Tea at the Brothel

So it was the secret, the one that was always going to happen but just in a different way. My three nights at Northern Stage in Newcastle weren’t on the flyer or the website. They were part of a crazy and intriguing event. Theatre Brothel is the brain child of Grey Scale Theatre Company. They had 3 shows and Northern Stage provided 3 shows (one of which was Tea). The audience bought a ticket to The Brothel not to an individual show. They saw 2 shows throughout the course of the evening. Which two shows was determined by their answers to a series of weird and wonderful questions at the beginning of the evening. These questioned were asked by the performers.

As the audience moved around back stage, entering the places that are usually prohibited to them, the interaction and interplay began. The theatre has been (almost completely) coved in red gels giving it the feeling of a dark and slight seedy place. I really got into the questioning part, I liked the clip board and the playful interaction but the responsibility of assigning shows to be people was the daunting part. I felt like I had a power over the success of their evening. I found it hard to say “you should see my show!”

Grey Scale took in the 3 other shows and to me, we felt like a big company for the week. I enjoyed thoroughly being part of the team, having my 15 minute call and having a whole host of folk to debrief with at the end of the night. Seeing three of the other shows that were part of The Brothel was great too. Performing my own work and then 15 minutes later seeing another one performer show and witnessing their interactions gave me a much heightened sense of my own. Previously my show had been running at about 45 minutes and it seemed to be getting shorter although I had added a couple of small sections. When Alex (Kelly of Third Angel) came along to help me out and see the show in Sheffield he sussed out why this was happening. I was talking extremely fast! Seeing Grey Scale’s work reminded me of the joy of pause, the power of just looking and the tension of silence. I fed this back into my work and then show has back to 50 minutes plus and I had chance to breath. Experiencing the work in a different context really allowed it to be refreshed and reignited ready for the next leg of the tour.