created and performed by
James Stenhouse and Gemma Paintin
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Action Hero is a Bristol-based company consisting of the performers and theatre-makers, James Stenhouse and Gemma Paintin.
Their aim is to make work that connects with those viewing in new ways, that renegotiates the pact between audience and performer and ultimately allows the audience to become co-collaborators.
For their current piece, A Western, they have taken over the bar of the Tobacco Factory for their comic take on the iconic world of the movie western.
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A Western consists of a series of scenes and incidents that will be familiar to anyone who's ever watched a western. The narrative is replete with cinematic conventions and cliches as the performers reconstruct various shared moments from classic celluloid westerns utilising the surroundings of the theatre bar (the piece is reshaped for each new venue in which it is performed).
There are a number of well thought out and choreographed moments of audience interaction, from a man ordering a drink at the bar to a card game that descends into a bar room brawl. The line between the epic and the ordinary is muddied and, with no scenery or set with which to physically depict the Old West, it is up to the script and the audience's imagination to recreate this world between them.
The piece is primarily comic in tone, playful, though it's not without its moments of poignancy. There's something very appealiing about the way they use ketchup to stand in for blood and make gun shapes with their fingers like kids playing at Cowboys and Indians.
The overall effect is very enjoyable, although at times the piece does become repetitive, yet the energy of the performers and the audience's intrigue as to what will comes next compensates for this considerably. Action Hero are a unique and exciting company and here's hoping they continue with their particular brand of exploration and experimentation.
Action Hero will be at Oxford Playhouse with A Western from 18-20 October 2010
- Carl Marin Fraser
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regional reviews
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The Comedy of Errors, Theatre Royal, Newcastle
Richard III, Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield
Matilda, Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon
Inheritance, Live Theatre, Newcastle
Beautiful Burnout, Crucible Theatre, Sheffield
Love,Love,Love, Royal Exchange, Manchester
The Cherry Orchard, Birmingham Rep, Birmingham
A Month in the Country, Festival Theatre, Chichester
theatre
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