| “A Thought Provoking and Stylish Performance" |
Angry Snatch: A Reclamation Job in 15 Rounds |
| Frankie Walker , Port O’Leith Boxing Club , August 31, 2024 |
Angry Snatch: A Reclamation Job in 15 Rounds” featured on this site 29th June 2023. The description for “Angry Snatch: A Reclamation Job in 15 Rounds” read: “A provocative and captivating piece of physical theatre set in a boxing ring, telling a story of reclamation and recovery from intimate partner abuse. The story is told with compassion and insight by a solo artist with lived experience, mapping the traumatic effects of controlling and coercive behaviour and quite literally moving through the healing process using dance, spoken word and boxing. A cutting edge interrogation of the legacy of abuse and a window into understanding who we become as a result. “A profound and powerful piece of work performed, written and devised by Frankie Walker, a Wales based multidisciplinary performing artist, in collaboration with Meg Fenwick and Cai Tomos: funded by Arts Council Wales and supported by Aberystwyth Arts Centre.” Other publicity: “Frankie Walker wrote & devised Angry Snatch, with collaborative support from Meg Fenwick and Cai Tomos at a point where her lived experience, decades of artistic practice and work as a somatic movement and embodied social justice champion collided. Trained in traditional and experimental devised Theatre and Dance and with many year of training and experience working with Theatre of the Opressed [sic] she is also a Mother, a Yoga Teacher and a Boxer. “If you are interested in unusual spaces for theatre, visceral storytelling and nonlinear journeying, embodied social justice, sharp poetry and voices you don’t usually hear then… then this show is for you. It's a coming together of a team full of passion and a venue full of pizazz - with energy, sharp poetry and embodied movement to give voice to an underrepresented and silenced voice in our society." * * * * The production received a review from the Scotsman which is not available for open-access reading. It received no reviews from the many sites and online publications which are active throughout the Fringe. It received no reviews for several reasons. The competition for attention at the Fringe is intense. It arrived late, opening two weeks after the Fringe had started. It departed early after performing on only five days. The time-span was insufficient for the Fringe effect to work, for word-of-mouth to spread, for the daily reviewers to build a momentum. Its productivity was lower than the dozen shows below on this site. Its location was distant, some miles north of the main throng of people and the cluster of performance spaces. Its content was a single performer doing ostensible autobiography. That meant it stood out little. The Fringe in 2024 had 918 productions billed as "theatre" and "physical theatre." Autobiography as theatre is commonplace at the Fringe. Other productions- with full runs at central venues- dealt with a child's life-threatening genetic disorder, bipolar disorder, teenage suicide, autism and sudden death syndrome. * * * * There was one audience reaction: “Angry Snatch: A Reclamation Job in 15 Rounds” is a beautiful piece of theatre, and staged in one of the more interesting venues on offer this year: Port O'Leith boxing club. “The action takes place within the boxing ring itself. “The show doesn’t follow the predictable arc of victimhood and escape. Instead, it delves deep into the psyche of a woman piecing together her sense of self. Centred around one of the starting lines of the play "I want to understand what happened to me." Each of the rounds is a vignette taking the audience closer to making sense of our protagonist's experiences. “The rounds are rendered through a range of dance, boxing, spoken word. The solo artist's performance is bursting with clever theatrical techniques and devices. It's one of the most craft heavy pieces I've seen. Incredibly well done. “It's a thought provoking and stylish performance.” * * * * The production had a difference from those that audiences flocked to. Like Mr and Mrs Clark and Luke Hereford in 2024 it was beneficiary of public money from Wales. The nature of the low productivity was indicator of several factors. That Wales Arts International and the Arts Council of Wales approach theatre via a narrow set of constricted filters. This manifestation of decision-making is not new. The same occurred in 2023 where a low-impact, low-productivity production complied with the organisational criteria of bias. It matters little to the funding bodies that the culture of Wales makes much impact outside its borders. Value-for-money is of scant interest in their decision-making. (If the two organisations consider that they do have regard for audience and cultural impact, or value-for-money comment may be sent for publication at editorial@theatre-wales.co.uk.) Extracts with thanks and acknowledgement from source: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/angry-snatch-a-reclamation-job-in-15-rounds |
Reviewed by: Adam Somerset |
This review has been read 141 times |
