supermarket Shakespeare

Supermarket Shakespeare – 05 may 2010

Supermarket Shakespeare is a play, based on a story by Shakespeare, which performed in a non-theatre space, a Sainsbury’s supermarket during normal open hours. The play, 20 minutes long, was repeated three times, so audience members could watch it again, but following a different character.

The play begins with the six characters, wearing everyday clothes or a supermarket uniform, who work or shop in the supermarket, starting in different places in the supermarket, and audience members choose which character to follow as each character walks around the supermarket according to their own storyline. The opening part of each storyline seems independent, but during the play different characters meet in the supermarket and the storylines interlink.

At the beginning of each story line, performers would build up a relationship between audience and character, so that the audience automatically became one part of the play. For example, an actor talked to the audience like they were old friends, or like they were supermarket trainees. The actor then took the audience on the storyline as they walked around the supermarket. The audience members, including ones who didn’t come for the show but for shopping, became involved by answering questions from the character, joining in conversations and sharing the happiness and sadness of the character’s situation. For example, one audience member hugged a character when she was crying.

This type of interactive performance, involving the audience directly in conversation with the character, leads to questions about the role of the audience. For example, how far should an audience member respond to the acting? Should audiences respond to all the questions from actors? The audience is asked to take on a role, e.g. a trainee, so, how much should they act that role during the performance? As an audience member, I personally experienced such questions and looked for ways to find answers.

It seems important whether or not the audience know that a performance will be interactive before they decide to attend this performance. Because it affects how much they want to join the performance. Supermarket Shakespeare did not say there would be audience involvement, This might limit interaction of audience with the actors and also would make audience self-conscious which affected their relationship with the play. It seems that if the audience know interaction is part of the performance, then they can be more freely because everyone knows the situation is not just about the performers, but also about the interaction.

Also, there are some questions relating to performance that should be considered: How to control situations, like the over-interactive and non-interactive audience members, during the performance? How much response should be expected from audiences? This supermarket play, for instance. What is actor’s position when audiences over-respond to the acting? How to deal with a situation that an actor has not audience follower – should the acting be continued without an audience?

There are no certain answers to these and similar questions, but undoubtedly the actor/performer does have different responsibilities compared to a traditional performance in which the audience is totally separate from the performance. The performer, as a character, must work with the audience-performers in way that the performer thinks is correct.

This is one interesting aspect of the effect of interactive performance on the role of the spectator. Of course, it means that every performance is different, and chance is now part of the performance, but also means the director’s control is more reduced. This is because the performer makes important decisions about the final performance, for example, how much to let the audience perform, and the director does not control this.