Unlike anything I’ve ever seen before; One Without was performed within The Crucible Theatre on the morning of Saturday 10th October. A completely blank, rehearsal space style room started the piece – until a chair was thrown across it. This was soon followed by Bea Bidault, tossing herself on the floor as if to chase after it. She proceeded to deliver a profound poem-like speech to the audience, while seemingly being flung around by some invisible force. While Bidault froze in place, balanced on her neck, Max Revell slid into the room. He mimed along to a french song – and the sheer range of facial features combined with his physicality was a sight to behold.
Through a combination of intense physical theatre, mime, spoken word and comedy, the two painted a picture of the difficulties of connecting with a person and the ups & downs that accompany it – and it’s when they were together this really shined.
The two performers, accompanied only by two chairs and a soundtrack, clearly share such a strong bond that shined throughout the whole piece. To be able to enact the stunts they did not only requires incredible personal strength, but also an insane level of trust and comfort with one another. In fact, at times as the two lifted one another, climbed over the top of each other and moved in perfect synchronisation – you struggled to tell where one ended and the other began. Even at the end, as the audience clapped enthusiastically, they were creating the idea of one person walking, legs and arms swinging in opposite directions.
The more extreme moments of the piece were consistently undercut by many elements of humour – with the audience laughing along with Bidault’s well timed blunt delivery, or the exaggeration of Revell’s movements. There was even a small interlude-like section, as the two encouraged a member of the audience to join them and guided him through their scene of miming lighting a cigarette without using any words.
As the performance drew to a close, everyone stayed behind for a productive Q&A session on the piece, offering enthusiastic praise and the occasional note for the future. Bidault and Revell are currently looking for funding for the project, so to have this kind of environment where a community (including many cast members of Sheffield Theatre’s current production of Twelfth Night that Revell also stars in) can watch their work and offer their thoughts and appreciation, must be so, so valuable.
It is not something I am used to watching at all, but absolutely something I would look out for again after seeing the sheer talent from these performers.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Imagine Credits: Sheffield Theatres, Jack Thomson Photography
