Glass Eye Theatre’s latest offering, The City & Iris, upstairs at the White Bear, is story telling of a different order. The ordinary is made fabulous, the impossible possible, the mundane special. In the (last night at least) suitably named Wardrobe Theatre we stepped through the panel at the back of the wardrobe into a land where anything is possible: ducks can talk and carry a person away, cupboards and drawers can conspire to change the life of their owner, the big city – underground and all – is described by a piece of red rope and all done without props – just actors. The only two non-human things on stage were Iris’s glasses and the aforementioned red rope. It is story telling not as literature, but as a physical activity.
The devised story is the familiar one of an ordinary life circumscribed at an early age, in Iris’s case by a traumatic visit to the opticians, which leaves her afraid of the everyday world and cut off from normal human contact. As a young woman, a librarian with a wealth of knowledge at her fingertips her interest extends no further than the classification numbers used on the shelves. All this changes after an accident breaks her glasses and she is released from what had all along been a misplaced fear engendered by temporary myopia – her world will never be the same again.
The performers’ eye for the telling detail is carried through to and exemplified in the sounds the actors make to describe the physical world as they interact with it. The group’s aesthetic owes something to animated cartoons and many of their actions have the same exaggeration, complete with whooshing and other appropriate sounds that will be familiar to most people from their childhoods. Similarly the fluidity of movement and scene change are familiar fare to film aficionados.
Creativity is constantly on display: as Iris walks through the city street it is the street that moves past her, the passage of an underground train is described by the red rope and a pulsing light – simple, effective, imaginative. The international troupe all graduates of the London International School of Performing Arts, speak an international language with great concentration and verve. Their level of physical control and expression is a constant delight. They capture our imaginations and take them for a good workout leaving us with renewed insight into the possibilities of live theatre.
Next time they come to Bristol get in the queue for tickets as soon as you can and if they come to a theatre near you take the family, this is the best value entertainment you are likely to find. ★★★★☆ Graham Wyles
