Flashmob Theater

The Factory is a theater company in London composed of a network of artists who mount productions of classic, contemporary, and new works with a creative and spontaneous twist. The company has recently been putting on secret performances of Hamlet throughout London at various locations that are never announced more than a few days in advance.

The project started as a way for a collective of actors and directors to explore Shakespeare’s Hamlet in an ongoing workshop, eventually culminating in a production. However, the nebulous and free flowing nature of the workshops proved to be quite entertaining and evolved into a performance in itself.

The venue is always different and often borders on the dingy side. Performers don’t know their part until they step onto the stage and audience members are free to sit where they like; they even provide the props!

The company’s site sheds a bit more light on their unique performances:

As standard methods of staging are obviously not applicable to such a production, we wanted to see what can be gained from working with a variety of directors, and encouraged an environment where the work could be explored from any angle and was open to a variety of different styles and working methods, particular to each individual collaborator.

All work undertaken was done so on the understanding of all collaborators, that any direction / rehearsal that occurs was done so for the deepening of the group’s experience of the play, but in all likelihood may not / will not make it to any ‘final version’ of the production in performance, as in essence there is no ‘final version’.

Essentially we are talking about a piece of work that is free from traditional devices such as blocking and allocated casting, yet by no means aims to disregard the work of rehearsal with any director, but simply allows the discoveries and knowledge gained through the process as a whole to inform each individual and unique performance that will inevitably occur each evening.

The Factory

[via Urban Junkies]