Don’t look for narrative! The final-year actors at Guildhall School have set the bar high in choosing Peter Handke’s silent play to show their abilities on stage: nearly two hours and completely devoid of speech, The Hour We Knew Nothing Of Each Other (written in 1992) is quite the beast to tame. It consists of a succession of over 400 characters crossing a bare space, sometimes interacting, sometimes ignoring each other completely. They’re from all ages – from Moses carrying the Ten Commandments to contemporary businesspeople – come in all shapes and forms and bring a wide variety of moods to the scenes, all with different rhythms and dynamics.
The Silk Street stage is a wide, open space with audiences looking on from every direction. The sinister, concrete-like architecture creates an undeniably threatening atmosphere. The show starts without warning, with actors running across and disappearing as quickly as they came on. A lot of what follows is met with laughter, giggling even, as the actors take on the different roles with verve. What we see holds the middle ground between dance and theatre: the former enjoyable, but at times problematic since the performers are not dancers, the latter intriguing as the silence becomes more and more pressing. We want words and we know the actors want them too. Yet the power of the work lies in the absence of language, and of narrative more broadly. Indeed, we heed the playwright’s advice when he warns the audience that there is nothing they should understand – the play is different for every viewer.
For me, then, it is quite a fun show. What works are the absurdist elements, sometimes timed well enough to really hit the spot, including the unwrapping of a royal couple who start waving mechanically after being released or the monkey’s mask that appears a number of times. Sound and light help to create ambiances as varied as the characters. There is a general sense that anything could happen: as a study of silence, it is interesting to see how the lack of words can be eerie as well as hilarious. On the other hand, the lack of the cohesion of a story necessitates the very finest performances, the most exquisite timing and a precision that is not quite attained in this production – towards the end, the actors are perhaps having more fun than the audience.
Presented with conviction, Guildhall’s The Hour is an ambitious project. Catch it if you’re in for something different – because that’s certainly what it is.
The Hour We Knew Nothing Of Each Other is playing at Silk Street Theatre until 2 April. For tickets and more information, see the GSMD website.