Once Upon A Time On Something Street
Madeira Drive
Brighton
Take a step into the unknown… then take another and find yourself on Something Street, a place with a touch of destiny, which could be anywhere and any when. Are we in the war torn 40s? Or maybe we’re celebrating the new millennium? It could be the dawn of the swinging 60s… Maybe. What does their story have to do with you? Perhaps nothing, perhaps everything...so goes the intro publicity for this show.
The performance takes you off into various houses and rooms where we see various important moments in the lives of the people that live there played out in front of us. We watch, sometimes we are invited to join in and other times we are the performance. There were some touching moments and far too few jokes and I can imagine this going down well at a bigger festival. The cast are enthusiastic and the little vignettes of family action believable and engaging, some of the funnier ones work from facing up to the reality of the situation of us looking at them looking at us. The fourth wall is discarded once or twice and this works well. We wander along the street being taken from space to space by the next protagonist. It’s a kind of Coronation St, but one with just one family being deconstructed thought time. It’s not so much time travelling as time zapping and we are invited to see that time is fleeting and small moments cascade down into lives yet unborn. There’s a subtext of Epigenetics and social advance which is unintentional as the writing doesn’t feel strong enough to have that kind of comment, but it was curious to note it none the less.
It’s not as serious as it wants to be, or as slick as it’s advertised to be, but Whizz Bang Productions have created an engaging and interesting experience with enough chopping and changing to keep the narrative tension up. The sets are basic but adequate and like all peroframnces the more you put in, the more you get out of it. The actors are fun and there’s some eye candy should the story you’re watching not interest you… It’s an omission with so much thought having gone into the story and its various temporal experiences that there was no sound-scape to accompany the performances, it would certainly drown out the distracting noise from the seafront outside; Rhianna thumping past during a 1940’s set piece was slightly anachronistic…an easy fix that would add a much needed layer of atmosphere to the production.
It’s not Shunt, nor really immersive, it’s a walk through theatre with some audience participation but then perhaps it’s aiming to be something gentler altogether, something real and relevant to the audience but enjoyable all the same.
All in all a fun experience, with a charming bar and astro-turfed cocktail and themed ‘food garages’ on the front with a great view of the beach and Volks railway chugging past, where you can sit and waste some time thinking about what time means to you. Food garages include; The Pulled Garage, The Nachos Pick ‘N’ Mix Shack, The International Garage, and The Snack Shack. Food garages are open to everyone from Weds – Sun and entry is free. It’s certainly an interesting addition to the desolation of that part of the Seafront and how nice to have a Pimms and relax in the sun.
To book tickets or for more info see the production website here:
Tuesday to Sunday at 7pm, 8pm and 9pm.
Friday additional performance at 6pm
Saturday and Sunday, matinee performances at 1pm and 2pm
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