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Invited to UW-Milwaukee by theatre education lecturer Ralph Janes, the U.K.’s Multi Story Theatre Company will perform the physical devised piece, The Me Show. Created and performed by Multi Story Artistic Directors Bill Buffery and Gill Nathanson, the show interweaves the stories of two couples, one in the present dealing with the repercussions of whistleblowing and the other in the distant past likewise examining what they believe to be right with the knowledge that others may disagree. Buffery and Nathanson share, “We hope that the juxtaposition of old and new says something about how the tensions between individual freedoms and the frameworks that allow us to live together—given our diverse habits of mind—are timeless preoccupations.”
Buffery’s and Nathanson’s influences and schools of training are wide ranging, but the two share a love of Peter Brook and Jerzy Grotowski, and recognize a number of key influences in this production, including Bertolt Brecht and Poland’s Gardzienice Company.
Milwaukee’s theatre world is experiencing a resurgence in physical devised work through companies such as Quasimondo Milwaukee Physical Theatre and Cooperative Performance Milwaukee. Buffery and Nathanson expanded on the role this style plays in their production.
“In The Me Show the physical theatre elements act, in the main, as important punctuation within the argument of the piece. … They were part of the overall texture and their juxtaposition with more text-based elements are part of the overall meaning of the piece, which plays with the tension between words and actions.”
Describing their approach, they note, “We are committed to the notion of the thinking body, the visceral heart and the feeling brain. … In practical terms we work to ensure that our thoughts and words are physically rooted not just cerebrally expressed and that the gestural language we use serves the overarching needs of the piece—that movements are weighed in terms of their contribution.”
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They continue, “Multi Story’s theatrical work covers a huge range of styles and explorations … as the name implies we are fascinated by the power of story—we do like the precision tools of words but have also developed an extensive physical vocabulary!”
To learn more about Multi Story, visit multistorytheatre.co.uk/indexmain.htm. The Me Show plays at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 17 in the Music Recital Hall of UWM’s Peck School of the Arts, 2400 E. Kenwood Blvd. The performance is free and open to the public on a first come-first seated basis; if you are bringing a group, please email janes@uwm.edu to reserve seats.
