In an era when television has become slick and shiny, Live from Television Centre – a collaboration between the BBC, Battersea Arts Centre, the Arts Council and five independent theatre companies and makers, broadcast on Sunday night and now available on iPlayer – was a breath of fresh air. It was often rough and ready, but that is the nature of so much independent theatre, which not only employs a DIY aesthetic but stands in opposition to a top-down monoculture.
It was an experiment and a consistently interesting one, even when not all of it worked. There is no point in undertaking an experiment if you are already confident of the outcome. And there was something that felt genuinely innovative in the attempt to bring independent theatre, and independent theatre values, into Television Centre – a place that for so long was the beating creative heart of the BBC, that is the repository of so much TV history, and which is now being converted into luxury flats.
It’s a history that was gleefully subverted by Richard Dedomenici with his Redux Project, which re-created highlights from the history of BBC TV, from an elephant peeing all over the studio floor on Blue Peter to performances on Top of the Pops. This was theatre – or rather, live art – and television talking back and forth with each other in a fruitful way. There were times when you wondered whether the BBC had quite clocked the level of subversion going on here, behind Dedomenici’s genial persona. It was an enjoyably mad offering from a man who describes himself as “artist, film-maker, raconteur and manufacturer of dangerous toys since 1798”.
Oddly, the company who are most famed for their production values, the mighty Gecko – who even in Edinburgh ensure that their show looks really great – probably came off worst with a new piece, The Time of Your Life. It’s not that their strongly visual and physical style doesn’t translate to TV, but that the piece didn’t play to the company’s strengths. And the way it was filmed made it look like a bad 1970s sitcom with wonky scenery. I reckon Gecko’s work might make thrilling TV, but it would require much higher production values and sleight of hand than was possible in this live set-up.
Others thrived. Touretteshero’s Broadcast from Biscuitland was a total delight – a piece of unaffected directness in which both Jess Thom and Jess Mabel Jones were superb. Thom has Tourette syndrome and her physical and vocal tics include saying the word “biscuit” up to 16,000 times a day. The show complemented her involuntary cry of “Keith Chegwin is dead” with a shot of him looking game in the audience. Broadcast from Biscuitland raised significant questions about inclusivity and the nature of creativity. There was also a powerful half-hour version of Common Wealth’s No Guts, No Heart, No Glory, a wonderful piece about the hopes and dreams of young female Muslim boxers.
It’s great that these shows, along with Islington Community Theatre’s Brainstorm, in which a group of teenagers investigate their own state of mind, will be available on the BBC iPlayer, where they will be a terrific resource for anyone interested in contemporary theatre, as well as for those working in education.
Live from Television Centre may open the eyes of many – including the BBC itself – to what independent theatre can deliver, and to the fact that there is so much exciting, alternative work being staged at venues all over the country. But it’s so much more than just a showcase. It reminds us that TV and live theatre have much to offer each other, and that the messiness and anything-can-happen quality that independent companies and artists would bring to TV would help it recover some of the pioneering and creative spirit of its early days.
- Live from Television Centre is available on BBC iPlayer.
