For the final season in their Kennington home, Ovalhouse theatre’s Demolition Party Season will see a collaboration between engineers and companies, to allow artists to dismantle parts of the building as part of their creative process. After 80 years as a community venue and 55 years as a professional theatre, Ovalhouse will relocate to a purpose-built theatre in Brixton from spring 2021.
Ovalhouse are giving their artists the freedom to take risks on stage, off stage and with the very stage itself. As part of the Demolition Party Season, Rachel Mars and Greg Wohead will poke at plot holes and political lies in Gaping Hole: Story #3.
Gaping Hole is the third part of a non-linear trilogy about radical narrative. A performance piece from the team behind Story #1 which centred around an episode of Come Dine With Me and fan fiction, Gaping Hole considers what holes we are prepared to overlook in order to stay comfortable.
It is about plot holes and political lies; about gaps that ask to be filled and why audiences and humans are drawn to them. It’s about seeing holes being created in front of our eyes and the decision to be concerned or unconcerned by them. When does a series of small holes become a serious big hole and at what point do we make a decision to do something about it?
In the Shawshank Redemption, wrongly convicted Andy Dufresne spends years digging a tunnel to freedom from his prison cell. He hides his work under a large picture of Rita Hayworth. On the day of his escape, Andy crawls his way towards the outside world and perfectly replaces the poster on the wall to mask his escape route.
We’re so emotionally satisfied when Andy rips off his prison uniform in the rain that we forget to ask how he could possibly have replaced the poster from inside the tunnel. But how could he have possibly have replaced the poster from inside the tunnel?
When: 8th – 23rd November 2019
Where: Ovalhouse, 52-54 Kennington Oval, London SE11 5SW
£: Tickets cost £16 or £10 for concessions
More info: www.ovalhouse.com