Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

The ethos of the Pulse Fringe was explained at the start of Thursday's performance and the audience at the bijou venue on St George's Street was told Beachy Head was very much at the early stages of development and that there would be a talkback session at the end of the evening.

Beachy Head is the second part of a trilogy which saw part one - Mile End - performed in Ipswich in 2007. That play was about a true-life murder - whereas this one centres on a fictional suicide which takes place at the infamous suicide spot on the Sussex coast.

We know from the start that the play will end up with struggling writer Steven making his final leap and the action focuses on the reactions of his widow Amy, the pathologist who carries out the post-mortem examination and a documentary crew who accidentally capture the jump on camera and then set out to make a completely different film from the one they originally intended to.

Although it's a work-in-development, the play is still performed with a full set, lighting, projections, music, sound effects and basic costumes. I would argue that if you didn't know it was a work-in-development, you wouldn't think anything out-of-the-ordinary or unfinished was taking place on stage. As it is, the final version is expected to appear in 2009.

Man's best friend

A play about suicide is always going to be a dark affair and this one starts off with a live projection of the audience on the stage's backdrop and a voiceover telling us about the statistics for suicide telling us that someone in the real world is going to kill themselves in the next 84 minutes.

Videotape by gloom-kings Radiohead was played. I suppose Jump by Van Halen would have been too obvious and possibly in bad taste.

The pathologist presents us with the stark facts of what happens to the human body after an eight-second fall onto rocks and he deals awkwardly with Amy as she comes to collect her husband's belongings.

We later find out that he has difficulties getting and keeping girlfriends and the dark, gallows humour of his failed restaurant date was the play's funniest moment. We did learn that cats left with an owner's dead body are likely to eat it, whereas a dog is more likely to just lie down next to the corpse!

Other themes dealt with media manipulation (as the film crew seemed to be trying to make a sensationalist film), coping with unexplained suicide and coping with the end of a relationship (the pathologist meets up with his ex-girlfriend in a fairly stalker-ish, creepy fashion.

The acting was all fairly convincing, the use of the stage and props was imaginative (especially the way the suicide victim's manuscript of his children's book was thrown off Beachy Head by his widow) and the use of backdrops and mirrors conveyed the fall to great effect.

Feedback

The festival is very much about the various theatre companies getting feedback from audiences at the end of the shows and there was a lot of intelligent, provocative questioning on the Thursday night for Beachy Head.

Throwing the manuscript

Questions thrown up by the audience included: Why was the pathologist stereotyped as a freak? Do the gaps in the story need to be filled-in within the play or should the audience be left to use their imagination? How careful does the playwright need to be when dealing with the taboo of suicide or should they write whatever they want for dramatic effect?

It's a fascinating insight into what a theatre company has to consider when it's developing a work. The company says many scenes may disappear and some characters will take lesser or smaller roles when the final product is delivered next year.

It's a great start to the 2008 Pulse which organisers say is developing quite a reputation as a forum for bringing new works to the public - works which are living and will change.

Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Suffolk is a media partner for Pulse and we're looking for reviewers to go to the other events. If you'd like to write 500 words or so in return for 2 free tickets for any event then please get in touch with us via e-mail.

The Pulse box office is on 01473 295900 and you can check out what's on by visiting the website.