A Mix of Fun & Thoughtful Performances Put Up by the Winners of the Theatre Delicatessen Emerging Artists Award

Recipients of the Theatre Delicatessen Emerging Artists Award at the Platform Performance Festival 2016 ushered yet another chance for their audience to enjoy their performances.
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Situated in the heart of the city centre Theatre Delicatessen in The Moor welcomed its audience on the 19th and 20th of April with bar and pay-what-you-decide after the show, which was the first whoa moment for everyone. The old spaces of the building with its dark stairways and secret corners were definitely stirring for a start.

The first play titled ‘The Growing Pains of the Mantle Family Living Room’ written by the young and talented Theatre student of the University of Sheffield, Katie Coen displayed the complications in a modern family. The theme was tackled very rigorously by manifesting the problems caused by strained relationships into a tumour that starts growing in the living room and the family’s attempt to keep it hidden from their new neighbour. With a match of silent acting and witty dialogues it made for a wonderful treat for the viewers. All six performers did justice to their characters, but the husband and wife duo definitely deserve a special applause.

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The second performance ‘Silk Road’ was presented by the four emerging artists of InComplete Collaboration Theatre Company, also a very potential University students led society run by Tom Cable. Traversing through a range of social issues like immigration, refugee crisis, identity, anonymity, terrorism and every human’s right to safety —it started with a silent show of refugees helping each other on the go and then went on to the next part where the performers delivered a speech on how terrorist groups lure innocent people in their evil trap through manipulative teachings.

The other bits included a poem on the subject of anonymity; performers taking the audience to the places they have travelled by displaying them on the map on the wall, showing their path through threads; and ending it with the striking act of one of the performers struggling due to lack of oxygen, with his head buried in a bucket full of water. It is a performance that potentially explored identity, human endurance and how much a human life is worth, however there is scope for a more congenial picture of a subject so significant.

The evening ended with Chloe Christian’s ‘Mortified,’ presenting a group of Sheffieldians perform a dramatic reading of their private diaries. The mischievous accounts from these secretive journals were jerkingly funny and painfully relatable, accompanied with an equally silly picture of the reader.

A light and perfect show for curtain-down I should say.

Theatre Delicatessen brings to light some of the most inventive and fascinating performances and this evening should definitely be added to that list.