Adelaide Road - an interactive theatrical journey...
May 5, 2011
Huge thanks to all those who supported the live performances of Adelaide Road on May 14th. Photos from the performance will be up on the website soon. You can also enjoy Adelaide Road as a free iPhone app and/or through the interactive web map which features recordings of all the poems/stories.
I woke up last Saturday to the enormous relief of clear blue skies. After six months of being poet in residence for the RSC, including two weeks intense rehearsal, the day of the live promenade performances had finally arrived. The trouble with using the real world as your theatre is that you are entirely at the mercy of the elements. I knew that director Ola Animashawun and all the cast's hard work would be washed away if it rained!
As crowds gathered in Hampstead Theatre, dark clouds also seemed to be massing. Ever the optimist, producer Sarah Ellis insisted all would be fine but I worried that the weather might prove the one problem she wouldn't be able to fix! Audience members collected their tickets and programme in the form of a newspaper. They were then pointed in the direction of technical wizard Jo Reid from Calvium who designed the Adelaide Road app. They were offered the option of downloading the free Iphone app and borrowing an Iphone (on condition of handing over convincing ID!). Those whose eyes widened in terror at the very idea were reassured that an Iphone was not necessary to enjoy the live performance. Audience members played on their phones and with the fascinating Squid Soup projection installation. On an Ipad, you could enter your answer to questions such as where is the best place to fall in love? Then watch in wonder as your answer started to appear in a swirl of letters projected on to the theatre ceiling.
A cry went up from Nicky Salmon, our assistant producer, that people should head outside as the show was about to begin. At the very moment that the audience stepped through the glass doors at the back of the theatre, the heavens opened. Umbrellas popped up as my heart sank. Touchstone, our 21st century fool and guide played by Miltos Yerolemou, warned 'Follow the code that is the straight road though romance, that treacherous dance, is full of twists and turns.'
We headed off down a pathway lined with enormous rose bushes then out on to Adelaide Road. Only pausing as Touchstone helped a passer by who'd dropped her shopping. (actually Alice played by Noma Dumezweni), and gave a young woman directions (Rosie played by Rachael Spence). We were accosted by a Big Issue seller who broke off from his sales patter to reveal how he'd come to fall on hard times (Joe played by Danny Scheinmann).
By the time we reached Taplow Tower on Adelaide Road to discover Rosie ringing the doorbell of her father's old address, the rain had disappeared. The skies remained mercifully clear for the rest of the show as the audience listened to poems/stories on their Iphone, played creative writing games and/or read letters connected with the different scenes. The live scenes had been written by myself, while the poems were created in the writing workshops I ran in local libraries and at the Charlie Ratchford Centre, a wonderful resource centre for Camden residents aged 60+ that is just off Adelaide Road. Many of the workshop participants attended the show and were justifiably proud of having their wonderful writing featured on the cutting edge technology of a GPS triggered app. The poems were themed to go with each live scene. So for example in the area where Joe explains his homelessness, the audience could pick up on their Phone recordings of poems by workshop participants on what makes a perfect home and/or a poem by myself inspired by what the older people I'd worked with told me about being made homeless during WWII. Many of these poems/stories were made even more atmospheric and magical by putting to music by Terry Davies and accompanied by photos by Nina McDonagh and Dawn Brown.
Some of my favourite moments in the show were when the actors blurred the lines between reality and theatricality. As a young woman approached us asking if we'd take part in a Londis survey, the man behind me sighed in irritation muttering 'oh leave it out, these people.' Only when Sam, played by Demi Oyediran, broke off from the survey to tell us about how she'd fallen in love did he realise his mistake. Even funnier was when we were all sat on picnic blankets outside Bray Tower and Alice, ostensibly an audience member, discovered her purse had been stolen. When Touchstone found the purse on one of the stewards, the woman beside me exclaimed, 'I don't understand, how did he know?” Then she laughed as Alice revealed herself to be a character by beginning to tell us her own shocking story of theft and betrayal.
As well as false accusations of theft, the stewards had to deal with herding fifty people along Adelaide Road negotiating zebra crossings along the way. Under Nicky's firm guidance, this was kept good humoured and fast paced! As well as the steward volunteers who were key to keeping the whole show moving, I'm also incredibly grateful to the many volunteers who worked for weeks beforehand on making Adelaide Nature Reserve the perfect magical setting for our grand finale double wedding. Our designer Kelly Garrett had hung bunting, ribbons, wind chimes, and other decorations from the trees. Love was definitely in the air as the characters exchanged their vows under beautiful greenery and the sun shone in all its glory as the audience clapped!
It was really thrilling for me as a writer to see my words brought to life on the streets of London. One audience member said to me as we stood outside Blashford Tower, 'I live just across the road. This is where we usually have our tenants' association meeting, it's a lot of fun to see it turned into theatre!'. I'd like to think Shakespeare would've enjoyed how we embraced his idea that 'all the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players'!
Adelaide Road has been so successful thanks to the enormous efforts and generosity of a great many people. I would like to thank all those involved and especially Geraldine Collinge, Director of Events and Exhibitions at the Royal Shakespeare Company, who commissioned the project.
Experience it digitally - www.rsc.org.uk/adelaideroad
Adelaide Road was written by Aoife Mannix. Additional poems were written by Alan Price, Ann Barefoot, Anne Coelho, Anna Colloms, Anna Cookson, Barbara Saunders, Brigid McGann, Catherine Labiran, Cina Aissa, Chuquai Billy, Dawn Brown, Dean Atta, Hal Husbands, Hannah Kelly, Harriet Thompson, Hazel Summerfield, Jane Rogers, Joanna Nicks, Jonathan Hall, Judeth Miller, Kathryn O'Reilly, Laura Burns, Louisa Clack, Lynn Marie Harper, Marcelli D'Andrea, Matilda Ibini, Nick Durant, Pat Harden, PS Drayson, Pauline Sewards, Rachel Buchanan, Rosemary Daley, Roy Batt, Ruth Smith,
Sean Aydon, and Tom Purcell.
Thank you to Victoria Tillotson, Tudor Allen, Pamela Butler, Nick Durant, Camden Libraries (especially Camden Archives, Kentish Town Library And Chalk Farm Library), Michael Andrew, Maciej Stec, Steven Reading, The Charlie Ratchford Centre, Green Gym, Adelaide Road Nature Reserve, Friends Of Adelaide Road Nature Reserve, Karen Hall, Fay Davies, Dave Lawrence, Richard Harris, Ideastap, The Albany, Kimberly Sutherland, Jeremy Dunn, Squid Soup, Kelly Garrett, Maxwell White, Tim Baxter, Pervasive Media Studio and the team at Hampstead Theatre
by Aoife Mannix
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