The Rowers

‘The Rowers - and other people pushing their way through water’

New Model Theatre Show in Royal Holloway University of London

Report by Fay Tsitou and Jiwon Yang

On 6 June 2010, the newly commissioned new model theatre production by visual artist Robert Poulter was performed at the Handa Noh Theatre at Royal Holloway, University of London’s Egham campus, in collaboration with the Puppet Working Group (an international group of puppet theatre researchers). The project was part of Creative Campus Initiative which funded higher education institutions in the South-East to deliver artworks inspired by the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics.

Poulter’s new model theatre shows are based on English traditional toy theatre. Among other mediums, Poulter experiments with cinematic visual images, articulated figures (colored paper cutouts, felt, acrylic, or watercolor paintings), shadow theatre techniques, rolling background mechanisms, original music and innovative manipulation techniques.

Apart from directing and creating the scenario for ‘The Rowers’, Poulter also composed the music, designed the rolling background and the paper figures. Staff and students of the university’s drama department contributed also in creating scenes and figures. The script was written by MA playwriting student Christopher OShaughnessy. The figures were made by Erin Harvey, Robert Poulter, Fay Tsitou, Rosie Vize, Jiwon Yang, Lucie Yang, and were manipulated by Dr Matthew Cohen and PhD student Fay Tsitou. Lights were operated by PhD student Jiwon Yang. Undergraduate students Oliver Gordon, James Potter, Rosie Vize, Joshua Ward enacted the dialogues.

Divided into ten scenes, ‘The Rowers’ follows a rowed journey through time and space as humanity propels itself across rivers and seas for the purposes of peace and war, exploration, recreation and sport. The journey starts on a log in a tropical rainforest, and continues with war canoes, Greek and Roman galleys, triremes, ceremonial boats, Buccaneers, Venetian gondolas, dragon boats, English rowing boats, and the Titanic’s life saving boats. The Rowers pass through the Pacific, Greece, Venice, China, Oxford, and icy seas. The show ends with speed for its own sake: rowing for the Olympics.
The event was a great success and all three performances presented during the day were very well received by the audience.
And the Rowers’ journey goes on…
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Designs by Robert Poulter