Overview
Demonstrate is a dynamic emerging theatre company that formed
in 2003 on graduating from Lancaster University. The work is new,
experimental and characterised by gestural performance, a striking
visual aesthetic and the creation of self-contained theatrical environments
in which the work is staged.
Demonstrate is resident at South
Hill Park, Bracknell, where the company has incubated its
current show, Hazmat
& Me (formerly Ever
The Bull).
Core Members
Richard Kingdom (Artistic Director)
Richard is the Artistic Director of Demonstrate and guiding vision
through the company's work. He is also the curator and director of
the Fresh
festival, and pursues his own Live Art practice, most recently through
*Rules
and Regs at the Farnham
Maltings.
Matt Hill (Performer, deviser)
Matt is a founder member of Demonstrate and has co-devised all of
the company's productions. Matt has been a technical director, sound
designer and most recently, a performer with Demonstrate. Matt is
also putting together ReThink Daily, a new kind of podcast
featuring young and aspiring writers and actors in new and original
drama and comedy.
Gerard Matthews (Performer, deviser)
Gerard is a founder member of Demonstrate and has co-devised and performed
in all of the company's productions.
A Candid History
2003
Demonstrate forms on graduating from Lancaster University
First show, HARRY
Is Always Right, is taken to the Edinburgh Fringe.
Demonstrate receive some great REVIEWS
and a few people come along
HARRY is performed at Green
Room's Emergency festival
2004
Demonstrate is supported by emerging artists programmes of the Nuffield
Theatre, Lancaster and Green
Room, Manchester
HARRY completes a short ACE funded UK tour.
The first shows are wrecked by its placement in spaces that are too
big but the shows in South
Hill Park's studio theatre at the end of the tour are dynamite
"
South
Hill Park's chief executive, Ron McAllister, invites Demonstrate
to put forward a residency proposal
A short R&D process supported by (largely) the Nuffield
Theatre and (partly) Green
Room sees a scratch of what will eventually become Hazmat
& Me. It will also inform the creation of Essen
as well as a show that we have not even started to make yet. At this
stage though it is a cut price Carrier Frequency (breakthrough
show by Pete Brooks' Impact Theatre inspired by the genius
novel by Russel Hoban, Ridley Walker) with a cardboard set
and shadow puppets
On a whim, Demonstrate make Essen,
a performance that takes place over a meal shared with the audience
Essen is performed
in Richard's living room to the Nuffield
Theatre's Matt Fenton and Alice Booth and then developed for
performances at Salford's Bridge the Gap festival and South
Hill Park. The company just about get away with it but agree
that it takes longer than that to make a new show
2005
Demonstrate begins its residency at South
Hill Park. Their ACE application is handed in too late and
they spend a gruelling month working for nothing
Ever The Bull
(the show that will ultimately become Hazmat
& Me) is premiered at South
Hill Park. It's not very good
The show is developed for performances at the Nuffield
Theatre and the Chelsea
Theatre, London. It gets a lot better. Welfare State International's
John Fox meets the company a few times to offer advice and feedback.
At the Chelsea
Theatre someone in the audience describes the show as Beckett
directed by Jeunet and one of the best things they'd ever seen. Demonstrate
is pleased but know that he's exaggerating
An ACE bid to develop the show with John Fox as mentor is successful
but owing to a frustrating misunderstanding about what 'mentoring'
means, Demonstrate never get the money
Some people leave the company
Demonstrate receive a small grant from the Bracknell Forrest Borough
Council to collaborate with Andy Glass's pyrotechnic company, Spoke
In The Wheel on Burning Ambition, an outdoor spectacle
for South
Hill Park's Big
Day Out. There are a number of nice moments
Artistic Director, Richard Kingdom curates Fresh,
a platform for emerging artists and ACE fund Demonstrate to spend
3 weeks on Ever the Bull with some new collaborators;
Paul Cochrane and Dan Bennett
The process is an absolute dream and the reworked show is one of the
best of the festival
Ever The Bull
is performed to an invited audience at Green Room
Demonstrate books a tour for Spring 2006 based on the strength of
a blurry DVD of this new version of the show.
2006
Demonstrate begins the year in earnest with an arts council grant to complete and develop Ever the Bull which they do gladly.
Anton Maiof joins the creative team to score the show. Charlotte McClelland also comes onboard to design the lighting plan and tech the show and Richard’s dad, John, offers his engineering expertise to make the show’s potentially lethal set into a safe, tour-ready structure.
The radiation suit gives Ged ringworm but the rehearsal process is otherwise successful.
Demonstrate receive good local press coverage for Ever the Bull but audiences prove somewhat thin on the ground. Compared to the jam-packed performance at Fresh the previous year, this is a bit disappointing. The 21 South Street gig is rescheduled and we get a school booking so that turns out to be a respectable date, we cancel one of the Burton Taylor performances to fill out the evening show but Norden Farm is an expensive wash out (as the show is on a split). Performances at the Nuffield Theatre, Lancaster and Camden People’s Theatre buck the trend and cheer us up.
Tim Walton and Paul Griffiths shoot sections of the performance over an extra day spent at the Nuffield Theatre. Paul then edits together an incredibly impressive promo of the performance which proves an invaluable tool for getting venues to talk to us.
Ged vows never to wear the suit again.
By this stage in the year there have already been three Fresh festivals and Richard is looking a little ragged.
Matt takes advantage of his new job and gets the company a two week run at the Blue Elephant Theatre in Camberwell. After a very proper audition process, Ed Birch comes onboard to wear the suit, everyone keeps the ringworm a secret. Ever the Bull becomes the more user-friendly Hazmat & Me but really it’s only the name that’s changed. By the time rehearsals begin, Richard has just finished the year’s 6th Fresh festival and is no good to anyone so Ged directs Ed.
An interesting thing about Richard and Ged is discovered; Richard, who is a floppy-haired arty type, strives to make clinical, machine-like theatre whereas Ged, a bullish pragmatic type, errs surprisingly on the side of pathos and sentimentality. As a result, the Blue Elephant version of Hazmat & Me enjoys a new emotional depth.
The company agree that this is a dynamic that should be exploited in future productions. The Blue Elephant run breaks even which is as much as anyone could have hoped for. Matt is very excited about how the online presence of Demonstrate has developed and is even more excited about having a clip of the show on his phone. The Bluetooth possibilities of this remain largely theoretical despite numerous attempts to make it work though Matt assures everyone that it is nevertheless the future.
After numerous conversations, Ged is yet to persuade Richard that his ‘abortion play’ idea is a winner. However, when Ged tentatively proffers the parallel between abortion and the war in Iraq – ie what are you willing to sacrifice in order to maintain your standard of living – the idea suddenly resonates with some late-night writing that Richard has been doing and the fourth Demonstrate show begins to take shape.
2007
In the spring, Ged, Matt and Rich give themselves one week to write a “play” (a new concept to them); a 20 minute scratch piece. The play is called The Primitive Streak, a title offered by Ged’s older brother. They begin writing with an attempt at merging two quite different ideas: Iraq- as an example of modern imperialism; and abortion- an example of doing something unpleasant to maintain your standard of living. As the subject matter is heavy and controversial, they try to make it as humorous and entertaining as possible, borrowing from 1940’s fast talking films like His Girl Friday.
They audition many actresses to play the main character Kathy Pearls and pretend they know what they are doing when casting. After feeling somewhat intimidated by the amount of quality performers who were interested in the part, they warmly welcome Antonia Windsor into the company. Antonia is a no nonsense actress, who we thought would give the female character personality, will fight her corner, and generally tell them where they are going wrong in writing for a woman.
In the unseasonably bleak, grim summer they began to rehearse at South Hill Park. They are admirably fearless about tackling the difficult abortion action on stage, although relying a tad too much on gags and banter to get them through the shocking scenes (which the little voices in their heads was telling them they shouldn’t really be doing). Anton Maiof (nicked-named Tony Rome by the company after a bad Frank Sinatra detective serial) makes a welcome return, carrying just a Casio keyboard and a laptop. He asks the company to have faith in him.
Two staff members of South Hill Park are invited to watch the dress rehearsal. They witness a raw show, with highly comedic performances, 1980’s horror film influenced music, and a very violent abortion depicted in the climax. The completely contrasting reactions of the two audience members gives a glimpse of what is to come.
The piece is first performed at the Custard Factory, Birmingham, as part of Simon Day’s Pilot festival. The company is aware how potentially offensive The Primitive Streak is so they give as much warning as possible, and ask Simon to give several announced warnings the audience of its explicit content. This raises expectation and anticipation of something shocking and controversial to giddying heights, and the audience is disappointed when they finally see the climax, expressed with a universal “well...it wasn’t that shocking was it”.
At the next performance at the Burton Taylor Theatre, Oxford, as an experiment the company decide to give no warning whatsoever. The audience response is very different; as many are repulsed by what they have seen than those that loved it.
Upon reflection, the company agrees that there were too many of the wrong kind of jokes in the performance: poking fun at the subject matter rather than helping reflection on it (the result of Ged, Matt and Rich not being able to resist jokes whilst writing the script in the kitchen).
By autumn they have no money or time for script development, so they decide to spend their one week workshopping what they have, with the aim of expanding it into forty minutes. This proves to be a good idea. The whole company, plus musician, are all in the same rehearsal space, working frantically and sharing ideas. Many radical narrative changes are made. Kathy becomes a Vera Lynn character, who believes she is saving the nation by having an abortion, and Antonia is now required to sing. She is a great sport about it, but just isn’t gifted that way. It is decided that she will mime to Anton singing live – the company is aware how this will affect the already troubled sexual politics of the show, but alas has no choice.
They perform the forty minute version at Warwick Arts Centre, thanks again to Simon Day with his follow-up festival: It Came From Pilot. This performance is more Harold Pinter than Cary Grant, a much starker, harsher theatricality. The bad-taste jokes are removed but not replaced by good natured ones. It causes ‘electricity’ with the audience, both positive and negative. One audience member, who was is a position of authority and so can’t be named, says the show shouldn’t exist. The cast becomes as divided as the audience, with heated debate and raised voices on the train back to London. If nothing else they knew they had created something with power.
By the end of the year the company is very excited at the prospect of finishing what they have started, and a genuine sense of creating something new...whatever it is.
