REVIEW: TRANSFORM 2013 - MY LEEDS MY CITY - RONNIE KURIAKOSE

West Yorkshire Playhouse’s Transform Festival was a creative culmination of talents, a celebration of opportunity that reassured us that despite the recent cuts in grants the arts industry will continue to thrive. Since its first installation in 2010, Transform has embraced directors, theatre artists and writers to redefine and reminisce. This year the festival looked closer to home through its huge theatrical lens picking up an exciting mix of artists and companies from around Leeds enabling the audience to experience theatre and the city of Leeds like never before.

 

Leeds Market is that place where one expects to be the least entertained. But that was not the case when Transform kick-started on 16th of April. The Market, a performance based around Kirkgate Market walked us through its long history - of bombs, fires, commitments and changes - and of course, the stories of those who worked there, past and present. Needless to say, The Market was a masterly work paying homage to one of Leeds’ 100 year old treasured landmark.

 

For those adventurous audience members, there was Navigators. University of Leeds students and Invisible Flock, an interactive arts organization based in Leeds, worked together with Transform’s Associate Artist Andrew Whyment to create this masterpiece - a walking experience which explored the untold stories of the city and the paths we travel.

 

There were several other fantastic works of art - Johnny Eck and Dave Toole Show, Burmantofts Stories, The Rage Receptacle, The Cabaret Club - and also a three course meal interlaced with songs and speeches.

 

The festival concluded on 27th April, after long two weeks of surprise and delight. But looking back, one can only wonder if this was an attempt to push at the edges of practice and help re-imagine what theatre can look like and what it can do. If yes, then it could not have happened at a better time. For Maria Miller, the Secretary of State for Culture, needs something to point at to win us some art grants. And Transform 2013 is indeed that something.

THEATRE REVIEW : ARCHITECTS OF THE INVISIBLE - RONNIE KURIAKOSE

 

The cast and crew of Architects of the Invisible took a chance here leading the audience astray and then bringing them back into an explosion of creative irony; it paid off ten-fold.

 

Unlike the others, I watched Architects of the Invisible not expecting a story. And I was not disappointed. Like every other plays produced by the PCI this year, this too lacked a story. Not entirely. There were some small extracts that if dissected from the play and read together would qualify as one. But any attempts at that would defeat the very purpose that this collaborative piece tried to achieve. No. There was no story, but perhaps a journey of chance.

 

The play began like plays do – with an uninvited silence and an honest hope that we would be entertained. We sat there for a while peering at the long line of this seventeen member cast expecting them to perform. Apparently, they had similar expectations of us. It was obvious then that this was comedy and comedy, as a genre, never failed to entertain.

 

It was only after a quick bombardment of stats on some of the unusual ways you can die that the play really took life. A well-rehearsed and well-coordinated series of phases followed that depicted the mediocre routines of a familiar morning, tempting the audience to just lean back on their chair and relax. Tempt it did, before drawing us back again to the edge of our seats with a chaotic intervention of overlapping monologues. This was their strength. This almost fluent transition from methodical to disarrayed performance.

 

And then the play ended. Despite the cast’s repeated attempts at testing the audiences’ intelligence with a mock ending, not one budged. But the play had indeed ended. Until then the play had had a serious tone to it. This changed when the play began anew. The cast and crew of Architects of the Invisible took a chance here leading the audience astray and then bringing them back into an explosion of creative irony; it paid off ten-fold.

 

The set was interestingly elegant yet simple enough to be transformed often to fit the verve of the play. Collectively, the cast and crew deserved a word of praise for their light hearted, entertaining and dynamic performance. Individually, a standing ovation.

 

Rating: 4/5