It's very nice to see that the Dream message board is still a lively place and that our work has touched a contravercial vein. Keep it coming!
I'm working on a digital cut of the show which will be available very soon and I'm in discussions with an online distributer to make it avaliable as serialised download and it will also be available for purchase on DVD.
Keep the contributions coming.
All the best.
Xavier
Had an amazing time in Manchester. The last leg of the tour was fabulous, an extremely moving last night. Somehow don"t think it's the last of KAOS.
Arts Council of England, this is what you are cutting. I need to point something out dear KAOS people - the Arts Council have been and seen two shows and written two reports on our work in the entire six years we have been funded by them. We had to evoke the freedom of information act in order to get this information. Why do artist have to use the freedom of information act to find out what is being written about them - what is so secret? Is this democratic? The Arts Council have stated that they have the right to choose and make 'difficult decisions' - I say when these decisions are being made based on deceit, false information, no real information and a complete lack of transparency then you have no right to decide anything.
Here is an incredible review of our last production from the BBC.
Xavier Leret - Artistic Director
Carol Hodge (show: 28/02/08)
It’s easy to roll eyes to news of yet another Shakespeare adaptation. The mere mention of a 'reworking' inspires fear in those of us who are looking for something fresh and exciting. How brilliant then that KAOS have proved me inexorably wrong.
Too often, Shakespeare is approached with excessive reverence, with directors tiptoeing around the sacred script, timidly suggesting that perhaps Oberon wears a leather jacket to ‘update’ the script.
Not so for KAOS director Xavier Leret, who has torn chunks out of A Midsummer Night's Dream, sprayed it with smut, farce and glitter and created a fresh masterpiece.
The language is still luscious with powerful sincerity where appropriate, but many lines are suddenly revealed as double entendres: after seeing this production, the relevance of the ‘wood’ and ‘magic herb’ has been indelibly updated in my mind.
Our setting is a dingy working class pub-cum-lapdancing joint, resplendent with cheap carpet, tattered leatherette booth, bar, optics and a mirrored pole dancing booth; the magical forest has become a faded 70s frieze behind the bar, the faerie ballads saucy cabaret numbers, the plucked lyre a full on live jazz band. Most pertinently, the main themes of the original play are brought to the fore, revealing the timeless nature of the story.
The characterisation is also highly inventive, and, on the whole, effective. Mat Fraser’s Puck is a snivelling scally, Titania a washed up drag queen, the Mechanicals become airheaded erotic dancers and Helena is a frumpy Jim Cartwright hard nose.
Energy and extreme physicality oozes out all over KAOS Dream. From Hermia’s gravity-defying poledancing, through Lysander and Demitrus’ almost-naked wrestling, to the constant leaps over and onto the 5ft high bartop, the action pulses with a manic fervour.
The slapstick comedy routines are expertly timed, and the smut so excessive that it bursts through the realms of taste and sanity into weird and wonderful absurdity.
Bottom’s transformation into a human ass, complete with eye-poppingly huge phallus, provides a prop for endless humour, and even when I tried to contain my sniggering at the arguably juvenile, steroid-fuelled Carry On comedy, I could not fail to warm to the inventiveness of the interpretation.
The vision is strong, courageous and highly modern and at least this evening, is thunderously successful with the audience. Xavier Leret has stretched a bold and bizarre idea to breaking point, and has been rewarded well for his efforts. In the world of Shakespearian adaptations, my conclusion is simple: He who dares, wins.
|
|
KAOS has always striven to produce work that is of the highest artistic quality, that challenges and pushes the boundaries.
KAOS has over the past 14 years grown from a small experimental theatre company, driven by ensemble ethics and performance research, into one of the UK's foremost mid and small scale touring companies.
Concerns have been raised about the quality of our work by ACE officers but these concerns don't seem to reflect the reality of the venues we tour to (many of whom have sent us extraordinary letters of support) and the national audiences that we reach.
At our annual review in July 2007 we were shocked when it seemed that our officers were basing their judgment on wrong information.
We have found dealing with this regime at the The Arts Council a demorilising experience. The success we achieve on the road is not registered in Central Office.
I'm a founding member of KAOS. Anybody who has started a company will understand the sheer hard work that is involved to first of all make the production and then to tour it. In the early years we did this with absolutely no subsidy. We knew that to gain subsidy we had to earn it by making extraordinary work. We did this then. We continue to do this now.
We have been treated without respect.
We feel we have been lied to.
To quote one our letters of support "The Company's reputation for high quality ensemble physical theatre is second to none and Kaos' desire to push boundaries and challenge audience expectations in pursuit of excellence is what I understood to be the very essence of what the Arts Council is encouraging the whole sector to do".
Theatre is about people, it is about communication of ideas, feelings and understanding. Qualities frankly missing in this thing we call the Arts Council.
Xavier Leret - Artistic Director
As the Artistic Director of a company that is facing an entire cut of its grant it is difficult for me to contain my outrage towards the Arts Council.
KAOS has over the past 14 years grown from a small experimental theatre company, into one of the UK's foremost mid and small scale touring companies.
Our work has continually surprised, shocked, delighted and provoked fierce debate in venues and schools throughout the country.
KAOS is a company that has given everything it can to achieve its reputation for Artistic excellence. I pride myself on my reputation for making cutting edge physical adaptations of classic plays as well as the new material I pen. I work slavishly to ensure that my work continues to reflect the reputation that my collaborators and I have built up over years of work. Years of work it seems that are to be ended in a matter of weeks.
I appeal to the Arts Council to halt this clandestine process - we deserve better than this. Our audiences deserve better than this.
We are at a loss to understand what is the rationale behind the Arts Council's decision.
Xavier Leret
Artistic Director
Here is a new rehearsal vlog.
Xav
Here is the second Dream VLOG.
Here is the very first VLOG of the process. Week 1