Stage Fright

Stage Fright is a collaboration between CCA and theatre company Suspect Culture exploring the nature of theatricality through the work of Luke Collins, Felicity Croydon and Sharon Smith (Max Factory), Jonny Dawe and Nick Powell (OSKAR), Graham Eatough, David Greig, Patrick Macklin and Dan Rebellato.

Visitors enter as if through the backstage of a theatre – dressing tables, costumes, a shower, fresh flowers. A stagehand opens the house curtain and you enter the café stage left. Trees are suspended above you as if about to descend for the next scene, or are we – the standing people – expected to play the forest? This tricksy proposition continues throughout the show. The galleries encompass different settings, complete with hand props and set decoration: kinetic sculptures, a director’s diary, and a website that feeds live information from the stock market of ‘participatory culture’. Dan Rebellato has directed an actor to recite a script in a cage. Walk around her and she’ll follow your gaze, her monologue fighting for your attention. Eventually, you are drawn away by the carnivalesque accoutrements of Luke Collins’ reworking of the controversial novel Dirty Weekend.

Props, props, props – histrionic gestures, seductive prompts for visitors to navigate through this pseudo-theatre. Although an ambitious production, the wildly different acts do not always form a cohesive plot. The play’s the thing, but what about the conscience of the king?

CCA, Glasgow, until Sat 23 May