How To Fall In Love – Reviewed
Helped on his way by disability theatre company RAWD, C James Fagan went off around Liverpool in search of love…
As much as I can make out contemporary dating has much in common with job interviews, getting a range of people together and selecting the one you think is the most suitable. I say as much as I can make out as the last time I went on a proper date, it was to see the film Speed.
Tonight that will change as I’m on a promise with Tim Jeeves and the Liverpool disability theatre company, RAWD, who have developed How to Fall in Love – at once ‘promenade performance’ and opportunity for romance and entertainment.
As the setting sun turns the sky a golden hue, I can’t help but muse that the scene does seem to be set for romance. Only one thing is missing: someone to share this evening with, but before leaving the Unity Theatre I’m paired with a lovely Dutchman called Han and we’re given a bag full of instructions before we set off on our merry way around Liverpool.
As with any date we make small talk; luckily we have prompts and instructions, which are contained in a number of soppy cards. First stop sees us listening to an MP3 player on a street corner opposite the Grapes pub. The audio details the little white lies of dating profiles, and as we listen we get in the way of people heading towards the pub, though they seem to show little curiosity about these figures hanging around street corners.
Once we’ve listened to the audio we move on towards the bombed out church. As we do we visit the non-existing moments of our non-existing romance. At St. Luke’s we are greeted by a priest who looks like he’d rather be preaching under the neons of Vegas. We’re a little early so we must wait.
While doing so, I ponder that this would be quite romantic, well if you ignore the gang of people worse for wear, huddled together in the corner. Soon enough though the priest invites us to meet a newly-wed couple who tell the story of their marriage, one disrupted by falling bombs.
At this point some of the issues of outdoor performances become apparent: an ambulance goes screaming past, while people hover around. Not that this distracts the performers and, anyway, we’re soon off to where the cards tells us to go next.
We reach a point – as part of the performance – where words are unnecessary and we get to stare into each other’s eyes. This is followed by a visit to a therapist as, according to our cards, our relationship is now in trouble.
At this point I noticed that I’ve fallen into a pattern that makes my involvement in this performance easy, and it feels perfectly natural to be dancing to It’s Not Unusual in the back alleys of Liverpool.
As a ‘reward’ we are given a pair of interlocking gloves and will now complete the rest of the performance hand in hand. Maybe it’s a testament to the metropolitan nature of Liverpool that no-one seems to notice, and the stranger we ask to take our picture seems to take it all with good humour.
We make our way towards the Chinese Arch where two French stereotypes await us. Full of ‘oh-la-la’ they attempt to paint our portraits, posing us in different positions all to the apparent amusement of a waiting taxi driver. So there we are, audience as performer, even if at times it is somewhat unwittingly.
This has been an element to this promenade performance; we can’t ignore our role in this. Why should we? After ‘les artists’ have finished their painting we head towards the climax of the night which will take place at 81 Renshaw Street – cafe by day, performance space tonight.
Here we are taken to a backroom by a glamorous usherette, and are shown a sweet slapstick tale about Arturo, Rosie and their unusually large offspring. This little coda is like the rest of the performance, it’s likeable without falling into schmaltz.
A general sense of good-humour has enabled me to go along with and enjoy the experience provided by RAWD and Tim Jeeves; to paraphrase John le Mesurier, it’s been an experience I’ve been not un-fond of.
C James Fagan
Learn more about the RAWD project here
