Acts of Faith

Devised by Third Year Theatre Students at Coventry University with James Yarker

The Themes.
The piece took as its starting point an interest in the Spanish Inquisition, particularly its paranoia, racism and exploitation for personal and political gain. Echoes of these structures were found through contemporary history into the present day. Research was conducted into methods of torture and consideration was given to interrogation in its various forms. Ultimately the Inquisition’s great theatrical presentation, the Auto Da Fe, was used as a touchstone for the final devised piece.

The Process.
After circulating a briefing document, James spent four days working with the cast in University. The students then worked for six days on their own. Following a further day spent with James, the students advanced their work unsupervised for a further four days. The final performance was pulled together through a further five days working with James.

The Performance.
For the first hour of the show the majority of the cast are on stage, stood in a simple grid format, four people deep and six to nine people wide. From the initially impassive grid, dislocated fragments of scenes leak. These are replaced by the small, brief scenes from which the fragments were taken. Between these Grid Scenes a series of set-pieces are performed by the entire cast. Most of these set-pieces take game structures as the basis for a physical metaphor that addresses the ideas under discussion.

The show’s final ten minutes is a skeletal and anachronistic enactment of an Auto Da Fe, complete with burning, hanging and a trial of faith.

Tour Dates

• 21 November, 2008
  Ellen Terry Building, Coventry University