Maybe its just nostalgia, but you know the way things are going, back may be the only way of going forward So speaks Jim one of the many and varied characters that Steve Waters and Patrick Morris encountered as they re-trod the steps of poet John Clare after he left the asylum in Epping Forrest to which he had been confined and walked home to Northborough. Out Of Your Knowledge is peppered with other such pieces of wisdom and I have to say that I agree with Jim I have learnt a lot about the present state of rural England through Waters and Morris vibrant and passionate re-telling of Clares walk.
John Clare (1793-1864) was a poet who began by outselling Keats but by the time he wrote the poem which inspired this piece was out of print, and as the two stays in an asylum indicate, was slowly deteriorating.
Re-creating the walk of a relatively unknown Victorian poet is not a subject which would immediately appeal to me and this is why this is such an impressive and wonderful production because by the end of it, I absolutely cared. I cared passionately about common land, of the beauty of natural reserves and the unstoppable sprawling of the industrial world. When Morris asks will it just be one huge city from London to Peterborough the thought fills me with dread.
Punctuated by beautiful fiddle playing (Denise Neapolitan) which at turns powers the piece along and at others dances with it in a duet, Out Of Your Knowledge is a fantastic piece of story telling which fully uses all of the magic of theatre to create a show which is at times hypnotic. We skip from place to place, through strides and jumps, through dreams and characters that lead into one another rhythmically sometimes in time with the music, sometimes apposed to it. The voices of people theyve met on the way are introduced and them melt away as they are left behind and Clares ghost hangs ever present in the air, a constant companion.
Morris is a charismatic performer who quietly and strongly takes the audience along with him on this journey of memory and discovery. His characterisations are detailed and intricate and often hilarious without ever falling into cliche. As he bounds around the stage the whole space rumbles and his powerful physicality mirrors the earthiness of Englands rural land. No corner is ignored, no voice unheard. When he evokes the spirit of Brampton Wood it is hard not to feel that you are seeing and hearing something truly shamanistic and special.
Whenever John Clare went walking, whether it was for 3 miles or 300 he would pronounce himself out of my knowledge and this is a show which explores this sense of losing yourself in a landscape beautifully, coherently and with an immense amount of heart, forging a greater understanding of the present through this journey through the past. I was not expecting to feel so much for this show and I came out of the theatre infused with a warmth and strength from it. An absolute must.
