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BACK TO BACK THEATRE HAS BEEN CAPTURING THE CITIZENS OF CAMBRIDGE ON FILM – MIRIAM BALANESCU MEETS THE GROUP TO FIND OUT MORE
created with the artist involved. “We worked with local artists and community groups. There are many students in Cambridge, but also football players, dancers, activists, roller derby skaters, asylum seekers, jugglers and people from Cambridge Junction. “Ingrid, the director of the piece, said she really loved working with Yvonne Hercules, a local composer,” continues Tim. “She found Yvonne to be this very thoughtful and generous artist. She was able to directly respond to one of the main themes
n 2008, the idea first dawned on Back to Back Theatre’s Bruce Gladwin to create a community-focused film, through the frame of a simple wooden box with a door on either side. “This box could become a framework for any community,” explains executive producer Tim Stitz. Joined by videographer Rhian Hinkley and set designer Matt Cuthbertson, the project started to roll out across
Australia. The concept: invite members of local
communities in to perform whatever they wish during 20-minute slots within the confines of this wooden box. Using a
the community wanted to share – and that was
TÁR Sensory overload hits home in Todd Field’s latest, starring Cate Blanchett as under-
freedom. Everyone having a basic right to enjoy freedom of expression.” Allowing
rolling dolly, this is then filmed. “It was designed so that it could be in perpetual motion,” says Tim. “You can film it in part, but then an act is really discrete. It allows a natural movement to occur in the frame of the work, but then allows us to move through a diverse range of participants.” Now, 33 locations later, The Democratic Set has landed in Cambridge. A total of 97 participants have entered the box through its little doors and been given free rein to voice their feelings. Though the framework is the same, every film is special. “What changes and what allows the dynamics to shift is the different community we’re working with,” comments Tim. “We’ve played with contrast and having people outside the box, and with form – in terms of sometimes having very little speaking or using text. Sometimes we have people playing with light, colour and projection. In Cambridge, we played a lot with this, and people projecting the typeface they
pressure composer Lydia Tár. Where to Watch: UK cinemas Release: 13 January
performers to get creative with how they display themselves, Tim urges, is the most important
aspect of the project. “You’re collaborating with participants on how they choose to represent themselves and how they want to be seen,” he says. “People’s creativity and the agency and risk taking was quite striking in Cambridge in particular. People went quite deep, quite quickly. I don’t think that’s a hallmark of every place we go, but maybe it’s the time we’ve just been through across the world. “Anyone who’s making theatre is seeking to hold up a mirror or a magnifying glass onto our society, into what it is to be a human being at this point in history,” Tim emphasises. “There is darkness and there is lightness. There is happiness and there is bitterness and sadness. More so than ever, we need to think back to – or just acknowledge – that we’re in this quite perilous time in history.” See The Democratic Set at the Junction
HOLY SPIDER Based on the chilling true story, Ali
Abbasi’s film follows the ‘spider killer’ who is bent on ‘cleansing’ the streets of Iran as he sees it. Where to Watch: UK cinemas When: 20 January
24 JANUARY 2023 CAMBSEDITION.CO.UK
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