Belt Up Theatre @ C Nova

Buckle up and join Belt Up Theatre at the Fringe with The Boy James, a sombre tale exploring childhood, growing up, and the inevitable loss of innocence, based on the life of J.M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan.

Written by Alexander Wright, this interactive theatre piece premiered in 2010, as part of The House Above. An array of 10 different shows The House Above involved working long hours, on many shows, and -one assumes - the patience to coordinate and accommodate for a large amount of people.

 “It [The Boy James] was one of our smaller shows in the 2010 bulk programme and we didn’t expect it to be so popular.” Dominic Allen - co-artistic director - remarked.  The next two years saw a sharp reduction in the cast size, props, set requirements and a shift in dramatic focus.

“Three shows allowed for a smaller project with proper focus on certain themes,” explained Jethro Compton, co-artistic director of Belt Up.

Aside from The Boy James, this year’s trilogy includes Outland and A Little Princess, which is a new play written by the company. The plays will be performed in swift succession, since they “sit comfortably alongside each other – in terms of props, cast, set, story and link thematically.”

Inspiration for Outland and A Little Princess came from another children’s author, Lewis Carroll. Each play comprises a three-person cast; one female and two male parts. Unless, of course, one includes the audience, whose role in the story-telling is vital and integral.

Building intimacy – or any link - with an audience has always been a difficult issue for any theatre company to tackle. This is also why Belt Up chooses non-traditional theatre venues for its productions. The C Nova is ideal as it can be adjusted to their needs.

“Our productions could be performed on a regular stage, but we prefer to have a non-theatre space so we can adjust it to our own needs, and our way of telling the story,” declared Compton. “In this case we have three plays with similar themes, and therefore it made sense to create our own custom space.”

The company have written one new play – A Little Princess – to complement the other two. As Compton explained, “a writer’s needs are not always met when staging a show”. This is probably an issue tackled in part by the company’s actions to form their own custom environment.

One might wonder whether the theatre genre is to record grave problems due to this year’s tense economic climate. Nonetheless, Allen revealed that the trouble was not with filling seats, but rather finding venues.

“The economic and political situation has not been very kind to the arts,” Allen stated. “Venues have had to re-think what they can take on, and whether they want to take a risk on us.”

Despite the bleak economic outlook worldwide, this is one of the company’s busiest years, with year-round projects keeping them on their toes.

“We’re used to short periods of hard, intensive work and then rest,” Allen pointed out “but this year seems to have paced itself quite nicely.”

Post-Fringe projects for Belt Up include The Hunchback Of Notre Dame in Yorkshire, and a slot in the British Innovation season in Kansas City in the winter.