Stage: Wanderers Return
No Particular Place to Go revived for one night only at disabled-accessible venue
Theatre goers will finally get a chance to watch the original cast of April’s critically-acclaimed debut show by Chronicle Theatre, No Particular Place To Go, when it returns to the Brighton stage for a one off performance at the wheelchair-accessible venue of the Friends Meeting House, Ship Street, on Thursday 10 November.
The performance will see actress Kirstie Maginn take her place alongside Stephen Forrest, Charlie Allen and Jenny Rowe for the first time, having been forced to drop out of the initial run by a family bereavement.
The play – partly inspired by the tale of Anthony Delaney, Gatwick Airport’s own “Terminal Man” who spent three years eating, sleeping and avoiding the security guards – was the result of the cast, and artistic director Doug Devaney, living rough in the terminals as an act of journalistic research. It was staged upstairs at The Lectern public house between 30 March and 3 April this year.
Devaney, who filled Maginn’s role, sees the move to the Friends Meeting House as part of Chronicle Theatre’s remit. “The idea was to take the stories of those that couldn’t – or hadn’t – been heard and give them exposure. It seemed ridiculous that we were limiting the audience for those stories by not using disabled accessible venues. The Friends Meeting House was the best possible solution for us.”
Devaney also sees the performance as helping to highlight the lack of disabled-access venues available for small companies like Chronicle and their audiences in Brighton. “That’s not to say there aren’t such venues available,” he explains “but many of them are too expensive, or simply too large, for the intimate kinds of production we are trying to specialise in.”
The play itself is a portrait of Gatwick Airport as an island within an island from the perspective of the homeless that live there. Along with their brief stint in the terminals, the Chronicle cast interviewed clients at Crawley’s Open House homeless centre as well as representatives of STOP, the anti-trafficking charity that has identified Gatwick as one of the global hubs for the trade in human flesh.
Latest magazine gave the show a 5/5 rating stating: “This play (and company) is definitely one to watch. Bloomin’ brilliant!”
The revival of the play – and its settting in a wheelchair accessible venue – is part of an ongoing plan for Chronicle Theatre, with further performances and workshops, focusing on Chronicle’s marriage of journalistic techniques with theatrical methods, intended for next year and a new show expected to debut during Brighton’s Fringe Festival.
“It’s an exciting time for theatre in Brighton,” insists Devaney. “Nobody wants to see a return to the drudgery of 80s political theatre, but sometimes a recession can force you back to basics: to be more inventive and remember why you chose to do this in the first place. Mind you, other times you’d rather just have the money.”
No Particular Place To Go, Thursday 10 November.
Friends Meeting House, Ship Street, Brighton. Doors open 8pm (Performance at 8.30pm).
Tickets £6/£5
Reserve tickets by emailing chronicle.theatre@yahoo.co.uk
