Naima Khan on her experience at One-on-One Festival and an interview with one of Battersea Arts Centre's artistic directors David Jubb.
As I leave Battersea Arts Centre's 2011 One-on-One Festival I realise I've shrieked like a banshee, hidden in a cupboard and hung out of a window listening nonchalantly as someone is forced into a car. Anything less would have been sorely disappointing since this is what I've come to expect of this collection of intimate, experimental performances.
I'm surrounded by short shows that mirror all the best bits from last years inaugural festival. My first show of the night involves being read to and having the life frightened out of me by a seemingly sweet Japanese woman. This is the work of Kazuko Hohki in her piece You Only Live Twice (But Die Once). I'm asked to lie on a futon while being lulled to sleep but before long, I have to pay the price for such comfort. I'm giggling for hours about what happens next, or rather my reaction to what happens next. I can't possibly predict what anyone else's reaction will be.
Next I'm holed up in a cupboard. It's cluttered and a bit too warm and a TV on its side tells me about some strange apocalyptic phenomena. Soon I'm wearing video goggles, sat in what feels like a car but definitely isn't and being sprayed with some cheap booze whilst surrounded by clowns. This is all part of And the Birds Fell From the Sky by Il Pixel Rosso a theatre company that uses video and audio technology to immerse their audience in a world far removed from reality. The audience becomes the performer in an unknown journey where our mission is to deliver a message. While the characters and the script are both great, following instructions in this way feel passive but still I'm excited to see where the story will take me. It works for the most part. At times the picture is a little blurry and I find myself adjusting the goggles to try and see it better. This distracts from the brilliantly bizarre story and taints the immersive experience.
As good as the shows are, a few things worry me as I walk through BAC, in particular a comment made by one of the BAC's artistic directors David Jubb: “One thing I can guarantee you,” he says “is that if you come back here in a few years, we will not be doing our Nth One-on-One Festival, I'm not sure whether we will do it next year to be honest”.
Sat at the cafe bar eating tapas (try the stuffed peppers), he qualifies this bombshell, “Our mission is to invent the future of theatre, so we're interested in what comes next. If you look at other theatres around London you will see artists, work and ideas that have been seeded and incubated in this building. Our role as a theatre is to provoke and challenge and come up with new ideas.”
And that's exactly what it feels like as I move from one short show to the next following my themed 'menu' of events. Not only are these events on-on-one, but they now have a one-off feeling to them too. My menu is called 'Out of Body', designed to transport audiences to somewhere totally new or unfathomably distant whilst allowing time for contemplation It delivers on both counts.
So lastly, I march myself to Patrick Killoran's Observation Deck where I push myself out of a top floor window to look up at the sky. It's not as peaceful as I expect. I can hear someone being shouted at and bundled into a car which is quite entertaining, but once that's over there is plenty of quiet time.
There are less timetabled shows on my menu compared to last year and I have more time to spend wondering around on my own. There are plenty of 'extras' on offer but they're over pretty quickly. In Your Own Words by Diane Samuels asks me to share a phrase to trigger the imagination and stick it on a wall. With no one around to push me, I cop out and scribble lyrics from a Coconut Records track. In Post Present Future, Cross Collaborations give me the chance to write a letter to my future self. It'll be delivered to my parents' house in 2016. It's odd but planned David explains later. “Last year we were making it up as we went along” he says, “we'd never done it before. We ended up with 10,000 performances over a few weeks. 45 artists presenting works in 40 spaces across the building.” This time around they have a clear idea of what they're looking for he says “We're interested in pieces that are playful, moving, pieces that make you think differently about yourself or the world or where you live. We are interested in trying to provoke a reaction from our audience”
Technically One-on-One Festival 2011 does pull all of this off with flair. They've catered to festival-goers by categorising the events into menus with titles like 'challenging', 'technologised' and 'mind bending' but with only three short events to go to in two hours, I have too much time on my hands and I leave wanting more.
One on One Festival 2011 runs at BAC until 9th April
Image credit: Joe Murray
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