Record the conversations of children then put their words into the mouths of adult actors and what do you get? Monkey Bars.
Karl James, director of The Dialogue Project, recorded and transcribed candid conversations between groups of children aged seven to ten years. Chris Goode then assembled a team of six actors and worked with these transcripts to turn them into a 75 minute piece of theatre.
The conversations and occasional short monologues use the children’s words verbatim, but the situations they represent have been mapped onto parallel adult encounters to produce something that it by turns funny, moving and sometimes just a little disturbing.
Philip Bosworth, Angela Clerkin, Christian Roe, Gwyneth Strong, Cathy Tyson and Gordon Warnecke make a great team and have carefully studied the manner of performing the text in all its word-for-word glory in a very adult way, whilst allowing us to see the children that live inside them to shine out through their eyes.
Two colleagues relaxing over a drink after work but unable to stop the one-upmanship, a woman in a high pressure job interview, two chaps mulling over the ills of today’s society – these are just a few of the situations played out but scripted with children’s dialogue. We begin (after a warm-up of a boy singing to a plate of jelly) with some musings about how lovely it is to live near a nice quiet park and end wondering what it feels like to be an adult, while in between we marvel at the things that go through the minds of early 21st century children.
I grew up in a world where childhood meant innocence, with three channels of television (that closed down at night) and a transistor radio. In the new millennium children are bombarded from all sides in a world that is a multimedia experience – nothing is hidden from them and they seem to have knowledge of subjects that me and my contemporaries would never have dreamed nor had nightmares about. There’s something rather unsettling about the words of a young boy who makes a point of watching all the news reports about war because he feels he has a duty to know about it.
There’s a point where Christian Roe stands on a box and describes some of the things that make him scared. As he squeezes his eyelids shut and searches for a happy thought to hold back the tears, I defy anyone not to be touched by it.
The stage set by Naomi Dawson is elegant simplicity – just some illuminated cubes that can be reconfigured about the performance space to create the various situations. Chris Goode’s neatly assembled soundtrack along with deft lighting by Colin Grenfell provides some additional signposting to help set each scene.
It fitted beautifully into the Liverpool Playhouse Studio (the longest stop on the tour, with a week of performances) and proximity to the stage makes the most of seeing the actors’ facial expressions in detail. Don’t be shy – there’s no audience participation!
This is an hour and a quarter that will fly past joyously, send you home with a smile on your face and keep you thinking afterwards. Beg, borrow or do something desperate to get a ticket.
Monkey Bars is currently midway through a national tour and future dates are at Sheffield Theatres Studio – 14th & 15th October 2013, The Theatre, Chipping Norton – 17th October, mac, Birmingham – 23rd October, Sherman Theatre, Cardiff – 24th & 25th October, Theatre Royal Margate – 29th October, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh – 31st October to 2nd November, The Arches, Glasgow – 5th & 6th November, Lincoln Performing Arts Centre – 7th November and ArtsDepot, North Finchley – 12th November 2013
Pictured below: Philip Bosworth, Christian Roe & Angela Clerkin - Picture © Richard Davenport
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