Yeates
Role Production Manager, Sound Designer
Playtime is a devised piece created over three weeks at the Centre de Creation in France as a tribute to physical theatre and circus skills. Our work has taken us on a journey from silent comedy to the modern comedy sketches – researching comedians such as Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and Jacques Tati plus other references as Peter Sellers, the Marx Brothers, Basil Fawlty and Mr Bean. The aim of the project is to investigate these great artists, understand their comic timing, their slapstick styles and ultimately their clowning techniques from traditional to contemporary. Circus attempts to take physical movement and skills to an extreme. As part of the research, we worked with four physical performers using a variety of circus skills, such as acrobatics, juggling, hand balance and dance movement to recreate this material. Working with a director, the MA Collaborative Theatre students form the creative team, providing material within their departments to develop the concept towards its performance.
Milton Court Theatre at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London – April 2016