Review: Hatch, St James's Street

Hatch returns to the streets of Nottingham, this time St James’s just off the Market Square, accompanied with its usual inclement weather. This however is the subject of work by artist Liam Herne who interviews passers-by about the British climate whilst the Metro-Boulot-Dodo rickshaw whizzes along this narrow boulevard.

Leaving St James’s Street, The Chameleon plays host to The Gramophones who give a preview of snippets from their up-coming show Ahoy! Whilst disjointed there were some great moments and the crowd seemed to really enjoy what they were presented with: as the girls say in the performance this work is ‘to be continued’ and many will be excited as to where this piece goes next.

At the opposite end of the street The Park Plaza Hotel has also been invaded for the night. Medium Rare’s Someone to… offered a room service experience like no other with ‘hotel employees’ delivering pillow fights, a shoulder to cry on or renditions of Celine Dion. The piece’s downfall however was its lack of fun in the performing of it with the actors unwilling to adapt to the different requests of their audiences, but in spite of this there were some interesting and unsettling ideas on display here. Downstairs at the Plaza cross continental installation Brain Bridge was underway with performer Ollie Smith having his environment mapped by fellow participant Kathryn Cooper, 1066 miles away in a hotel in Barcelona!

The final act, Action Hero’s A Western, was a real treat of Sergio Leone pastiche and wittily structured delivery with lashings of cheap tomato ketchup, the smell of which becoming a lasting memory of the whole night. Other wildly varying acts in and around The Malt Cross included Venom and The Terrortones, whose Theremin-fuel garage rock was as entertaining as it was raucous, whilst outside Search Party’s Save Me attempted to communicate a normal conversation using only Morse Code and Adam Goodge, resplendent in sparkly waistcoat, gave a performance lecture on the 'game of life', Snooker.

As an event Hatch delivered on its promise of a ‘platform for performance-y work’ outside of traditional performance venues and vehicles which made for a good night of curious and often slightly disquieting entertainment with innovative new work at the fore.

Hatch: ****
Image courtesy of Hatch.