Abstract

In 2004, Proto-type Theater made a piece called Third Person about the dissolution of the love affair between two jaded New Yorkers. In attempting to remake the show as a love story in the context of the company’s relocation to England an altogether different (and somehow familiar) story emerged… Moving, unsettling and bitter-sweetly funny, Proto-type Theater’s Third Person: Bonnie & Clyde Redux investigates the events that unfolded out of the electric meeting of two of history’s most infamous lovers, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow.

As they illustrate, control and sometimes miscommunicate the story, the performers veer between the emotional, the factual and the fantastical as they pick-apart the particulars of this strange love affair. Delivered in the third person through a variety of lo-fi media including video, drawings and overhead projection, Third Person: Bonnie & Clyde Redux creates a fragmented tale of evidence, rumours and the surprising connections between love, life, death and donuts.

“Proto-type Theater’s Third Person: Bonnie & Clyde Redux is a charming, lyrical attempt to redeem two of history’s most notorious murderers. “Look how fervently they loved one another” the show urges, delivering 60 minutes of Romeo And Juliet with guns and a mounting body count. Gillian Lees and Andrew Westerside pick over the twisted romance in the third person, slipping seamlessly in and out of character as they draw together fragments of their doomed romance. Murder victims, failed heists and near captures are illustrated captivatingly through a variety of lo-fi media. The action is well paced and punctuated with clever expectant pauses that draw the audience further and further into the enchanted space between fact and romantic conjecture.” - Kultureflash

“The power and poetry of Petralia’s writing, which is clear, spare and strong, and has plenty to say about the madness of love, and about the fragility of conventional ideas of law and morality, faced by a stronger force, in a brutal world.” - Scotsman

“It’s exciting and visually stimulating, with the attention to detail I have come to expect from Proto-type, and yet is a departure from their more grand work. You really get to know both the performers on stage and the real people that they almost embody.” – Audience Member

“A captivating piece of presentational theatre. Wes and Gillian create an environment which evokes a feeling of sitting with an old acquaintance and being told a series of uncanny yet fascinating turn of events.” – Audience Member

Third Person: Bonnie & Clyde Redux was developed at Battersea Arts Centre (London) and the Storey Creative Industries Centre Lancaster. Supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. Third Person: Bonnie & Clyde Redux premiered at Nuffield Theatre Lancaster on 16 February 2010. The Running time is 60 minutes with no interval.