Etiquette at Stratford Circus

Etiquette at Stratford Circus

19 October, 2010
by: Naima Khan

Naima Khan mumbles her way through Etiquette at Stratford Circus where the audience are the actors and the actors are you.

Rotozaza's Ettiquette, most recently at Stratford Circus, is one of the more experimental pieces of theatre I've seen over the last year. Using headphones to instruct participants playing the part of both actor and audience, Etiquette mines the same vein as Would Like to Meet at the Barbican and various events at the One On One Festival, but its main focus is communication.

Drawing on sources from film and theatre including Ibsen's A Doll's House, Etiquette creates a world solely for the two participants, though it forces them to utter their lines in public, manipulate objects and trust each other. I went on a fairly quiet Saturday, with a game but dubious friend. Though the “show” would remain the same, the experience would be completely different with another person.

We relay our lines to each other, sometimes close our eyes, use the objects laid out on the table and perform the show we're also watching unfold. As the half hour comes to an end, we think we've identified a few flaws in Etiquette. As we are fed our lines, we talk over each other; I mumble as usual; at times we aren't sure we're talking about the same thing. The show draws on high drama – scripted sources including Jean-Luc Godard's Vivre Sa Vie – so it doesn't feel as organic as you'd expect from a show about real human communication. Participants are not lead on a journey as much as they are pushed along one. There isn't much opportunity to think for yourself, and no chance to choose your own adventure.

But this is the point of Etiquette. The piece is about our trouble communicating. It requires the participants to give themselves over to the script, to get lost sometimes and try and find a place in the exchange that makes sense to both of you. By placing you as a performer, it exposes your usual role as an audience member. The way you go about performing your lines reveals what you expect of theatre and how you and your partner think communication works.

It's not an easy ride and by design will have everyone who takes part talking about it afterwards, which is a point more theatre should have at its conception. Etiquette runs at Stratford Circus as part of their Experimental Weekend and their programme of music, circus and generally off the beaten track shows including Leo and Yam's Panoramic.

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Naima Khan