Review - Fashion Spies at the Assembly Festival Garden, Coventry

About Assembly Festival Garden, Coventry, the UK’s City of Culture 2021

Visitors to Coventry's city centre must be impressed with its changes. Coventry is looking great. The regeneration district, adjacent to the Herbert Museum and Art Gallery which includes the Assembly Festival Garden (The Garden), is especially impressive.

Around the cathedral lanes are quality restaurant chains which offer all kinds of dining experiences in contemporary settings. The large open space at the bottom of the Cathedral steps today, was filled with concert-sized staging and sound systems, and blank canvases to tempt graffitti artists (whatever their ability) to participate and to showcase what they do. In the ruins of the old cathedral, a number of stalls were open to the public where authors and artists were demonstrating, talking, displaying, selling, and/or leading sessions.

There are water features with light shows all over the central areas. Small gardens and landscaped style installations have really turned places like the shopping precinct and the thoroughfares around the university hub etc., into impressive community spaces. There are not many empty units, surprisingly, nor ugly signage around, to spoil the view.




The Piccolo Tent in The Festival Garden (The Garden) Coventry
Image source: Coventry 2021 https://coventry2021.co.uk/

The Garden has its own box office on its peripheral and security checks at its entrance. When you enter your eyes are drawn to the performance spaces, the places to eat and enjoy a drink, and all of it in a real, outdoor festival-like atmosphere, but with artifical grass (so no mud). With tents and performance venues themed in ways that resemble some kind of circus or fairground. The Piccolo tent for instance, (which saw a performance of Fashion Spies today) you might think resembles an old cinema, fun house or music hall from its outside - (see image above)

It is quite incredible, the vibe and interest that The Garden has brought to the city. There are a number of events from an exciting summer programme still to take place.

It warms my heart to see Coventry's centre, from The Belgrade Plaza through to the top end of Gosford St looking so cosmopolitan.

REVIEW - Fashion Spies by Quick Duck Theatre

⭐⭐⭐ 

I have just spent a peculiar hour in the Piccolo tent at The Festival Garden in Coventry watching the ensemble cast of three perform the wacky, but highly imaginative Fashion Spies, written by Will Jackson of Quick Duck Theatre. 

My press guest and I were guided to front row seats and handed props, and stickers which we were instructed to wear bearing the names 'Agent Pants' and 'Agent Fingers'. We were wondering, straightaway, how much 'just for fun' type participation was going to be called on us (and from other members of a small audience) inside the performance space on this Saturday afternoon.

The scene is set in the rural, Burnwell Upon Twynee, (the unlikeliest place to hold a major fashion event), and, unfortunately, some designer fashion pieces have gone missing. A spy operation are on the case. However, it is Emily (from the office), in her effort to prove her worth as a spy, who calls on members of the audience to help her with her mission. Our joint actions with the props were then incorporated in scenes at the direction of the characters.

It is rather complicated to tell anymore about the story.

The Cast of Fashion Spies
Image source: https://twitter.com/

However, I can discuss the concept and the viewing experience, and reveal that both are madcap and disjointed (and deliberately so in the case of the concept). 

The energy and effort from the three performers is admirable. I liked the movement, but was disappointed that dance did not feature more. Problems from being seated along the front row meant that players were performing too close at times. I imagine that being seated in the third or fourth row from the stage, at least, may have provided a better experience in both an acoustic sense and a visual sense. We could have still taken part as others did.

Thankfully, no one was hauled on stage. It was an all round, group effort, between the players and the other audience members, which was very different, (like playing a game almost), and so was rather fun!

**ENDS**

Review by theatre critic, Debra Hall, who attended as a press guest the performance of Fashion Spies at The Assembly Festival Garden, Coventry at 5.40pm

References

Online

Coventry 2021 (2021) Explore Assembly Festival Garden https://coventry2021.co.uk/explore/assembly-festival-garden/

Coventry 2021 (2021)

Quick Duck Theatre Fashion Spies https://quickducktheatre.wixsite.com/quickducktheatre/fashion-spies

Twitter (2021) Quick Duck Theatre https://twitter.com/Quick_Duck_/status/1439176858638094337/photo/1