‘buckets’: A certain kind of 2021 show
Hello again! It’s been a while hasn’t it? I promise that we haven’t dropped off the face of the earth and are, in fact, still working away on all things theatre and have been for the past few months. Summer hit and it was suddenly like everything became very manic, very quickly, so between show rehearsals, project planning, and partnership meetings it became hard to find the time to sit down and actively get some (coherent) thoughts down on paper. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very glad to be busy and will certainly not be turning down the opportunities the last 8 weeks have offered up, but I’ve missed having the chance to sit down and have the space to condense my thoughts into something finite. What I want to talk about today is the first out of that list of things that have been keeping me busy: show rehearsals. In particular, the upcoming performances of Adam Barnard’s brilliantly odd ‘buckets’, which we’re premiering at the Buxton Fringe Festival this coming fortnight.
When I first suggested ‘buckets’ to Olivia as a play we should consider working on, the company was in a very different position. It was 2020, we were actively in the midst of the first wave of the pandemic, and we had only a small idea of the scale of the endeavour we were about to take on. At that point in time, we were looking for something we could take to the postponed, later mostly cancelled, fringe festivals. Something that would show who we were and what we wanted to do, but that also fit the tone and atmosphere of small, more intimate fringe venues and would appeal to a more contemporary fringe audience. At that, ‘buckets’ seemed like a natural fit. It was small, in both scale and length, but was also witty, interesting, and had several opportunities for experimentation. This careful mixture, of possibility and play, would give us the chance to establish the Haywire brand of theatre, and define the kind of work we wanted to create. If you’d have told me, however, all those months ago that buckets would not be a 4 month project but would, instead, be a 12 month one, I likely would have reconsidered the whole idea of starting a theatre company in the first place.
Pandemic was, of course, the main instigator of delays. We’ve grappled with multiple sets of performance dates, several different fringes and rehearsal schedules, all in the effort to make the shows as successful, and as safe as possible. It’s been a constant uphill climb, one that has been walked by the entire theatre industry this last year no doubt. It’s a tricky negotiation, isn’t it: how do we convince an audience to come sit in a room with other (unknown) members of the public for over an hour, when all media and rhetoric for the past year has told them they should actively avoid such a scenario? But it was something we needed to deal with, because ‘buckets’ was a play that absolutely, unequivocally, needed to be performed to a live audience. It was too personal, too intimate, to be done across digital platforms. The themes that the play wrestles with; loss, love, grief and, amongst all of this, how we hold onto something we know we will one day have to let go of, just don’t translate as well across the digital screen. The show should be a celebration of all the joys and tragedies that come from being alive, and it’s a little hard to convey that when your audience is just a list of names on a zoom call. As the pandemic progressed, the only option was to continually delay. That option felt, at the time, soul-crushing. But looking back on it now? I’d confidently say it’s one of the best decisions we’ve made as a company so far.
Why?
Because, through sheer coincidence, I think ‘buckets’ is more appropriate to the world at the moment than it ever has been. A bold statement I know. But there’s something about the charm of the show and it’s unique take on the you-only-live-once line, that feels perfect for a world just now starting to return to normal, and just now beginning to grapple with ideas of what ‘normal’ actually is nowadays. I’ve described ‘buckets’ in a lot of different ways to a lot of different people, but if I was going to sum it up in a single phrase, I’d say that ‘buckets’ is a celebration of life, and life in its entirety. Big moments, little moments, everything in between. It pays attention to those subtle interactions that make up everyday existence just as much as it does the huge, life altering occasions. In this celebration, there’s a wonderfully humble joy which has been missing from the last few months. Everything has, rightfully so, become very serious over the last year, and I think ‘buckets’ is the kind of escape we need at the moment. Because it doesn’t transport us somewhere entirely new, it just makes you feel like you’re coming home. Audiences aren’t asked to jump to another time, or another place, they’re simply invited to a place they already know To a more comfortable world, a more welcoming one, one that feels utterly familiar but still has an element of theatrical magic. It’s such a wonderfully human show, and I hope it reminds audiences of the special little spark that makes the everyday seem so extraordinary. If you fancy, take a trip to our About page, and give our introductory paragraph a read. You’ll see there’s a lot of similarity in what is written there and what ‘buckets’ is all about, in a way that’s even stronger now than it would have been 8 months ago. I’m so ridiculously excited to be able to bring it alive this coming month, and it’s my genuine hope that audiences leave with that spark, that zeal, for life that the play has. I think it’s our jobs as artists to ignite within other people the drive to do something they wouldn’t normally have done and, coming off the back of 12 months where the main message was one of caution and hesitancy, that’s a harder job than ever. But that’s what makes ‘buckets’ such a fantastic show nowadays. It has wit, heart, sincerity and, above all else, an overwhelming adoration for everyday existence. If you’re in or around Buxton in these next few weeks, come along. I can guarantee you it’ll be exactly the uplift we could all do with at the moment.
‘buckets’ was performed in High Peak Bookstore and Cafe on the 9th, 10th, 16th, and 17th July 2021.
Cast: Lisa Jayne, Will Griffiths, Lucy Haslingden