When an argument in a car escalates into a fight, it spills out into a deserted car park. A woman is left alone. Accompanied only by her own imagination, a world of possibilities begins to unfold. She battles to come to terms with the events of her recent past that have left her stranded and cut off from reality. In this retelling of events, wires cross, fears are exaggerated and obsessions are uncurbed.
A cast of twelve performers challenge the perception of paranoia. Through a fusion of sound, movement and film, Highly Sprung pushes performance beyond its boundaries as it slips seamlessly between convention and imagination. Bodies fall and fly, are caught and collide. What is controlled clashes with impulse and danger.
who:
Highly Sprung Performance Company create original and innovative work using a style of performance that conveys a narrative through movement that speaks and a text that moves. They create both touring pieces and work with young people in community settings, challenging each individual's perception of themselves and the anxieties that affect our lives.
why:
Fear of crime makes city centre car parks a no-go area at night. Purely functional spaces; we keep them out of sight and out of mind. Making the exposed roof of the market car park into a performance venue will not change people's feelings, but we hope that by creating a show which names and explores our fears and paranoia, we may provoke our audience into examining how our city could be made a safer place to live and work.
where:
The roof of Coventry’s famous, circular Retail Market is used daily as a very popular car park which allows access to all of the city’s main shopping areas. This location is set neatly in the middle of car park central with roads leading to three other of the city’s most used parking facilities. The main attraction of this site is of course its unusual shape, which allows stunning 360° views of Coventry’s ever changing cityscape.
when:
Evening performances for one week only starting at 8pm
Saturday Matinee at 1pm
Approx. 75 minutes
Audience capacity 250
Standing room only
Age 12+
Venue Access Audit (carried out by the artist/producer).
This is intended as a guide for other artists and producers considering staging an event in the venue. However please note that the guidance given here is a subjective assessment of the venue as of May 2004.
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For key to symbols, see Access page
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Is there a suitable get-in to the venue/site for equipment etc?
Yes. The venue is situated in a car park with enough space to cater for parking for both audience and production staff. The only difficulty would be the height of vehicles needing access. A small transit van would be able to fit, however anything taller would not.
Is the venue accessible to wheelchair users?
Yes.
Are there toilets, including a wheelchair accessible toilet?
No. However, there is a large amount of room to place temporary facilities without hindering the performance or audience space.
Is there an electricity supply?
Due to the location of the site it would not be too difficult to gain access to an electrical supply.
Is there space for bar/hospitality?
Yes. There is plenty of room for any kind of refreshment bar/ stall. However, accessibility is limited, due to the low roof of the car park entrance, especially if you were considering use of a trailer-bar.
Are there fire exits?
Due to the site being on the roof of ‘Coventry Retail Market’ the fire exits are numerous and the safety of the venue is enhanced due to the size of the site, this would enable the public to gain a safe distance from any danger.
Is there space for box office/curator/front of house?
Yes. We would suggest the use of the car park entrance to the space. This allows the box- office/front of house to regulate audience numbers and check tickets. The space also has the advantage of probably being the most popular entrance/exit to the site.
Is the venue/site family or child friendly?
Yes. Although a car park, we would suggest temporarily making the performance space i.e. the ‘Coventry Retail Market’ roof a ‘no car zone’. Giving added safety for families and children but also allowing more audience members into the space. The space is also pushchair friendly due to the fact that it has no steps.
How easy is it to find the venue?
The venue is very well know to all Coventry citizens. However the route to find the site is quite tricky to find as it is situated in a ‘maze’ of Coventry car parks. Also with the recent closure of the bridge connecting the ‘Barracks’ car park to the venue confusion could be created.
How easy is it to get to the venue on foot? would you want to make this journey after dark?
The venue is not too difficult to find by foot, as a passage-way from the Lower Precinct connects to the venue. As to whether audience members would travel to the venue on foot after dark can only be left up to the them. To gain access to the venue would mean walking through Coventry city centre. This might need to be considered when deciding on which nights to perform.
Is there car parking nearby?
YES! The venue is used as part of a car park. Although on performance nights cars would not be allowed into the performance space there would still be spaces from numerous amounts of cars.
What might be a good interpretation solution for your show? signer?audio description? another? can it be fully integrated into the concept?
We would like to use radio headphones for all audience members. This would allow the spectators the opportunity to hear all of the performance, including voice and music. Without this the performance would be limited to using very little voice as speech would easily be lost to the open air space. Using the radio headphones would also allow the creation of different sound-scapes as part of the performance (enabling the setting of different scenes/environments); the use of a range of different voice volumes, including whispering, an intimate and subtle device very rarely used in out-door or in-door performance; and narration/off stage speech ensuring all audience members are able to understand what is going on. Using the headphones would also cut the noise pollution of the performance and stop city noises leaking into the performance unless so desired.
links: Highly Sprung Performance Company
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