Top: The audience arrive at the village from National Theatre Wales (2010)
Bottom: The house from National Theatre Wales (2010)
Immersive,
In one word that’s what The Persians directed by Mike Pearson, says to me. From the moment that you step onto shuttle bus which takes you to an army training ground, to “the concrete building fill[ed] with the words of the ancient tragedy” (Primavesi, 2012, 55) and every step in-between, you feel immersed in the world created.
By using the remains of a big army training ground and not altering the site too much, the artists could allow the audience to connect with their ideas about modern warfare and all of the devastation that comes with it without relating it to a specific war. Also because the site contains “markings” of warfare (such as old tanks and craters) without the creative team touching the site, it leaves the site with an atmosphere or energy which emphasises the themes of the play long before the first line has been spoken.
So although the play that was created did not link specifically to the old German village in the army training ground, the themes and what the place stands for (armies, defending one’s own territory and the casualties left behind) combined with the ancient play brought a timelessness to the piece. Human kind is still struggling with the same issues 2000 years later. This could have only been achieved in a space of this type.
Work Cited
Primavesi, P. (2012) Memories from a Theatre of War. Performance Research, 17 (3) 50-56.
National Theatre Wales (2010) In the Brecon Beacons, THE PERSIANS [online] National Theatre Wales. Available from http://nationaltheatrewales.org/thepersians [Accessed 05 March 2015].