Category: West Parade

On the Street Where We Live

Ellen Louise Pearson / / Home, Research, West Parade

House Research

The Street
The setting for our Site Specific performance is a house on West Parade, Lincoln, to the west of the city centre. It was built in 1932, the date proudly displayed on the house itself, but beyond that the history of the house is a mystery.

A trip to the Lincolnshire Archives reveals that as far back as 1842 West Parade was actually called Clay Lane, after the clay pits which were used during that era.  Though the house does not lie on top of any of these pits, it may be worth experimenting with clay as part of the performance process as it relates to the street and the pits played an important part in the building boom of the 1870s and 1880s producing bricks and tiles which were used all over the country.

It transpires that the current job centre on the corner of West Parade and Orchard Street used to be the site of St Martin’s Church, which was built in c.1873.  The vicars of the church lived in the vicarage which is still situated near to the house we are using, so a religious theme could be a performance route.

Lincoln St Martin new

Above: St Martin’s Church ((Parkinson, Wendy (unknown) Lincoln St Martin New (original: Lincolnshire Echo) [Online] Available at: http://www.wparkinson.com/Churches/City%20photos/Lincoln%20St%20Martin%20new.jpg (Accessed: 25th February 2013). ))

Another near neighbour, around the time our house was built, was the Oxford House Private School, Preparatory for Girls and Boys and run by Principal Miss Brunner.  It may be worth researching the school as it was open from at least 1932-46.  The idea of a private school within a house could be an interesting concept to explore.

In the 1946 Lincoln Directories there is finally a reference to our house.  In the house next door there is a James Alfred Wright and in our house there is an Alfred Ernest Revill aged 66.

Alfred Ernest Revill

1911Census-RG14-19-7-44-19744_0051_03

Above: 1911 Census record for Alfred Revill ((‘Alfred Revill’ (1911) Census return for Motherby Lane, Lincoln, Lincolnshire. Public Record Office: PRO RG14/19744, folio 51, p.3. Find My Past (2013) Available at: http://www.findmypast.co.uk (Accessed: 21st February 2013). ))

Looking at the censuses I managed to discover some information on Alfred Revill.  He was born in 1880 in South Collingham, Nottinghamshire.  His parents were Matthew (age 35), a Groom, and Julia (age 25) and he was the second child of the six they had.  Surprisingly, all his siblings lived into adulthood.

Alfred’s parents were born in Lincoln, although in the 1881 Census, they were living in Binbrook, Louth. ((‘Alfred Revill’ (1881) Census return for Binbrook, Louth, Lincolnshire. Public Record Office: PRO RG11/3264, folio 35, p.16. Find My Past (2013) Available at: http://www.findmypast.co.uk (Accessed: 21st February 2013). )) By 1891 they had moved back to Lincoln and were registered at 8 Winnowsty Buildings, Winnowsty Lane.  By this time (when Alfred was 11) all of his brothers and sisters had been born:

  • John J. Revill, born 1878
  • Alfred E. Revill, born 1880
  • Blanche M. Revill, born 1881
  • Elizabeth A. Revill, born 1883
  • Walter N. Revill, born 1886
  • George H. Revill, born 1888

The eldest son John, aged 13, was working as an Errand Boy while Alfred and the rest of his siblings (apart from toddler George) were listed as ‘Scholar’. ((‘Alfred Revill’ (1891) Census return for Winnowsty Lane, Lincoln, Lincolnshire. Public Record Office: PRO RG12/2594, folio 24, p.41. Find My Past (2013) Available at: http://www.findmypast.co.uk (Accessed: 21st February 2013). ))

In the 1901 census, when Alfred was 21, all of his siblings, apart from Elizabeth, still appear to be living at home.  They were now living at 6 Motherby Lane, which is just around the corner from West Parade. ((‘Alfred Revill’ (1901) Census return for Motherby Lane, Lincoln, Lincolnshire. Public Record Office: PRO RG13/3062, folio 152, p.44. Find My Past (2013) Available at: http://www.findmypast.co.uk (Accessed: 21st February 2013). )) John is now a Journeyman Blacksmith, Alfred is a Coachman, Blanche is a General Servant, Walter is a Joiner’s Apprentice and George, now 13, is a Chemists Errand Boy.  Elizabeth is listed working as a Domestic Servant in a house on West Parade.

Victorian Coachman

Above: A Victorian Coachman ((Nanton, A.M. (1919) C. M. Wright, the Coachman, at kitchen entrance with Victoria and pair [Online]. Available at: http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/features/timelinks/imageref/ref0293.shtml (Accessed: 20th March 2013). ))

Ten years later, in the most recent census of 1911, only two of the children were still registered in the house with their parents.  Alfred, now 31, was a Domestic Coachman like his father and George, now 23, was a Clerk in a Draft Office.  Interestingly, there is another addition to this census; an 8 year old boy named Harold Starr who is registered as grandchild to Matthew Revill (Alfred’s father). ((‘Alfred Revill’ (1911) Census return for Motherby Lane, Lincoln, Lincolnshire. Public Record Office: PRO RG14/19744, folio 51, p.3. Find My Past (2013) Available at: http://www.findmypast.co.uk (Accessed: 21st February 2013). ))  After some more searching it transpires that Blanche was Harold’s mother, registered with her husband Thomas Starr (Iron Planer) and their younger son Robert at 22 Hungate, Lincoln.  So why was their eldest son staying with his grandparents and uncles instead of at home?  ((‘Blanche Starr’ (1911) Census return for Hungate, Lincoln, Lincolnshire. Public Record Office: PRO RG14/19744. Find My Past (2013) Available at: http://www.findmypast.co.uk (Accessed: 21st February 2013). ))

The final piece of information I have found so far is a Marriage Certificate.  In late 1925, in Lincoln, there was a marriage between Alfred E Revill and Mabel Atkinson.  At the time Alfred would have been 45. ((‘Alfred E Revill’ (1925) Certified copy of marriage certificate for Alfred E Revill and Mabel Atkinson. Find My Past (2013) Available at: http://www.findmypast.co.uk (Accessed 21st February 2013). ))  The house was built some seven years after they were married.  Whether they were the first occupants remains a mystery.  All I can determine is that by 1946 Alfred was living there alone.

So it ends…

Kayleigh Anne Brewster / / Home, Performance process, West Parade

There were a variety of different feelings running through me as we were packing up the house after our last performance. It has most definitely been an experience that I doubt I’m going to forget. There have been many different challenges with creating this performance. After working in the bedroom, and working with the other students who chose the bedroom, I feel proud. Especially of Lauren and Lauren, who had the exceptionally hard challenge of pushing the boundaries of their personal comfort whilst in the cupboard. However, they did it and I think the reactions that we received from the audience members indicated that the risks were worth it.

During my performances with Lauren W the reactions of the audience members ranged dramatically. Lauren faced people sitting there refusing to meet her eyes, people speaking in response to the narrative, and people bursting into tears. I found myself faced with people uncomfortable and tense in their blindfold, with some people who were chatty and relaxed in response to my narrative, and some people who seemed like they might actually fall to sleep. The varied emotions that were shown by the audience members, I think, showed that the four of us had created a strong piece that had the ability to affect people.

The performance itself was an interesting experience because you had to be alert at all times, and yet you could relax as well. It was disconcerting to be in the middle of a performance, knowing there were audience members in the house somewhere, when suddenly your lecturer pops into your room in his quest to avoid the audience, or when you would quickly nip into another room to pass on a message or ask a question. To be so aware of where the audience is in the house, but to also know that they’re not aware of you yet, because they hadn’t entered the little world you had created in the house was strange. Those things added an extra dimension to the performance when the audience members went into the cctv room and were able to watch you in the in-between moments between audience members.

During the creation process we all had our individual rooms to work on, so it was interesting to realise at the end of the final night how the rooms all fit together. How the living room comments on tv, and the waste of life, were twisted when the audience entered the cctv room. How in the kitchen the rabbit, and the impossibility of their task, linked to the bedroom with its bedtime story and the “going through the rabbit hole” concept of the cupboard. It was nice to see that whilst each room had its own specific purpose, they linked to create a whole experience.

At the end of the night it was also strange to think about where we started, to think that during the very first session Lauren W and I were sat together in a cupboard writing about our first impressions and memories. It thent became a tentative idea, using video and installation, about the connotations that surround the bedroom. Until it finally became the piece we presented, where we offered two separate experiences using ourselves as installation, or using our own memories and experiences to fuel a bedtime narrative. Thinking back on it, there are a few things that I would do differently. I think I would now be able to expand the narrative I used, I think that I would, and should, have made even more of a distinction between how I treated the voyeur and the ‘child’ audience. After all, Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

How do you create a home?

Hayley Misseldine / / Home, Performance process, Research, Rooms, West Parade

When I first stepped into the house that was to become our temporary home for the first time, despite the fact that it wasn’t so aesthetically pleasing, I couldn’t help but feel oddly comforted, for one it reminds me of the house I currently reside at in Lincoln, and two, its emptiness calls out to me. I see an empty space, and instantly all I want to do is decorate it, to make it feel ‘homey’ and it wasn’t until I visited this house on West Parade that I realised how strong this desire seems to be.

‘What does homeliness mean and how is it created?’ ((Bollnow, Otto, (2011) Human Space, Hyphen Press.)) To me, a house is not a home until it looks like one. This definition of how a house exactly can look like a home is up to the inhabitants, but you notice different examples in every home you have ever visited. You notice small objects, whether they are photographs, sentimental objects, even the decor, they all add up to make a space feel like a home, it feels like someone lives there. On the other hand there are homes which infact are inhabited, but it feels neglected, this is the case with the house on West Parade – it is set up this way, it is meant to feel like whomever lives there do not lead a happy home life, which brings me to my next point – home is not just about how it looks, it is also about who live there.

Personally, I can’t feel at home unless I am living with someone I am close to, family or friends, I won’t feel at home with strangers. It took several months for me to feel at home in Lincoln at first, due to the fact that the people I was living with were not close to me. Though contrary to how I felt in Lincoln, it was a different case when I lived in London for a month, I lived in a large house with 15 other people, and within the first week we had all grown close and made great connections, so in result I felt at home marginally faster than I have done here. In theory it comes down to human connection, ‘Home is wherever I’m with you’. ((Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zero’s (2009) Home, Vagrant Records))

So this house, that we will work in for the next 5 months – will it become a home? Or will it become something else entirely? Thinking of all the possibilities this house possesses, especially knowing that there is a CCTV camera in almost every room, is quite daunting. There is so much we could do, we could – judging from some of the rooms interiors go to some dark places, the cot room for example, has got to be one of the creepiest and most unnerving rooms I have ever been in. Just from a simple piece of furniture and absolutely nothing else, makes the room practically scream neglect at you. The only room in the house I felt semi-comfortable in was the living room, and only because of the furniture, take that away and it would become just as uncomfortable as the other rooms. This proves my point – to make a house feel even remotely like a home, you need comforting objects inside of it, and you need people who care for one another, otherwise all you have left is a building.

“Bye, Bye Bunny.”

Elizabeth Soper / / Documentation, Home, Performance process, West Parade

“ We’ve always been interested in the idea of a speech, a formal utterance: the framing of something – ‘I have come to tell you this,’ or ‘I am about to tell you this.’” ((Williams, David and Carl Lavery (2011) Good Luck Everybody: Lone Twin: Journeys, Performances, Conversations, Wales: Cambrian Printers, p.203))

‘Hello, my name is Libby and I have been a white rabbit since the 19th of February, which is 76 days today! Welcome to the kitchen, can I get you a drink?’ This is how I began my performance; simple and direct. Because it is very simple: I dress as a rabbit and get filmed doing everyday normal tasks. Some people laugh at me, some people take photos.  Some children stare at me, some children cry. I always get a reaction though, whatever it is.

The Safe House was a project that generated a lot of different audience reactions from the various activities and happenings that took place in each room. The outcome I very much wanted to achieve from my performance was to initially shock the audience, because, quite frankly, you wouldn’t expect a giant rabbit to burst into your living room every day! I wanted this mood to quickly change however when they entered the kitchen and realised; I am Libby who just so happens to be wearing a white rabbit costume, discussing my many adventures over a cup of tea and a bag of sweets.

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Photo taken: 01/03/2013 – ‘The Impossible Tasks’

“On the other hand, there are signs that theatre can provide meaningful forms of audience participation and engagement.” ((Freshwater, Helen (2009) theatre and audience, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, p.76))

With my performance being conversational, in some respect, my audience had a role to play. Without their contribution, their questions and opinions, my performance wouldn’t be as enjoyable and therefore I wanted them to open up and relax in order to fully engage with my performance. Luckily, all of them did (some more than others) and mentioned how they enjoyed being in the space, even commenting that they didn’t want to leave!

Over the 76 days of being dressed as a rabbit, I have collected feedback and reactions from my different audiences through film and documentation. For my performance I wrote out some phrases (with my bunny hands), quoting my audience’s reactions and hung them on the wall. Over the performance period I carried on collecting and added to my list the ones I found the most interesting. ‘You’re a very lovely bunny’ and ‘When you came crashing in, it just shit me up!’ were two of my favourite!

Site specific performance has opened up a whole new world of theatre to me, a world that pushes boundaries and that exceeded all expectations I first had. It has been a challenging process, but one I will never forget and definitely carry on with in the future. My only regret is not completing all the impossible tasks I hoped to achieve, going through passport control being just one. Somehow I don’t think my bunny days are over just yet!

And it’s over…

Tiffany Abatilda Thompson / / Performance process, Rooms, Uncategorized, West Parade

When first going to the house I thought we had it easy, but I was wrong. You could go along the path and just perform things you do in a house and not go above and beyond and explore the wonders of site specific. Being in the living room was tough as you could get drawn into doing something safe but I feel we really explored with the living room, we really tried to push the limits of what we could do with the space.

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Performance Day. 04/05/2013

The most difficult part of the process was finding something strong and developing it. The idea of doing the norm in the living room by watching T.V but exaggerating it so it illuminates the audience to the extent that they see that we are wasting our lives in front of the T.V and social sites. We are not what it used to be like going out and socializing with friends, we are just getting sucked into a uncontrollable void that we can’t get out of. Everybody’s becoming obsessed with T.V shows more than important things in your life such as family, exercise, and friends, and that’s what we wanted to show.

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 Performance Day. 04/05/2013

With the interior of ‘Safe House’ being so shabby we thought that dressing the living room in pizza boxes, booze bottles and various rubbish and receipts show’s how people live and have lived but once the T.V is on everything stops. Collecting all rubbish for the living room was especially hard as we needed more for it to look effective and with only three of us collecting them it took some time.

 

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 Performance Day. 04/05/2013

The Performance

Before the actual performance’s that were happening on 1-4th may, the ‘Safe House’ had a few tester audience members this is when I realized actually how hard this performance is going to be. Even though we are doing very little in this performance, I knew it was going to be quite physical. Our original plan was to stand/or sit in the same position for four straight hours but when we had the audience member’s in for the tester performances staying still for just an hour was so physical. I was finding myself twitching at every point when the spectator turned away from me. I was disappointed as I knew I wasn’t really focusing on the task just the fact of how physical it was. When it was my night to perform I had mixed feelings about how the audience were going to react, are they going to look around? Are they going to pick up things? Are they going to talk to us? Reflecting from other experience’s I thought at least one person is going to try and talk to us.

During my first night of performance we decided to change it a little and alternate who stood up and who sat as I thought it would be fair, now when I look back I regret doing this as I think we would have got a better reaction if we did stand still for the full four hours as I think the strain of doing that would have made the atmosphere in the living room a lot more intense. However, we did get a good reaction from some audience members. Whilst being in the living room one of the pair went into a cupboard and the other was left with us in the living room, most of the audience members just stood there and stared not moving as they felt uncomfortable. One Person in particular had a very different reaction to the rest; Lauren Olerenshaw a current 2nd year drama student got in the room and felt very uncomfortable as i was facing the T.V I couldn’t really see much of her but from what I could see was that Lauren was very uncomfortable as she kept pacing around. Lauren also tried to get out of the room as I could hear her trying to pull the door. Lauren is an outgoing confident person and to see her so uneasy made me think about the effect the living room had on people. Most of the audience members did feel uneasy I could see some of it in their body language and also when they came to talk to me after the performance.

The last performance of the four days was the best performance yet. The audience member’s were great; we got so many different reactions. Whilst in middle of the performance one pair of audience members came met up after being separated and said the line ‘I understand now’ as a cue line for Libby the rabbit to come bursting through the door, just as they said the line Libby came bursting through. Previous to this we had stacked cans and bottles behind the door so when Libby came through it would make a noise that could be heard all over the house. Just as Libby opened the door the pair jumped out of their skin and screamed. I struggled to keep still as all I wanted to do was laugh, it was the best reaction we had all over the four performance days. Towards the end of the last performance I could feel the strain the house had on me. Saturday’s performance was the best I ever performed throughout the whole process.

If I were to perform again I would love to make the living room bigger and better and play with the idea of hoarding but to the extreme. I would gather more pizza boxes and collect more receipts, newspapers, and books and stack them as high as the ceiling as hoarders are usually organised and have their belongings stacked. I would want to fill the room only leaving a very narrow footpath for the audience to just about fit in. I would also play with the idea of T.V more by maybe adding more T.Vs or adding many laptops to show the audience the obsession with social networking and the internet. Similarly, I would still be sat still but possibly in different unconventional place such as the arm of the sofa, a table, or on a cupboard.