Swinging Belleville rendez-vous

I’m a fresher, I’m new on the drama scene at Warwick University, and I’m in awe. So far I’ve dipped my toe in a bit of Shakespeare, I’ve dabbled in a weekend show or two and my latest challenge, my current raison d’etre is the extraordinary theatrical process of devising. For those normal people out there ‘devising’ is creating a theatrical show from scratch without the usual basis of a script (to put it simply); a blank canvas you might think, a world of infinite possibility and potential. Well, almost.

The devised Codpiece production Belleville Rendez-Vous (to be performed in the Warwick Art Centre studio this week) is based upon the French animated movie by Sylvain Chomet that goes by the same name. The canvas is not therefore quite as blank as first thought. From my observations as a cast member our job has been to transfer the intricate plot from the medium of cartoon and animation to that of the stage. In order to do this we’ve divided the film into chunks or chapters and in each case extracted the ‘essence’ or ‘artistic intentions’ from the scene and tried to devise around those, rather than simply imitating the plot exactly. At every rehearsal everyone in the cast is present. Sometimes we work in separate groups, other times we all work together, but at the end of the scene’s rehearsing, everyone has watched, listened and commented on each others ideas in some way.

What is fascinating about this theatrical process is the reliance one has upon the others and how they enable you to be a creative force. I am a performer, not a writer. I can recite lines or affect an air of sadness but I cannot invent a story, not on my own. Devising is a spontaneous, organic product of the collective company. This is what makes it so powerful. As a cast member of this devised production I have learnt more than ever before about theatre, the art of story-telling, the crafts of puppetry and song, the fact that my body can do the talking instead of my mouth, the infinite variety of sounds that a suitcase can make, and how this myriad of brilliant ideas, actions, and concepts are funneled into one astounding vision. I am in awe of what we’ve created and feel immensely proud to be amongst the madness of Belleville.