FLICKY HARRISON chats to performer about his experimental one-man show

Dan-Alex Rivers, pioneer of The Bohemian Balcony, will be taking centre stage with his own one-man show this week.

The director has been striving to create an exciting theatre space for alternative drama projects in Swindon, and the curtain rose on his project last month. The Bohemian Balcony has grown out of the former Palladium Cinema in Jennings Street, Rodbourne. It is an arts hub for drama, drawing, sculpture and filmmaking.

Dan-Alex’s own show is entitled The Theatre-Maker and is based on his own experiences battling against bipolar. He is hoping his show will tear down the myths and clichés hurled at those with mental health problems, and show the futility of sayings such as ‘pull yourself together’ and ‘try and think of good things.’

He said: “As a bipolar sufferer with a brain that weakens every year the clock is ticking. My character has to create and come up with big ideas, and this struggle will be evident in this project. It is very revealing on how it actually feels to be bipolar. The audience will be openly experiencing it in performance.’’

The innovative piece of work is organic, unfolding with no script or preparation, even the musicians and technicians don't know what is going to happen. It relies on improv and building a relationship with the audience.

Dan-Alex said: It is real, revealing and honest - I have suffered from bipolar my whole life and every day is a battle to do what most people take for granted. To control the mind becomes a losing battle and it can take you to horrible places, which hold you back from being an achiever. Each night the performance is based upon the multiple moods I have right there and then.’’

The Theatre-Maker is a grimace at the old stage adage of: It will be all right on the night! Because there is no way of telling what it will be like on the night.

The director says his experimental theatre is different from many others as he breaks the fine line between the real and the acted, taking his audience with him and discarding the trappings of choreographed movement, music, lighting or text.

The character in Theatre-Maker is based on one side of Dan-Alex's own personality.

“He is who I see when I look in the mirror, and it is the one I hide because of the stigma attached to mental health,’’ he said. “He is the artist torturing himself to create that masterpiece - and failing.’’

Dan-Alex is hoping that his one-man show will set the bar for any performer who wants to bring new work to the art space. He says that it will be scary and fun and showcase the potential of the The Balcony.

Dan-Alex, his co-directors Sean Cardis and Silvia Fasulo, and group of volunteers, all revamped the old cinema for theatre groups' shows and artists' exhibitions.

The Theatre-Maker runs from tomorrow Friday, March 24 to Saturday March 25 from 7.30pm. Tickets are £6, Student Price £4, Group of 3 £15 and are available from www.thelittleboxoffice.com/bohemianbalcony - Flicky Harrison