Friday
11th April 2003
Bad Hand - A writer's inspiration
Written by Ansell
Broderick |
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| Bad
Hand - an African-Caribbean dance-drama |
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Ansell
Broderick wrote and produces the dance-drama 'Bad Hand'. He gives
his reasons for the show and it's contribution to the community.
See the fabulous picture galleries from the
show. |
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Bad
Hand grew from a feeling of dissatisfaction whilst touring internationally
as an actor and musician.
Don鈥檛 get me wrong, touring the Americas and The Far East, with prestigious
companies like The West Yorkshire and Nottingham Playhouses plus a
superb two-month "Land Rover Tour" of Africa with the English Shakespeare
were life-changing experiences which I鈥檒l cherish forever.
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| Bad
Hand being performed on stage |
So I wasn鈥檛
dissatisfied with the tours or the essence of the plays. No, it鈥檚
just that I thought the language of theatre should be a bit more 鈥ell
.. international instead of using English, French or German all the
time.
And so an idea formed in my mind. I was going to create a piece that
gave more equal access to theatre and tour the world with it.
Bad Hand was that piece. Since it鈥檚 Inception in 1995 it has notched
up over 200 performances, wowing audiences from Bristol to South Shields.
Each of the three productions has explored new areas of this theatre
without words.
The first in 1995 being the devising period - started life as a three-page
story, lots of ideas and possibilities and an abundance of heart and
passion from the performers Ekua Ekuma, Tracey Anderson and Nicola
Beckford with rugged musical backing from Roy Johnson and Dave Sticksman-Higgins.
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| Bad
Hand being performed on stage |
The second
1997 production was a lot stronger technically. Ekau and Roy where
still in the cast but we now had Tracy Bell fresh out of the Northern
school of contemporary Dance and Mellony Page a strong gospel singer.
Their disciplines took the production in a different direction and
at first I thought it had lost its soul, but the more I watched the
more I appreciated it for its own technical beauty.
Now 2003 - and in this the third production I as director have tried
to strike the balance between the technical and the soul and with
this cast of skilful multi disciplined performers, Louisa Eyo, Amayra
Fuller and Simone Richards, Bad Hand is definitely forging a new style
in who鈥檚 footsteps it will be hard to follow.
That international language I strived for is evident throughout the
piece, so much so that people come out of the performance extolling
the excellence of the narration, only to be reminded that there was
none.
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| Bad
Hand being performed on stage |
And yet
everyone can reiterate the story scene by scene, so it would seem
that a combination of body poetry synchronically accentuated by a
sea of syncopate music (Roy Johnson & Silbert Morris) is speaking
to the audience on a subconscious level and it's happening across
all age and ability ranges.
The Midlands to which 95% of all Bad Hands performances have been
shown (mainly in schools) has such a diverse population and yet Bad
Hand has been met with universal enthusiasm (except in the case of
Handsworth Girls school where it went off the Richter scale).
It has also been thought provoking. One little boy in an after show
discussion remarked, "I think the duppy (ghost) was born out of the
spirit of jealousy." Well you could have knocked everyone down with
a feather when he said that.
Teachers and pupils alike are capitalising on the excitement of the
performance. Each school has received an accompanying teachers pack
compiled by Marva Buchanan (Vibza Productions) containing topics around
maths, English, sciences, dance, art and many other subjects.
This associated production between, Birmingham Rep, Creative Partnerships,
and Vibza production has been a success story. My dream now is that
it steps off this rock and tours the world.
Ansell Broderick, Vibza Productions
We've
got a host of pictures from the show, so take a look.
| Pictures
following the story: 1 |
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| Pictures
following the story: 2 |
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| Pictures
following the story: 3 |
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If you've
seen the show, let us know when and where, and what you thought of
it.
E-mail the team at: birmingham@bbc.co.uk
| When
and where can you see the show |
For details of the performances at the Rep Theatre, click
here.
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