BAC ONE-ON-ONE Festival trailer from BAC on Vimeo.

One-on-one is amongst the most significant performance genres to emerge over the last decade. Often the work questions and transgresses the boundaries between audience member and performer in the most personal and intimate way, leading to truly unique experiences that invite the audience to question the ways in which we interact as human beings. For the first time ever, BAC brings together some of the seminal one-on-one works from around the world with new commissions from leading artists in the field: performances from the tender and heartfelt to the downright scary.

Everyone from the boss to the box office are getting involved in realizing their vision and the BAC’s mission to ‘invent the theatre of the future’.

BAC’s joint artistic directors David Jubb and David Micklem said: ‘The experiences we’ve had in One-on-One performances have been some of the most honest, raw, moving and occasionally disturbing that we’ve ever had in the theatre.

Run Rioter James Cowan met the producer of this remarkable festival to find out a little bit more about this intriguing new phenomenon in theatre.

RR: So firstly Sunita, on this most auspicious day (May 6th), did you vote?

Sunita: Yes I did! I went in and popped my vote in before work, just after going to the gym so all round it was a pretty good morning. This is a heavily contested area between Labour (who have been here of late) and Conservative, who have now won the seat. It was an interesting area to be involved in. We actually used lower hall as a polling station but what we really wanted was to use the Grand Hall for the counting. We could have made it into a piece of theatre and had people watching through the windows! Alas, we weren’t allowed.

RR: Now that Wandsworth is a conservative constituency, will it affect your funding and artistic freedom?

Sunita: We have a fantastic relationship with Wandsworth council and they are very supportive so I hope it will not change much for us.

RR: So, what’s your role in all of this ‘One to One’ malarkey?

Sunita: I’m the producer of the festival. This involves lots of organising, lots and lots! We have artists coming in from all over the world; from Belgium to the USA, so it involves plenty of careful planning and booking. Ensuring funding is a very important part of the planning stage also, obviously, but we have been helped that our European artists have been funded through EU support. All of this must be done before any of them are in their spaces and we have to begin to schedule timings for each show, ensuring people don’t bump into one another and aren’t waiting around for their next ‘One-on-One’ experience. It’s a huge task but well worth it when you consider the calibre of the work we are to put forward and the wonderfully transformative power of ‘One-on-One’ work. It’s well worth it.

RR: What’s your background? How do you find yourself in charge of such a unique festival?

Sunita: I come from a far more traditional background actually. I came here from working at the National Theatre in the Director’s Office and before that, the Bristol Old Vic Theatre, so my background has been as a producer on, shall we say, rather more ‘straight’ theatre, conventional theatre. From there I then moved here to the BAC and was able to begin working on the more contemporary, experimental work. I enjoyed the opportunity to produce the more cutting-edge, performance based work that the centre is so geared towards. It’s great. I’m used to large 800 seat venue’s where an audience is played to so being involved in ‘One-on-One’ live art where the audience is played with is a big challenge, but a rewarding one!

RR: Have you participated in a ‘One-on-One’ as a member of the audience?

Sunita: Yes I have! I’ve experienced three interactive performances up till now, although I’m sure I’ll be getting involved with more in the months to come. Whilst I was at Edinburgh Festival last year I attended ‘Ontroerend Goed’, a Belgium company’s performance of ‘Internal’. The piece was deeply effecting and to quite an extent, a life-changing experience for me, so you’ll understand why I’m pretty excited to have them performing as part of the festival!

RR: I’m very impressed with your pronunciation of their name! I’ve been seriously struggling with it!

Sunita: Well, as we have them at the festival it would only be polite! In fact, due to all the Dutch artists we have attending, last week the production team were all receiving Dutch language classes! It will hopefully help when we have them all to stay!

RR: The Barbican have just commissioned the company ‘You Me Bum Bum Train’ for a run of their live performance, audience-interactive show. Do you think that this intensive style of performance is becoming more interesting to a mainstream audience?

Sunita: Yes, of course. ‘YMBBT’ are a fantastic collective so I’m not surprised that the Barbican has snapped them up. I feel it shows a shift in audience interest. People are certainly wanting more of an experience from the theatre than what is currently on offer within the mainstream theatre houses.

RR: Indeed! It’s fantastic that there are opportunities such as the ‘One-on-One’ festival, ensuring that audiences are being provoked into active participation rather than being allowed to have a performance wash over them. It’s the kind of revolution British theatre has been waiting for!

Sunita: Exactly. ‘One-on-One’ performances ensure that you leave with something. You will have hopefully been challenged in some way, and be able to take that forward with you. There is theatre in Britain that is fantastic but all to often it is static in its effects.

RR: So you could say that audiences are becoming les conservative…more Liberal ;) (Disclaimer: this interview was conducted before the official results were released, it would seem that audiences are in fact becoming both more conservative and liberal - what are the odds!)

Sunita: It seems so, yes. To be honest, the people that will predominately attend the festival will be most probably more liberally inclined in their theatrical tastes, but bring on the more conservative of you because this will be an experience that will go unforgotten.

RR: So for a novice such as myself, and perhaps some of our readers, who’s who in the ‘One-on-One’ world? Who’s the old boy and who are the whippersnappers?

Sunita: Well, what a question! There are so many! We’ve got a huge number of artists getting involved in the festival and they are all brilliant. However in terms of the ‘original’, shall we say, it would have to be ‘Stan’s Cafe’, who has been touring since the 90’s. ‘Stan’s Cafe’ will be performing ‘It’s Your Film’, which was originally created in 1998; it has been performed around the world since. The piece is a ‘live film’ using cinematic language to explore what an audience contributes in the act of viewing.

As for newbie’s, there are a huge number, I’m particularly looking forward to Abigail Conway’s piece, she’s a really exciting artist. We have such a huge number of talented artists bringing their own unique pieces to the festival – we are so happy to be showcasing such extraordinary talent!

RR: Some of the pieces involved are pretty controversial and some might say challenging. You are really going to be pushing people’s boundaries with this festival. Who would you say is your most controversial artist? I know for me it would have to be Adrian Howell with his piece ‘The Pleasure of Being: Washing, Feeding, Holding’ which involves participants engaging in the three said activities! Now for me being washed and fed by someone would be quite an intense experience!

Sunita: Haha. Yeah, that one is pretty intense but obviously that would depend on who you are and where your personal boundaries lie. Patrick Killoran is inviting people to be suspended from a platform hanging out of a window. That will offer a whole new view on Old Town Hall and the surrounding area! For me that would be terrifying but that is the whole point of this kind of theatre so I’ll be pushing myself with that one. It’s different for everybody, horses for courses, as they say! The whole idea is to challenge our audiences and hopefully they will leave with an experience that will stay with them for a long time to come.

RR: I see that the BAC is tailor-making journeys of three ‘One-on-One’ performances for each audience member to experience. Any suggestions for me?

Sunita: Right, well, I would suggest you experiencing one of the original artists such as ‘Stan’s Cafe’ or ‘Ontroerend Goed’, to give you a basis of what this is all about, then perhaps for you a challenge with ‘Adrian Howell’, get washed and fed and hugged, and then perhaps someone like Abigail Conway to round it off. That should leave you feeling pretty transformed, I should hope!

RR: Brilliant, well I’ll get those one’s booked ASAP. See you on the other side.

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INFORMATION:

Dates - 6-18 July 2010 (Tues-Sun)

Times - 7pm & 8pm, Sat & Sun Matinees 2pm & 3pm

Price – Tues - Thurs & Sun: £22.50/ £17.50 concs, Fri & Sat: £25/ £20 concs, Matinees: £17.50, Golden Ticket £60/ £50 concs includes bottle of champagne, reserved area and specially curated journey- only four spaces per night.

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