Made In Worthing's 'Pool (No Water)' reminds us why we need theatre
It's a perennial question - is theatre relevant today? Do we need actors and greasepaint in today's wi-fi world?
Tonight's performance by Theatre Akimbo, as part of the new festival Made In Worthing, proved that you don't need an interactive, multimedia experience or a middle-of-the-road Disney stageshow to make good theatre. Just good actors, a strong script and an interested audience.
'Pool (No Water)' is a play whch explores the tensions created when one person from a group of friends becomes more successful than the others. In this case, it's a group of artists who are forced to explore not only friendship, but the very ethics and morals of the contemporary art world, where shock value is everything.
Of course, there's a paradox in a play which itself uses shock tactics. Although as Mark Ravenhill is well known for sex, swearing and casual drug use the audience aren't that shocked by tonight's performance, however many times swear words are used. It's certainly an X-rated script though.
What's really shocking is the intensity of the performance from four actors.
This is essentially an amateur performance, although it has high production values and a contemporary script, rather than an old am-dram favourite and Edwardian costumes. But the cast, asked to put in a performance of blistering intensity, playing in the round and delivering lines direct to the audience, strip emotions raw and really challenge their audience to question their own morality.
It's real, visceral stuff and shows that in this age, where TV and Web 2.0 let us be a casual spectator to anything we can imagine, we still can't beat theatre to really engage us.