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The show, The Candidate, examined and subverted the concept of ‘the family’. This concept was derived from the Langham Club, which for many years has functioned as a communal, intergenerational living room, with all the love and fall-outs, gossip and giggles, fond memories and baggage you’d find in any tight-knit community with a lot of history. The show involved about 25 performers, aged 21–84, five live musicians and several designers. A couple of the club’s long-standing members performed in the show too, including the bingo lady, who starred as herself. The club was open to members during show nights, so the audience were never quite sure who was a performer and who was a punter, or what was spontaneous and what was rehearsed.
The Candidate was a site-specific, immersive theatre piece that was devised and staged by Persona Collective in 2019 at The Langham Club; a traditional working mens club on Green Lanes, near where we all live in Haringey, north London. The club has existed for over 100 years but its numbers are really declining. We became members and spent several months hanging out there, getting to know the regulars and attending bingo nights before developing the show.
The Candidate is the first and last piece of a perpetual cycle. It is a surreal exploration of the family concept, where characters act as family members to fabricate a false reality.
The story is a metaphor for a failed socio-political and financial system in which the role of the family is to prepare themselves to form part of an absurd and competitive system, with no way out. Here, the strange pathologies of human behaviour are dissected and the characters find themselves falling down a symbolic rabbit hole, slowly losing control of events and culminating in an intoxicated awakening that is a celebration of human affairs and rituals.
The Candidate was a site-specific, immersive theatre piece that was devised and staged by Persona Collective in 2019 at The Langham Club; a traditional working mens club on Green Lanes, near where we all live in Haringey, north London. The club has existed for over 100 years but its numbers are really declining. We became members and spent several months hanging out there, getting to know the regulars and attending bingo nights before developing the show.
The Candidate is the first and last piece of a perpetual cycle. It is a surreal exploration of the family concept, where characters act as family members to fabricate a false reality.
The story is a metaphor for a failed socio-political and financial system in which the role of the family is to prepare themselves to form part of an absurd and competitive system, with no way out. Here, the strange pathologies of human behaviour are dissected and the characters find themselves falling down a symbolic rabbit hole, slowly losing control of events and culminating in an intoxicated awakening that is a celebration of human affairs and rituals.
The Candidate was a site-specific, immersive theatre piece that was devised and staged by Persona Collective in 2019 at The Langham Club; a traditional working mens club on Green Lanes, near where we all live in Haringey, north London. The club has existed for over 100 years but its numbers are really declining. We became members and spent several months hanging out there, getting to know the regulars and attending bingo nights before developing the show.
The Candidate is the first and last piece of a perpetual cycle. It is a surreal exploration of the family concept, where characters act as family members to fabricate a false reality.
The story is a metaphor for a failed socio-political and financial system in which the role of the family is to prepare themselves to form part of an absurd and competitive system, with no way out. Here, the strange pathologies of human behaviour are dissected and the characters find themselves falling down a symbolic rabbit hole, slowly losing control of events and culminating in an intoxicated awakening that is a celebration of human affairs and rituals.
The Candidate was a site-specific, immersive theatre piece that was devised and staged by Persona Collective in 2019 at The Langham Club; a traditional working mens club on Green Lanes, near where we all live in Haringey, north London. The club has existed for over 100 years but its numbers are really declining. We became members and spent several months hanging out there, getting to know the regulars and attending bingo nights before developing the show.
The Candidate is the first and last piece of a perpetual cycle. It is a surreal exploration of the family concept, where characters act as family members to fabricate a false reality.
The story is a metaphor for a failed socio-political and financial system in which the role of the family is to prepare themselves to form part of an absurd and competitive system, with no way out. Here, the strange pathologies of human behaviour are dissected and the characters find themselves falling down a symbolic rabbit hole, slowly losing control of events and culminating in an intoxicated awakening that is a celebration of human affairs and rituals.
> the halfway house / behind the scenes
> the halfway house / behind the scenes
The Halfway House was a site-specific, immersive theatre piece I directed and produced together with Persona Collective at the Old Central Saint Martins campus on Southampton Row, Holborn.
The Koppel Project kindly invited Persona Collective – to develop and stage a theatre show at their Koppel Project Campus, which was conceived as an experimental, cross-disciplinary education and arts facility in the former Saint Martins. It has been vacant for many years and is eventually due to be redeveloped as a high-end hotel. The live show took place from 21st September to 4th October 2020
The narrative revolved around three storylines, each unfolding in ‘The Halfway House’ - a fictional hotel. The building and its residents are stuck between two worlds, paralysed by nostalgia and slipping into real and fabricated versions of their past, but equally seduced by and drawn into this absurdly ill-fitting new reality of a ‘luxury’ hotel, which is in the process of being constructed but already feels extremely makeshift, seedy and tired.
The feature length film version of the performance is currently in film competitions and soon available online, which will open it up to a much bigger audience and also allow those who did attend, to see the show from the perspective of the other characters.
"The experience was something between watching a fragmented movie, being in a haunted house, and being in touch with your memories all at once, as the story that was being told was not in chronological order. The interactive way that we walked through the building added an extra element of voyeurism and mystique, as if the events were all happening parallel to each other and not for an audience to witness.
A fact I wish I had known before watching, is that this beautiful, eerie building is soon to be torn down to build a hotel, adding another layer of tragedy to the events we were seeing, as the dialogue shifted from an old arts school to a hotel multiple times throughout the story.
I think the hints were there in the beginning, as we entered the first room, which was a modern room filled with swivelling desk chairs. The story flips real life on its head, by playing with the idea of ghosts in a very “sixth sense” manner, without giving any real clues about which storyline is present or past until the very end, which even then can be debated"
- Kelly Samuel
Photos by ©Karolina Burlicowska
"I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed it. Snatches and glimpses still drift through my mind: a porter pulling a man to shore; clandestine talks in bedrooms and on doorsteps; a cardigan pulled on and off; flirtations and aggravations across space; an impressive thunderstorm; infinite refills at breakfast; dances alone, together, bare-chested; a voice in the distance, then singing in your ear, eerie: ‘don’t you want me baby?’; a curtain lifting, a majestic ghost, a curtain falling. My god, it was so good"
- Flo Ray
cinematography by ©Finn Boxer
"Persona Collective immersive theatre shows, are the most prolific and ambitious projects I have come across in the past two years. 'The Candidate' and 'The Halfway House', are undeniably pushing the boundaries of experimentation, constantly questioning what live performance means today. Their scenarios are visually and conceptually curated to the minimum detail, and yet they leave space to the audiences to be part of it. I truly believe Persona Collective artistic research will have a big impact on the theatre community and beyond..."
- Marcela Iriarte Villa Lobos
Photos by ©Karolina Burlicowska
cinematography by ©Finn Boxer
"The Halfway House" invites a pod of few visitors to follow one of 3 groups of characters. I followed The Maids through the meandres of the Old St Martins, into a labyrinthic journey of discoveries.
What at first seemed like strange pit stops in extraordinary locations, very soon turned into clues. Windows into the story.
We met characters along the way. We seemed to be following threads of histories. At times, we were woven into the general story.
Like cogs of a giant clock, we met The Porter's pod and The Resident's pod, here and there, and realised that our 'trip' was shared with others spectators, in uniquely different yet parallele experiences.
I shan't reveal the plethora of delicious details and scenic punctuations which makes the whole experience so rich and intellectually engaging.
What I must say is: the timing, the clever nods to the work of so many artists, like cinematographer Roy Andersson, Sophie Calle, Jean Genet to cite a few, and the coming together of a group of resourceful artists, is relevant, and a massive breath of fresh air in this troubled times.
When the journey had to end, as it must, we found ourselves at the heart of the play. The perfect ending.
Coming out of it was as unexpected as the entrance was, in the London streets and its passing traffic we felt detached from Time.
- Aurelie Noublanche
The Collective
Rocío Ayllón - Artistic Director & Producer
Elina Akhmetova - Movement Director & Choreographer
Karolina Burlikowska - Photographer & Art Director
Satu Streatfield - Lighting Design Director
Finn Boxer - Sound Designer & Cinematographer
Sami Sabik - Creative Technologist
Cast
Jean-Charles Wadja
Mélanie Gautier
Michael Hall
Emily George
Olga Lagun
Tom Kim
Francesca Costa
Georgia Leefe
Anna Fil
Valia Katsis
Cameron Lee-Allen
Charly Monreal
Sally Plowman
Daniel Seifu
Michael Sookhan
Host & Collaborator - The Koppel Project
Venue - The Old Central St. Martins
Special Thanks to
Abigail Adams
Marcela Iriarte Villalobos
more info: www.personacollective.co.uk
Assistant Directors
Elina Akhmetova
Michael Hall
Production Team
Alice Wilson
Clare McAndrew
Rocío Ayllón
Elina Akhmetova
Emma LD
Tom Kim
Tom Wheeler
Lighting Technicians
& programmers
Steve Lowe
Thomas Blackburn
Lighting Designers
Technicians & Operators
Laura Arroyo
Gaia Crocella
Steve Lowe
Luciana Martinez
Tom Wheeler
Alice Wilson
Art installations & Collaborations
Jack Wates - Storm Room
Charly Blackburn - The Lab
Will Langstone - Cello
Set Designers
Emma Wilson
Emily George
Clary Montero
Alice Wilson
Emma LD
Graphic Designers
Emily George
Emma LD
Sound Assistants
Waris Albakri
Femi Oriogun- Williams
Cinematographers
Finn Boxer
Olga Lagun
Hamish Nichols
Location Sound Recordist
Florence Woolley
Alice Wilson
Research
Satu Streatfield, Emma LD, Karolina Burlicowska,
Clare McAndrew, Rocío Ayllón
Community
Holborn Association
Dragon Hall
Chaperones
Abigail Adams,
Juan Sanchez Plaza,
Rocio Chacon, Clary Montero, Femi Oriogun – Williams,
Anna Chiarin
Show - Preview Mentors
Jo Danzig, Vanya Gostev,
Florence Greensmith
Sponsors Lighting
White Light
Enliten Architectural Lighting
Mike Stoane Lighting
iGuzzini illuminazione
Lighting, Effects &
Logistics Equipment
Shakespeare’s Globe
Audio Equipment
Orbital Sound
Shakespeare’s Globe
Film Equipment
Direct Digital
Costumes
Putney Theatre
Props
Phoebe BP
Lobster Records
Prints
Duplikat Press
