Am-dram society gets wrong end of stick over Theatre of Cruelty

THE Fabricated Players have apologised after misunderstanding the concept of the Theatre of Cruelty and spending 60 minutes personally insulting members of the audience.

The experimental production was intended to explore the theatrical ideas of Antonin Artaud, whose Theatre of Cruelty sought to assault the senses and confront audiences with intense physical and emotional experiences.

Instead, the cast came on stage and called everyone ugly.

Director Simon Jones said: “We’d read that Artaud wanted to shock audiences, break down the barrier between performer and spectator and make people deeply uncomfortable.

“So Carol went straight up to a woman in the front row and asked if she’d dressed herself.”

The hour-long performance, entitled Cruelty, began with actors surrounding the audience in darkness while making unsettling noises.

This was followed by cast member Graham Turner switching the house lights on and saying: “Jesus Christ, you can tell this is an amateur theatre audience.”

Other experimental techniques included pointing out bald patches, asking couples which one had settled, and identifying audience members who “look like they’ve got one of those Live Laugh Love things in the kitchen”.

One particularly challenging 15-minute sequence consisted entirely of actors reading out the audience’s clothes and saying how much they thought each item had cost.

Audience member Peter Lawson said: “I knew it was supposed to be confrontational theatre.

“I wasn’t expecting Lady Macbeth to stare directly at me and say, ‘You’ve got the body of a man who orders chips as a starter.’”

The interval was cancelled because, according to the programme, “Artaud rejected conventional theatrical structures”, although the bar manager confirmed they had simply forgotten to buy any wine.

The second half became increasingly experimental, culminating in the entire company chanting “DIVORCED DAD ENERGY” at a man called Colin.

Clarke defended the production as an important artistic experiment.

He said: “The audience left angry, confused and in several cases visibly distressed.

“So in terms of our original objectives, it was actually our most successful production ever.”

The society has nevertheless promised its next exploration of avant-garde theatre will be more thoroughly researched.

Plans for an immersive production of Waiting for Godot, in which the audience buys tickets and the actors never turn up, are already selling well.