Experimental Theatre


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Restraints

A solo performance in one act created and performed by Diane Edgecomb

"Restraints swings soundly into the next world" Boston Globe

"...the Grotowski -influenced Edgecomb conveyed the precariousness of an unstable human balancing on sanity's tightrope." Boston Phoenix

"...a compelling and well-crafted piece of theatre" Retro-Rocket.com 1/30/03 (online review )

In January 2006, Charlestown Working Theater presented the premiere of RESTRAINTS to sell-out crowds and critical acclaim.

A solo performance in one act, RESTRAINTS is an imagistic journey along the boundaries of madness and spiritual transcendence.

Woven through with Shaker hymns and the ecstatic poetry of Rumi, RESTRAINTS illuminates an inner landscape in which one soul struggles to find bedrock truth amidst the voices of demons, prophets, visions and recollected dreams. This is a surreal world in which each path holds the possibility of treachery or transcendence. For the central archetypal character, survival may reside in the recollection of a childhood fairy tale or the fragment of a half-remembered song. What ensues is a courageous struggle against the restraints of mind, matter and self-delusion in a quest to be united with the divine.

The January run at Charlestown Working Theater marked the world premiere of RESTRAINTS. This performance had been in development for the last three years under the artistic guidance of Jola Cynkutis, actress teacher and director steeped in the methods of the Grotowski Laboratory Theatre of Poland. The Laboratory Theatre created a revolution in Europe and the United States in the 60’s and 70’s with its commitment to a form of theatre rooted in the actor’s body and psyche. Under the title ‘Poor Theatre’ it eschewed the external theatricality of expensive sets and costumes and championed instead the drama of the human soul as it revealed itself through the images created and embodied by their actors. Edgecomb has studied this form of theatre extensively both with Jola Cynkutis and with Jola’s late husband Zbigniew Cynkutis, a founding actor of the Laboratory Theatre. Edgecomb’s first solo work in this style, RESTRAINTS relies upon startling physical images and juxtapositions to develop its themes.

Reviews

Boston Herald

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1/13/06 by Robert Nesti
"Those expecting a conventional theatre experience should look elsewhere"

Boston Globe

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1/19/06 by Tomas Garvey
"Edgecomb expertly captures the terrifying fluidity of psychosis."

Boston's Weekly Dig

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1/19/06
"The physicality of her acting style (influenced by the methods of the Grotowski Laboratory Theatre of Poland) also lends a visceral edge to her work."

RetroRocket

1/24/02 by Paul Parcellin
"While the narrative structure of "Restraints" jettisons traditional theatrical assumptions of plotline and dialogue in favor of a more stream-of-consciousness structure, Edgecomb's ability to get inside the character makes it a compelling and well-crafted piece of theater. "