Forced Entertainment
Forced Entertainment is the name of this Sheffield collective that, since 1984, has been considered in the avant-garde of contemporary British theatre. Its six members, under the artistic impetus of the director and plastic artist Tim Etchells, ceaselessly question performance codes. Their trademark: a constant interest in the conventions of acting, which they readily explode, an ongoing questioning of the role of the public, which they never forget to solicit, and on our society of the spectacle. Rarely based on a pre-existing text but always built on improvisation, experimentation and group discussions, their creations mobilize other arts (performances, cinema, visual arts) with inventiveness and irreverence to open a breach to their audience, trying to both please them and catch them off-guard. Alternating minimalist staging (Spectacular, Quizoola!, Tomorrow's Parties) and a very strong visual setting (The Thrill of It All), injecting movement to turn the well-oiled machinery of the theatre upside-down, distorting the actors' voices, the six members of the team, enjoy frustrating the public's expectations with performances that are falsely naïve and have a real and exhilarating freedom. In 2011, in the framework of Une école d'art pour le Festival d'Avignon, Tim Etchells presented his project Photomusée de la danse (Photomuseum of Dance).
MS, April, 2012