The Caravan - 500th performance opens in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire

You’re never going to be bored at a performance of The Caravan (Roses Theatre, Tewkesbury Fri 2nd Oct to Wed 7th Oct then Canterbury Festival Wed 21 Oct to Sat 24 Oct 2009) For one thing, at around 30 minutes, it doesn’t last long enough, but more importantly you are experiencing a piece of genuinely innovative theatre that keeps you spellbound for every one of those 30 minutes. Oh yes, I nearly forgot, the whole thing takes place inside a caravan in which you most certainly could not hope to swing a cat. In fact, so small is the performance space that by the time the full audience of 8 people (yes 8) is crammed in to one end and the four actors are literally nose to nose with you, a whole new meaning is given to the word intimacy. But that is exactly the point of The Caravan, a startling piece of documentary theatre from the Look Left Look Right company. The inspiration for The Caravan are the floods of summer 2007, that devastated large parts of the UK, and the stories of the thousands of real people that were left homeless by the deluge. Many of them ended up living in Caravans and this play uses their words verbatim, gathered in interviews conducted by the producers during research for the play. The Caravan was first performed to great acclaim at the Edinburgh Festival of 2008 then sold out at the Royal Court in London before going on this tour around England including visits to many of the flood affected areas. This was the opening night in Tewkesbury, a town that itself was ravaged by the floods of 2007. It was also the 500th performance of a show that the excellent cast must perform 5 times an evening to a maximum of 40 people a night. As with all good theatre the mood of the piece swings from amusement to pathos to exasperation and very effectively takes the miniscule audience with it. All the performances were excellent and it didn’t take long to believe that these actors were the real victims of the flood. This play strongly resembles a TV documentary without the camera and TV screen between you and the subjects. In fact there's virtually nothing between you and the characters apart from a few inches of stale caravan air. Like all good documentaries it weaves the narrative and the issues by jumping deftly between the victims contrasting stories. In the end the setting of The Caravan in a caravan is merely a device – the real meaning of this play is in the words – real words spoken by real people.