Research Portfolio: Frantic Assembly

Introduction:

Frantic Assembly is a Physical Theatre company that was created by Artistic Director Scott Graham and was formed with Steven Hoggett and Vicki Middleton in 1994.   The company was formed with the desire to present something much different from other theatre groups like Volcano Theatre Company and DV8 whom they were inspired by.  

Frantic Assembly, currently, have presented performances to live audiences for 20 years and they are still going forward strongly.  Acclaimed by audiences and critics for their highly innovative and adventurous theatre, Frantic Assembly have created playful, intelligent and dynamic productions for over 15 years.  Their work reflects on contemporary culture in a vivic and dynamic type of theatre.

How Has Frantic Assembly Influenced Physical Theatre?

Frantic Assembly are a Physical Theatre company that produces effective and engaging pieces of theatre through creating meaning to every moment in a scene, to accompany this, they will use all elements of arts and technology possible to accomplish this.  These elements can be things such as using lighting to bewilder the audience, sounds to assist a scenes familiarity with the audience members.  They will also use Physical Theatre and text that can be used to experiment with the audiences reactions. 

They are not as physical as the other well-known Physical Theatre Company called 'Complicate', but they prefer to waver along a line between Physical Theatre and Verbal Theatre.

What's Their Style Of Theatre?

Frantic Assembly is a Physical Theatre group that mixes the art of naturalistic acting alongside the physical aspect of dance. A great example of this happening can be their performance of 'Lovesong', they have scenes where the couples are talking before going into a dance for the opening of the next scene. 

Frantic Assembly's style of theatre is very physical, they've been described by reviewers as 'high octane', and this can be seen in many of their performances. 

Frantic Assembly has performed another play called 'Stockholm'. This play is about an abusive relationship occurring between a romantic man and woman. This couple, throughout the entirety of the play, are either one of two extremes:

1. They are deeply in love with one another so much that it's dangerous

2. They actually hate each other and think of unique ways to harm one another

It's true that this is relevant within many relationships, however, it is never as bad as this couple. There are a whole variety of very physical movements seen within the love scenes for 'Stockholm'. Reviewers have recognized this to be Frantic Assembly's trademark for each of their productions. Their work almost always represents something that the audience can relate to, for example the many themes including Love, Abuse, Hate and even Madness.

Frantic Assembly uses many different mediums and devices during each performance. These can be seen as flashbacks mostly, like they had done with 'Lovesong'. These flashback moments tend to have much more physical movement compared to other scenes in the play and it should be seen as something that makes the audience member relate more towards a certain character.

Conclusion: What Do I Think About Frantic Assembly?

I actually quite like watching Frantic's performances, especially 'Lovesong' and 'Stockholm'. It is a unique style of Physical Theatre that I've never witnessed before and it was indeed exciting to watch, especially the moments where there is much more physical movement which looks dangerous to perform.

The actors that perform in this theatre group must have a whole bunch of adrenaline whilst they're performing and you can definitely see it when they're doing their choreographed movements.

I also really enjoy the transitions they do for each scene, which mostly involve the dance pieces. It seems to flow throughout the performance and it has it's own place and it's not too alien to the play at all - if the dancing wasn't there, I'd feel that the play overall would not go as well.