Moments, the new production from innovative theatre company Theatre Re, is both a break from their usual style and a compelling advertisement for their future (and past) work. The show sees the three central company members (alongside a BSL interpreter and an unseen sound designer) take the stage together to explore the nature of their own work, breaking down the elements and demonstrating their devising process as they create a production about grief and fatherhood on stage. 

It is a play-within-a-play, set at their own rehearsal and meant to demonstrate the development process. Occasionally, however, it resorts to lecture with each member breaking the fourth wall to explain their component. The explanations, which occasionally felt a bit trite, fell away as soon as they got back to the central story, a truly heart-wrenching narrative about fatherhood and grief. Director and mime Guillaume Pigé acts opposite a chair (sharing both the role of father and son), while the lighting and music bring you into a world that feels fraught and dreamlike. Working on stage, lighting designer Dr. Katherine Graham generates an instant, dynamic ambiance in the black box theatre, expertly crafting an environment around Pigé’s movement. 

We sat in on the pre-show workshop, where Pigé coached a group of local performers on the company’s approach to movement and devising. He continuously stressed the importance of stakes; of creating a sense of life and death; not only to the success of an individual show, but to the survival of live theatre. “If the stakes aren’t the highest… people will stay home and watch Netflix” he told the group. It is a testament to the company that the play-within-the-play never lost these stakes, despite the interjections of the “rehearsal”. The music, masterfully composed and performed live on stage by Alex Judd, deserves particular applause; every time they returned from the rehearsal frame narrative, Judd’s music immediately restored any emotional momentum that may have waned. The final sequence plays out with no interruptions, with Pigé and the chair moving frantically around the stage and crescendoing to an ending that left many in tears. Having heard each performer explain their component, it is easy to say they did themselves little justice – but it’s possible they were given an impossible task. Not only does each of their crafts requires such specific training and talent and instinct, but the chemistry between them is the kind of thing that can only be developed over time. Ultimately, Moments is not only a powerful story of grief but a testament to the undefinable magic of artistic collaboration, and proof that the great work is always more than the sum of its parts.

Image courtesy of Theatre Re