15 Grandparents Stories - A Devised Theatre Piece

Yay! Another performance by our Performance+Media students was staged yesterday. I've always enjoyed their shows and never ceased to be amazed at how talented some of these students are. I've caught a few of their previous productions, like Three Fat Virgins and The Coffin is Too Big For the Hole, and I loved...

1) how each student play multiple roles yet carry it off without confusing the audience.

2) the full use of the most minimal of props - simple and 'un-distracting'.

For 15 Grandparents Stories, these 15 students dug for stories from their grandparents to tell to the audience. The stories mostly dwelled on the Japanese Occupation, superstition, a tale or two from Africa (there was an African student in the cast), etc.

When the audience entered the Uni's Roof Top Theatre, the cast was already sitted along the back of the 'stage'.

I like the concept of having no 'backstage' and the actors have to remain in character from beginning till end.

You have to be willing to get physical if you wanna take up this course. I mean, you have to do things like this:

Hiding from the Japanese soldiers in a 'temple'

My favourite story out of the 15 had to be Under The Umbrella. It explained why our grandmothers scolded us for bringing an open umbrella into the house. Apparently, as I found out yesterday, ghosts can 'hide' under our umbrellas and we risk bringing them home with us if we do not close it before entering the house. Interesting...

Not only was it enlightening, but the student who acted as grandmother, ghost and boy-who-brought-open-umbrella-into-house-and-got-a-spanking switched between the roles effortlessly from one to the other and back again all within 5 minutes (see what I mean about the multiple roles?) as another student became the narrator.

They also used bottles filled with water and sand, leaves, and simple musical instruments to create the sound effects. Who knew that blowing unto the mouth of an empty mineral bottle can make a sound unbelievably similar to a ship's horn (see what I mean about making the full use of minimal props?)

They are going to stage the show one more time at SMK Methodish, Ipoh. Break both legs!