When starting up a company you are usually influenced by a number of different ones, and one we felt like we wanted to see as a company was The Paperbirds. We knew they held experiences and great reviews from the past and with only being a two week old company at the time of the meeting we thought getting tips from them would help us. They gave us brilliant useful knowledge they received themselves when they started out which we will keep with us “If you’re theatre isn’t good, the show itself then there is not theatre company.” (Paperbirds, 2015)
We arranged as a group to see their performance of Broke, with our director Michael previously seeing it at the Edinburgh fringe festival in 2014. We emailed them in advance asking if we could meet with them pre show asking for advice, which they were more than happy to do. They gave us some helpful advice that we used within our journey of creating a successful theatre company and a successful show.
The performance of broke was such an incredibly stunning and extremely truthful for the harsh reality of life for some people on the bread line in this country. It had several elements that made the show a different experience for me like the use of live music, the simple bits of physical theatre and the use of sock puppets. The set was incredibly simple yet they use of it was clever and brilliant. The underlying story throughout it all was moving and it made me go away and think about the current state of the country and how some people are actually in this state. I would definitely see this again.
“The Paper Birds return with a new verbatim show that shares the real life stories from the front line of poverty and debt in the UK. ‘Broke’ is a heartfelt and urgent look at the debt of a Nation from displaced families and gambling addictions to beans on toast and blind leaps of faith onto the property ladder.”(Paperbirds, 2015)
Paperbirds (2015) Broke. [Performance] Jemma Mcdonnell (Dir.) Lincoln: Drill Hall, 12 February.
Paperbirds (2015)Productions page- Broke.[Online] Leeds: Paperbirds. Available From http://www.thepaperbirds.com/ [Accessed 20th February 2015]
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