So, what are we all doing when we meet in a theatre space? In a kindly way, Chris Goode, asks us ‘Why have we come? What are we hoping for? What are we dreading?’, and then, cheekily, ‘Are these questions rhetorical?’. The Forest & the Field is a comfortably cosy, immersive piece of non-fiction storytelling. There’s even a ginger cat, Antonio, roaming and roving and relaxing, very at home in the earth-covered performance space. Chris, strolling occasionally from here to there, sitting amongst us, and the household lamps and pot plants, invites us, the audience, to look in toward the space, at each other and ourselves to consider what we seek in our trip to the theatre.
Chris Goode is at ease amongst the audience. His performance is part chat, part lecture, as he’s reading from notes in his lap and observing the space with us, watching and witnessing. Within that space and sometimes alongside us is Tom, an actor, who creates accompanying physical manifestations, improvised sets and scenes to Chris’ words. I pull a cracker with Tom, the actor, whilst the ginger cat circles the circumference of the performance space (is he looking for a way out?).
Using live demonstrations and ‘invisible’ video clips, and summoning up examples ranging from Shakespeare to Peter Brook, Chris suggests the theatre is like an island, the island of The Tempest. Scenes and examples are poured out and presented, erotema set for us to consider and then dissolved away. Are we in a temporary exile from our everyday lives? Is theatre a place where we can know what we are scared to know? Can theatre change the world? What is theatre now, if the way we experience the world now has changed? Antonio the ginger tom moves onto strewn pieces of paper and licks his balls. This cat is just being… he just… is. Which is the conclusion of The Forest & the Field… what if ‘What if?’ has become ‘What is?’. Can we just listen, to what is? Come out of the forest, and into the field to lie down and just… listen… to what… is?
The theme of what we want and why we’re there and what we can hope for is strong yet surprisingly simple. I’m amused and enchanted and feel enriched by the experience. Intellectually stimulating, Chris is with us, the audience, giving us his considered propositions, and we answer his questions within our own thoughts. We can sit back and wonder and witness. It’s like a philosophical inquest into what we want from theatre, aided and abetted by Toms’ theatrical examples, and once you accept this conceit The Forest & the Field is an engaging and endearing, friendly and thought-provoking essay turned into an excellently crafted, in the round theatre event with beautiful visual moments.