1. Harold: The Game
An analysis of the Bayeux Tapestry and its depiction of the Battle of Hastings from both the French and the English points of view.
Audience on 4 sides, a game show format which descended into a Rugby match complete with bags of earth and a projection of the tapestry itself on the screens above the audiences heads. Where was the tapestry made? Canterbury or Bayeux? Is it in fact an embroidery, not tapestry? The battle for the truth was played out by six grown men with some bias towards the French - 5 to 1.
A French collaboration between Bob Théâtre and Vélo Théâtre based on an original idea by Rina Vergano, The Egg Theatre in Bath (GB), this spectacle was much enjoyed by the young audience and, with a pile of bodies in the earth at the end, provoked reflection on the futility of warring nationalism, not just between the French and the English.
Penguin
A funny, moving story of a journey from Syrian refugee camp to Gateshead. Performed and co-created by Hamzeh Al Hussien · Directed and co-created by Amy Golding. The simplicity of the telling gave direct engagement with the performer making the story more powerful.
L'Oiseau (Bird) - La POLKa, Anne Noziere.
When Mustafa loses his father he connects with Pamela his classmate who has lost her dog. Its actually a light, funny poetic piece - more than this opening scenario might intimate.
These two characters meet little Francou who can commune with the 'other side', the dead. This is acheived with such widespread success from those who have lost loved ones... that the headteacher is alarmed and call a meeting for the parents at the school, "Its serious - she says - its a situation that I cannnot speak about in front of the children...I must speak to you in English."
And there it is. The inability of adults to speak about death. The children take control and, in a section projected on film, we see the funeral cavalcade, and the children driving and the cars and stepping out to dance around the grave.
One caveat - why only 2 white actors telling the story of Mustafa who clearly is not white?
