Muscle is an ensemble piece of verbatim theatre that explores what it takes to be a man. Through a series of collected stories the all-male company combine projection, dance and verbatim text to bring these personal accounts of manhood to life.
Due to the form Shock N Awe have chosen to explore masculinity I was sure I was in for the usual clichéd stories of woe and heartbreak, but I was quite pleasantly surprised. The company have done a lot of digging and the stories worked well in a rich mix spanning across the centuries, combining different ages and ethnicities. The company put a lot of effort into bringing out the characters in each story rather than just the narrative they had to tell, and the performance score worked well, giving each section the right amount of time to be fully realised. It’s in the nature of the work that everyone will walk away with their own favourite tale and character, and the section involving Barry – a young ten year-old trying to look after his family – dominates a lot of stage time as we fly through the years of his life. The company have respectfully given this narrative the time and space it needed and surprisingly have steered clear of whacking a piece of physical movement in for effect; the story was all the stronger for it.
The performances from this multi-aged group are solid, and they work well as an ensemble even in the moments of dance, but it was quite clear which of the performers have dance training. Not all of the dances worked in this production, and it was only when describing the life of a disabled boy that the movement had true resonance with the text (though the projection that was thrown in for effect wasn’t needed).
Shock N Awe have done a solid job of bringing these stories to life. In formal terms this company are not covering any new ground, but they have accomplished an interesting take on masculinity in a good piece of ensemble theatre.