Live Theatre Review Evaluation

Answer ONE of the following questions in this section with reference to the theatre performance you've seen.
Write the title, date and venue of the performance in the space provided:
Thrive, The Old Market Theatre, 04/03/17

Analyse and evaluate the performance you have seen in light of the following statement:
'Live performance has nothing to say to a younger audience'

Point Evidence Explain Link - how did it create meaning


On Saturday 4th March, I had the pleasure of seeing Thrive, a production by Zest Theatre at the Old Market Theatre in Brighton. I strongly believe that live performance does have something to say to a younger audience, especially Thrive. The performance aimed to encourage the audience to think about how precious their life is and how quickly it can be taken away. The director and actors aimed to inspire a younger audience to achieve their dreams and complete their goals before they die.

The script/writing for Thrive was devised by the company alongside the Director, Toby Ealden who had the overall concept, but took aspects of the performers own lives into account, to make the performance more meaningful to the company. By incorporating the actors own bereavements, Thrive was believable and relatable to an audience of all ages. The company also worked with a psychologist, Dr. Roger Bretherton who consulted the actors and Ealden along their journey to create Thrive. Luke Vernon, who played Raph, lost his mum shortly before the project got underway, but has said that Toby Ealden and the rest of the creatives were very supportive, and that being in the production helped him in the grieving process. This is another thing that has added to the rawness and believability of the performance, it was written based on the actors that were performing in it, creating a larger sense of meaning and impacting a younger audience who can relate to not only the characters but the actors underneath.

The soundtrack of Thrive, was an original soundtrack created by Joel Atkins specifically for the production. Other than the popular songs used in Ashleigh's house party, all of the other tracks were composed specifically depending on the mood in each scene, to reflect the tone and style of the piece. This created more meaning, as each note had been written for Thrive alone, and therefore the piece had a constant synergy, and remained dynamic and the tracks transitioned with ease. An interesting piece of sound used throughout was the last voicemail from James left on Ollie's phone. Ollie would play the voicemail over and over again, listening to James say 'love you'. This was eerie, hearing the voice of someone who has died, but it is also something that we all come into contact with when addressing a bereavement. These days, people leave up social media accounts and have unread text messages or recent photographs with someone who has died, and we all leave a lot of history behind us, our lives are more documented than ever before. The repetition of the voicemail created meaning between Daniel Morgan who plays Ollie and the audience, as it was relatable and a situation many of the audience members may have come across when grieving their own losses. Also, this appeals specifically to a younger generation as the main users of new technology and social media, who take things such as voicemails from friends for granted.

There were only 3 cast members in Thrive: Claire Gaydon (Ashleigh), Daniel Morgan (Ollie), and Luke Vernon (Raph). Each character showed a different response to grief and bereavement, which was shown through the performers choices in movement and vocals. Ashleigh responded to James' death by hiding her emotions and throwing a party. Claire Gaydon showed the audience that Ashleigh was hiding her feelings by changing the pitch and pace of her voice, often making Ashleigh talk very very fast, or blurting out swear words in a jokey voice at inappropriate moments. She laughed a lot, despite the loss that she was dealing with which is often a defence mechanism that may have been adopted by audience members. Ollie responded to James' death completely differently, which caused arguments between him and Ashleigh. He locked himself in his bedroom, and became almost obsessed with listening to the sound of James' voice on the voicemail. Ollie found it more difficult than Ashleigh to let go. Daniel Morgan showed this through movement, allowing his character to be very stiff, and not laughing or responding to Ashleigh's madness. He isolated himself from the other characters, and replayed certain phrases or movements to show him replaying the events over and over in his head, and the voicemail too. Ralph responded to James' death by creating a bucket list of things he wants to do before he dies. Although similarly to Ollie, he is deeply upset by James' passing, he did not know him personally so will not miss him in the same way. Instead, it is a wake up call to him, and he realises how precious his own life is, and that he would like to make something of himself. This is very relatable to a younger audience, as many young people worry about what on earth they are going to do with their life. At the end of the performance, Raph asked the audience to write down what they would like to do before they die. For a younger audience member like myself, this was difficult as there was so much choice, yet it was difficult to choose something that was neither monotonous nor too ambitious. The three characters responses to bereavement created meaning, as each audience member was likely to relate to one of the characters responses in their own life, and by writing what they wanted to do before they died, the audience left the theatre with a new perspective and maybe even a new goal.

Thrive had very complex set and props consisting of 9 ladders and 4 main areas of set: the three characters bedrooms and the part of the estate where James died in the centre. The ladders were used in unique ways, the actors would often climb them to create status through levels, or sometimes sit on them to create the sensation of sitting on a roof somewhere or up a tree, looking out at the night sky. The performance was Promenade, which the actors constantly walking amongst the audience, which created meaning by making the audience feel part of the action. Many of the props used in the performance were symbolism for something else. For instance, the characters planted a tree in memory of James, which helped them to overcome their loss and begin to move on together. My favourite prop was the Rubix Cube. When James' died, Raph found the Rubix cube in his bag, unsolved. As he was struggling with grief after the accident, Raph decided that he would try to solve the Rubix cube as a project for himself, but he started to feel obliged to solve it, for James. At the end of the play, when the characters finally found themselves able to move on from James' death and the three became friends, Raph finally solves the Rubix cube. This was an extremely clever use of symbolism, as all the time Raph was struggling with his grief and pain, he couldn't solve it, but once he overcame his loss and started talking and opening up with Ashleigh and Ollie, he was able to solve it and cross it off the top of his bucket list. A small prop like this can create meaning between Raph and the audience, when he solved it at the end it was a memorable moment in the whole performance, everything was ok again, it reminded the audience that things do get better and life can go back to normal following a bereavement. It was very impactful and created a lot of meaning.

In conclusion, Thrive was a brilliant piece of live theatre, that I believe had a lot of meaning, especially for a young audience. The way the actors conducted themselves to play roles that related to young people, but dealt with a serious topic whilst involving humour but also stunning the audience into silence was amazing. Toby Ealden's decision to use the cast's own experiences of bereavement added greater meaning to the production and made the characters much more believable and relatable to anyone and everyone who has struggled with a bereavement. The character of Raph specifically stood out to me as a character who changed the minds of the audience, and left people leaving with a different perspective on life as the one they came in with.