Trestle Performance
Trestle Community Company promenade production at Trestle Arts Base
By Oliver Jones
Saturday 4th July 2009. What a day!
The newly formed Trestle Community Company, which consisted of two of our youth theatre groups, The People’s Company, which is our adult group, as well as a small group from our local community, combined with a splattering of professional actors took to the stage.Well, a sort of stage at least, as Trestle Arts Base was transformed into a remarkable series of spaces that the audience were led around, culminating in the theatre, which served as a ballroom come hospital.
The company worked over two terms, researching material, devising movement and text, and finally coming together in the final week to put the pieces of a very large and complicated jigsaw together.We worked with a professional designer, musician and stage manager, along with Trestle’s own directors and technical staff, and the results were, in many people’s eyes, simply stunning.
Here are some comments from our audience:
The theatrical performance was a triumph, marrying physical theatre/sound and meticulous attention to detail! A most memorable ‘promenade experience’: the subject matter was powerful and chilling – to those of us who now live where the hospital was today comprised a very poignant reminder of the area’s past. A rare performance where the cast outnumbered the audience – theatre in the surround. Brilliant, moving and memorable. Thank you for such a rare experience.
The performance reflected the way of life as it was when I worked here. A very nostalgic walk down the past. Hill End was my first ‘home’ as a nurse when I arrived here in 1975. Thank you for the opportunity to reminisce. This was a very poignant event and showed how easily a person could be brought to here, especially in the early 1900s. My own mother was here just prior to changes by parliament – ‘Care in the Community’ – so many had been institutionalised.
Out of Sight Out of Mind brought many people together, of all ages, and we were very proud to present this piece of theatre that we all cared about so much.
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