Tuesday 3 May 2016

Some Thoughts on 'Get Yourself Together'

‘Get Yourself Together’ by Josh Coates, Anna Ryder & James Varney

I was ummhing and ahhhing whether to post this but here it is. 

This is a post that I’ve wanted to write for a while. A piece I had to ask Josh Coates’s permission to write. Not just because he’s a fellow artist, but also because he’s ma boyf. I first saw ‘Get Yourself Together’ in early preview form at Royal Exchange’s Swan Street studio in Manchester. This was the second time I had seen Josh perform, the first time I had been in the same room as his family and the day that we decided to stop messing about and confirm our relationship status (oooh err).

What struck me most about the performance is how open and honest and truly charming Josh is, and I’m aware that there is no possible way this can be said in any way objectively. After the preview, I wandered backstage to give him a hug, and say well done, and he was tucked away in the corner of a corridor in the ‘backstage’ area of the studio hugging his Mum and talking about his Granddad. I stood there awkwardly looking in their direction for longer than was probably appropriate. In fact it was probably a bit creepy. I had a ‘Where’s Wally’-style red & white stripy top on so I was not very subtle. 
I thought maybe this was what we did now. Wait backstage for each other after our performances, alongside family members to say ‘Well Done’, slap on the back, kiss on the cheek. But it soon became clear that this moment was not for us. It was for Josh and his lovely Mum. And I’m glad I tiptoed backwards out of the room (again, creepy), and went to help myself to the free wine and breadsticks (?!?!?!?!) and make chit chat with Josh’s friends, who were very soon to become my friends (MUAHAHA.)

You see, that day, Josh, Anna Ryder (Director of the piece & one of my most bestest friends) and James Varney (Dramaturg and one of my most lovely newest friends) made a huge step onto what I’m sure has been an incredibly tough, empowering and rewarding journey.
Since this day in 2015 (31st July), I have seen Josh perform extracts of the show at a showcase in Elsmere Port, and the full version/final preview at The Custom’s House in South Shields. And it was this performance in this little town at the North East coast that made me want to write this piece, because this was the time that the performance changed something in me. This was the time when regardless of Josh being my boyfriend and Anna & James being my friends, the performance drop-kicked me in the most joyous and devastating way. This was the performance that a bulk of the previous development work had been leading up to, and it was bold, beautiful, angry, funny and ...‘lingering’.

For this performance Josh was both my boyfriend on stage and a complete stranger, both a friend and an educator, both someone that I care for and someone so earth-shatteringly angry. None of these things are mutually exclusive.

The company are asking for change. They are telling you the facts, the figures, how it makes them feel and what these feelings manifest as (lots of paper and vegetables in your eyeballs). And it was this most recent time of seeing this material that I wanted to help make that change. Not that I didn’t agree with Josh’s stance on the issues back in July, or that I didn’t feel engaged with the work then because of course I did, but now it’s different. It’s different because in the past few months, as the political, social and personal factors of the subject matter the show confronts has been shifting, the material and performance has been shifting too – the piece growing as the issues swell, the performance defining and asserting itself in a place where using this stance, this space, this voice is of the upmost importance.

During the performance I cried. If I was not Josh’s girlfriend I probably still would have cried. But because I am, I cried more (probz). Also I just really love crying. After the performance... I cried (obvs). I cried because I knew that this 55-odd minutes of theatre had made something happen. Not just for me but for everyone else in the room. It made you laugh and then think ‘...fuck’. It made you play ‘catch up’ just to stop you in your tracks. It doesn’t tell you exactly what to do but that’s okay because whatever you do end up doing as a result of this work is probably going to be with them. But it makes you want to DO SOMETHING, even if it is just a hug or a handshake or a chat on the way out, which is what most of the South Shields audience did.
So in advance of the performances at Royal Exchange (Studio) and Northern Stage (Stage 3), I urge you in the most biased yet genuine way to see this work, as no doubt the vote the day/(s) before will have charged the performance even more.

I think that maybe this is what we do now. Not just me & Josh, but all of us. We are learning when to (creepily) tiptoe out of the room and towards the bar, and when to shout about what you’ve seen and compartmentalise the effects this has on us, as individuals, as activists, as artists, as normal human beings, as boyfriends and girlfriends and friends and peers and voices.

I can’t say whether I will cry again on Friday, whether I will laugh at the jokes in the same way or whether I will take it in my stride in a way that I have previously been unable to. But I certainly will cherish the moments of sharing, the chaotic moments of punk explosion, the tenderness of the relationship with the audience and the energy of action. And as an artist, best friend, new friend, girlfriend, cat-lover and person, I am proud to have seen the progression of this work and hope it can be experienced by as many people as possible, even though by the time you see it, it will have changed yet again. 

Now, get yourself a cuppa. 

- Zoe xx

Get Yourself Together at Royal Exchange Manchester - 6th & 7th May - Tickets here: http://www.royalexchange.co.uk/whats-on-and-tickets/get-yourself-together 

Northern Stage, Newcastle - 24th & 25th May - Tickets here: http://www.northernstage.co.uk/whats-on/Get-yourself-together 

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