Vamos Theatre spent this weekend at Greenbelt Festival performing Finding Joy to festival goers. This was the first time that we’ve performed one of our full length theatre shows in a festival setting, and in this special blog Rachael Savage, who plays Joy, tells us about taking theatre into a festival tent.
Playing at Greenbelt was an experiment for Vamos. Is a circus top style tent an appropriate venue for mask theatre? There was a bar in the corner, we were surrounded by food stalls blasting out music, there was light spill every time somebody peeped into the tent at the back and a huge gap between the rows of seats and the stage to allow for an emergency exit – which is actually the best place to sit for mask theatre. But it worked brilliantly and the experiment was definitely worthwhile. It worked because the Greenbelt staff were sympathetic and responsive, and were really happy to adapt where needed to make it work to its best.
We talked to all the food stalls around us and they readily agreed to turn all music off during the show, the bar was closed during the performance (that was my biggest worry as it was one of only two bars open throughout the festival), there was an unusual Vamos no-latecomers policy for this particular gig, and so light spill was avoided; people were encouraged to bring blankets and stools to sit on and so the void was filled with over 200 people, and with 200 seated, we managed to fit over 400 people into the space. The festival gates opened at 5pm and at 5.05pm we had a queue forming outside the tent for a 6pm kick off; all great fun, including the fact that the stage was not totally flat, which is enhanced when wearing a mask, which meant that it felt that we were performing on a ship. We rode the storm, however, and the audience's focus was incredible considering the festival going on all around us.
The audience showed their appreciation with a raucous standing ovation at the end. It just shows that with a bit of planning and a flexible, helpful and efficient venue, theatre really can work in a festival setting. We look forward to next year!
Rachael Savage
Thank you to all the team at Greenbelt for their hard work and flexibility, especially those that we worked closely with: Stage Managers Matt and Lorna, Venue Manager Tamsin, Programmer Katherine Goodenough, and Production Manager Chris Hayter.
Many thanks, Martin, and to everyone who has left such positive comments about our show at Greenbelt. It was a great experience being there, and playing to an attentive and appreciative audience - what more could we want? Glad you enjoyed it and we hope to be at Greenbelt again before too long
ReplyI missed one of my festival ‘auto-entries’, a John Bell talk, to attend your show and I’m so glad that I did! It was the highlight of the festival to me: insightful, humourous, at powerful, but also sensitive and relevant. Absolutely brilliant!
It struck a chord personally (my Father suffered dementia for over 5 years before he died a couple of years ago) and professionally (I work for a local Age UK and so I’m involved in developing services for people affected by dementia).
Thank you. I hope I can see it again and I REALLY hope you will be part of future Greenbelts!
ReplyI echo all the previous comments - a very moving and thought provoking show excellently delivered at Greenbelt. Amazing masks and acting - well done and please come back to Greenbelt next year.
ReplyThank you so much for coming to Greenbelt this year. Yours was the first performance of any kind I saw this year and I was literally crying tears of sorrow and joy by the end of your show. It has been great to get so much positive feedback from so many of the artists this year so please do come back soon!
ReplyYour performance was my greenbelt highlight. It was wonderful. Thankyou for being there.
ReplyThanks for coming to Greenbelt. Your play was absolutely amazing. I stood at the back holding my 1 year old who was absolutely transfixed by you all. Everybody I heard talking about it was blown away by it and I was on the edge of crying all the way through. Hope you can come again.
ReplyFinding Joy is a terrific, life-enhancing show and I hope you realise how much you were loved at Greenbelt. God bless you all and please come back.
ReplyRachael, I can’t tell you how thankful I am that Vamos Theatre took the risk of playing to a festival audience and that you chose to make that festival Greenbelt. We were advised at the door that the recommended age for this performance was 12+ (“There might be a bit of innuendo”) but decided to enter with our 10 and 7 year old daughters anyway. Like yours, it turned out to be a risk well worth taking. Your play was wonderful - at times side-splittingly funny, at other times deeply, deeply painful but it was always tender, always sensitive, always gentle and so incredibly insightful. All four of us (sitting on the grass near the stage) were moved to tears and wept openly. Memories of journeys into dementia taken with Grandmothers/Great Grandmothers in the recent past came flooding back. At the end of the play none of us could speak coherently. We struggled to put into words what we felt and indeed declined conversation with others for a while afterwards. But this was a shared experience of tremendous value and these tears were so very cathartic. For us, your play marked the start of what proved to be (another) remarkable Greenbelt. It was also my personal highlight. So a heartfelt ‘thank you’ to you and indeed to all at Vamos Theatre for your incredible work/performance. It will linger long in the memory. Please, please, please return to Greenbelt as soon as possible.
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