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About Marlowe Synopsis Theme Art Text
Inspiration through performance
Like many other theatre companies, we find inspiration in other people’s art. At art + power we believe in sharing our art with others. We like to link up with other artists, because their work inspires us.
We have learnt that you can make sense of
Knowledge through other people
You work on it
Think, you discuss it with each other
And learn together to pass it on.
That is knowledge
Learning from each other
You take the learning and use it in your own way
We link up, the knowledge is shared: knowledge gets passed on.
What is knowledge?
Brain, thoughts, sense, heart, soul, experience, feelings
They combine together to make knowledge.
Poem from Portway Players’ Faustus
Sometimes sharing happens face-to-face. Some of the players were influenced by their experiences working on a live art project with the Arnolfini in Bristol during early rehearsals for Faustus.
Sometimes, though, we learn about other artists’ work from pictures, books or performances.
For example, early in rehearsals for Faustus we looked at images of Japanese Butoh dancers. We were fascinated by their posture, makeup, and in one particular image, the long red tongues that were a part of their costume.
This became part of our devil dance sequence. Like Butoh, our dancers writhe in contorted postures. They spit and snarl at each other. They use their bodies to create a sense of other-worldliness, to show that the creatures summoned by Mephistophilis are not truly human.
Rehearsals wearing the Butoh-inspired red tongue
The devils about to begin their dance by Carol Chilcott
Jane Sallis says:
‘Art work created by other art +power artists outside rehearsals were used to inspire the choreography for Lucifer's movement on stage and to a smaller extent the dance, as well as ideas about costume and how people could look on stage. Obviously, this meant discussion about the play also happened outside rehearsals. I would have loved more of this and think it would have been even stronger if other artists (outside the players) could have been more involved. Nick was probably the only one, but look what happened with his artwork!’
Nick Selway’s painting was used as the promotional image for the production.
