DRAMA
POOR THEATRE MAKES RICH STORYTELLING
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K neehigh’s distinctive brand of playful, irreverent and wonder- filled ensemble storytelling is hugely in demand both at home – where eager collaborators include major regional theatres, the National Theatre and the RSC, as well as West End commercial producers – and abroad, too. Mike Shepherd co-founded Kneehigh with Emma Rice ‘trying to make theatre with a bit of string and a couple of planks of wood’. It was poor theatre: ‘Kneehigh was never about display and aspiration. It still isn’t’. I had the incredible privilege of working with Shepherd and Kneehigh – where I learned first-hand about their brilliant, original devising process and was party to their collaborative way of working. What the company has created is a way of making theatre that is democratic, playful and joyous and directly engages with its audiences. Based at The Barns – their picturesque, seaside HQ in Cornwall – Kneehigh collaborators eat, sleep
The boys creatively adapted and reinterpreted familiar folktales of desire, temptation, trickery and damnation
and work together. Often beginning with a classic folk story or myth and a series of striking images, they set about building a play that puts storytelling, audience interaction and comedic irreverence at its heart. The company frequently performs outdoors – without the trick of lights or effects – and their style is rough and imaginative. It is no surprise that our current cohort of Year 12s were so transfixed and transported during their visit to 946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips , which kicked off their A-level course on a balmy night last September. Fuelled by that experience, they researched and experimented with many Kneehigh approaches to emulate the company’s skill at being very, very good at telling stories. As David Farr from the Bristol Old Vic states, ‘When you get innovative visual theatre allied with classical storytelling, you get something that audiences respond to immediately’. Thus it was that Year 12 Theatre Studies
students delighted their audience of parents and peers with a showcase of original pieces of devised drama. In the style of Kneehigh, the boys creatively adapted and reinterpreted familiar folktales of desire, temptation, trickery and damnation and the three pieces – Bearskin , Red Shoes and Whitesnake – were playful and inventive with plenty of deft ensemble playing and great characterisation: a firm foundation for future development. Our visit to the Kneehigh production of Tristan and Yseult at the Globe, and additional workshops in June, will provide still further fuel before
they finally present their pieces for examination in the autumn.
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