Spirit

“Last night I dreamt there was a demon in the bakery, and at his whim he spoiled the bread.”

Three performers meet onstage, half in and half out of a steeply raked platform. No scripted lines to say and no story to act out — they have only themselves and the audience to make theatre from. Spliced in between is an attempt to tell a story of three baker brothers. The eldest of the brothers is sent his call up papers to fight in his country’s war, but dreaming of heroism, the youngest brother intercepts the letter and goes to war in his sibling’s place.

Spirit is teasing, sad and funny — a serious joke about cycles of conflict on the personal and the global level, and maybe just a feeling about how we might break out of them. On the way there are puppets: puppets with no heads, puppets made from bread rolls and corpses. There is strange dancing, deeply personal reminiscence and subtle, almost imperceptible, improvisation.

Spirit was a co-production with the Royal Court Theatre and premiered there in 2001. It toured throughout the UK and internationally to Australia, Canada, Germany and USA.

Directed by Julian Crouch and Arlene Audergon
Design Realisation by Julian Crouch, Graeme Gilmour, Rob Thirtle, Helen McGuire
Lighting Design by Colin Grenfell
Sound Design by Andrew Paine
Production Manager by Helen McGuire
Photography by Alan McAteer

Performed by Guy Dartnell, Phelim McDermott and Lee Simpson