-Baron’s Court Theatre, Reboot Festival: 12th-17th Octobre 2021-
Director
Out Of Love
By Estibaliz Bragado
‘And Now?’
‘We Wait.’
Claire & John
How long will we last?
Hanging to a single minute, waiting for our life to change, in a space and time where time expands, contract, repeat, restart and stays still? How long will we be us in a time and space, where space is but the distance that divides us, the air that cuts our bodies and stands between our past together and the present that reveals our future?
Are we alone already?
‘The longest minute of my life’
‘Time is the word we have given to the process of life, so we can grab it. And pretend we control it.’
- Claire -
The Play
How many versions of us can exist in one minute? How many possibilities do we have to exist together when we are reaching the end?
Two people, a pregnancy test, and a thousand outcomes. Whilst waiting to know how their life will change, Claire tries to find the words to express her new feelings to John. Skipping through every possible scenario in her head, the two will come to terms with a love that is long lost.
The Idea
Out Of Love is a text written by Estibaliz Bragado in 2021 as a final project for her BA degree in theatre and performance at the University of Roehampton, and was presented in October of the same year as part of the Reboot Festival at Baron’s court theatre.
The idea roots back to Caryl Churchill’s ‘Blue heart’, exploring different scenarios for a given situation.
Each scene is a repletion of what happened before, starting either from the beginning or a given point in the text, and it explores the different outcomes of Claire & John’s relationship.
‘How long?’
‘A bit… A lot… A lifetime... What’s the difference?’
- John & Claire -
The Staging
For the staging of this play, I’ve opted for a simple setting (two boxes), concentrating more on lights and sounds.
The idea was that of reading each scene as a photograph in a slide show: every time a scene ends, the lights change whilst a snapping sound of a projector gives the idea of the slide changing. I wanted to convey the idea of Claire’s journey into daydreaming while waiting for the pregnancy test result. Something that starts as a simple thought and gets scarier and scarier, verging into a panic attack.
The idea of a slide show was the best way to show something that could change quickly, quickly resetting to a new chain of thoughts and giving out that idea of jumpy thought typical of a panic attack.
The lights were designed by Leo Bacica.
The development
Out Of Love had a one-week rehearsal process. The nature of this tight schedule forced me to work very closely with the actors and the writer to research the right way to tell the story.
The short rehearsal time allowed us to jump straight into the creative process, focusing on the idea more than the text, whilst challenging the storytelling and staging of the play.
The result was shown at the Reboot festival at baron’s court in October 2021.
