The Ten Thousand Things

An imaginatively staged production, The Ten Thousand Things, launched new Oxfordshire-based dance/theatre company Wrong Pearls at Pegasus Theatre Oxford. Inspired by the novel, The Ten Thousand Things by Maria Dermout, the production set out to explore the intimacy of reading aloud and being read to. This it did by unravelling a haunting story that spoke of the cosmos, the allure of the sea and of memory, of the living and the dead, through a poetic narrative read aloud by the six cast members. The story was passed between them as they constantly shifted roles, moving between character and storyteller, at times reading to the audience, sometimes to each other.

As visual as it was performative, the work used the stage as picture plane and through the movement of objects and performers a series of strong images were drawn and then erased in a tableau vivante that worked as illustration to the driving narrative. A thousand white stones set the mood of the piece as they rumbled down a metal gangway and poured onto the stage to create a field amongst which the performers could move. They did so sensitively and thoughtfully, sometimes dancing alone or in poignant couplings, at others forcefully moving the stones and gravel across the stage with body or brush to create a dynamic soundtrack to the work. This was one of the strongest voices in a complex work that was a chorus of many voices, from the novelist to the actor-dancers, to the directors Jane George and Lizie Giraudeau for whom this is a first outing with this youthful company.

The production is proposed as a work in progress and generously the audience were offered notebooks to give direct feedback to the company on the night. I saw that a number of them were scribbling away so presumably their voices too will be added to the chorus. If the company are to really use the audience feedback then perhaps we will be invited to see what they have done with it as the work evolves. That is all well and good and has its place, but this is not a student production, it is an already well-crafted work that announces the arrival of an original and inventive new company to the regional audience. They know more than perhaps they think they do and must confidently make the decision themselves to say it is done, it is ready. Ready or not, a delightfully dreamlike aura was created by this talented young cast as they wove beautiful visual and aural images for the audience in a ways that were at times moving, at others playful, but always skilful in their presentation. Everything felt right with the Wrong Pearls, it is a terrific beginning and I look forward to watching them work again.

Clare Carswell (Unverified), 17/07/08

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