Our last performance there was in the 2010 semi final where we staged another new play, ‘The Last Supper’. The Athenaeum is lovely atmospheric theatre that has both an epic and intimate feel for the actors and audience. As we have been on our festival journeys we have been fortunate to work in all kinds of theatre spaces and this is always the nice thing about taking part in the annual festivals. The challenge is working in the space you are given and I guess with experience you learn to tailor a show to fit into any kind of arena.
Such is a case with ‘Funny Ha Ha!’ where it’s just two actors and two stools! When you have a limited budget, such as Whole Hog has,we have to be a bit imaginative in the staging. But also it fits our ethos, allowing the words and acting to do the talking and using the simplest of set to suggest a particularly surrounding or place. Not particularly new when you think that was how Shakespeare’s plays were originally performed on an open stage with little or no set, but one that suits us.
After Saturday we are working in two more diverse spaces, the Unicorn in Abingdon and the Corn Exchange in Wallingford so the ‘Funny Ha Ha!’ bandwagon will roll on!