Frantic Assembly 

 

Frantic Assembly creates thrilling, energetic and unforgettable theatre. The company attracts new and young audiences with work that reflects contemporary culture. Frantic Assembly's unique physical style combines movement, design, music and text. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Company Structure

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How does Frantic Assembly use design in their creative process?

Design is a very important element of the creative process. They believe that their production designers should be involved in the research and development sessions so they are able to absord as much of the process and develop their own interpretations and ideas for the piece. This approach encourages a collaborative rehearsal room and also has a practical benifit as the designers are able to identify what is achieveable and what is a limitation. This relationship also further creates a sense of ensemble which makes them an even more sucsessfull company. Therefore, the set itself becomes a creative element in the process and not just something the performance exists on or in front of. This is crucial for our integrated physical work.

 

 

 

Which other theatre practitioners/companies does Frantic Assembly draw inspiration from? 

 

Frantic Assembly creates thrilling, new theatre which combines movement, design, music and texts which attracts young audiences. Scott Graham and Steven Hogget who formed Frantic in 1994 have directed and/or performed in all of the company's work. Frantic Assembly use a wide range of devising methods to create their unique work. Although when they first started out about 15 years ago, they used to be very inspired by DV8,who are a physically integrated dance company. DV8 is known to employ a diverse range of actors as they even hire actors with disabilities as they believe it creates a more realistic piece that is representative of society.

 

For a successful Frantic devising rehearsal, performers need to be brave, creative and take risks. Also, not be afraid to try new things and be prepared if they don't work, they would need a positive working energy. They believe that one of the worst things that could happen is entering a rehearsal room empty-handed and they strongly agree that limitations can spark the imagination and create freedom.

Another inspiration to Frantic is the incorporation of music. They believe that music should always be present in rehearsals, as it is able to be used as a significant method to spark ideas and movement. It is integral to how they understand and communicate their theatre. They tend to lean more towards using contemporary music because they like to create art on topics that the audience is able to relate to and imagine thus making contemporary music the most suitable. 

During Frantic Assembly's rehearsal process, they are always learning and learn something new every time although their rehearsals are short and flexible. Frantic prefer a short, intense six weeks rehearsal process as they would admit they wouldn't want to drop their high concentration levels and wouldn't want to lose interest in what they are devising therefor try not to long the rehearsal process and they do not in any way envy productions that have took months or even years to perfect. The minimum amount of time that they would have to devise a show is five weeks because they believe that if they had any less time than that, it wouldn't be possible to integrate the level of text, movement and other production values. Depending on the amount of physicality involved in the production, depends on how much rehearsal time they would need.


Grotowski's work contrasts with Frantic Assembly and their devising techniques differentiate in many ways, however, there are also a few similarities. Jerzy Grotowski (1933-1999) was a polish director who developed the style of innovative experimental theatre popularly known as Poor Theatre. One of Grotowski's main focuses was to focus on the actor-audience relationship. He described their productions as 'detailed investigations of the actor-audience relationship wanted their to be a strong emotional connection between the actors and the audience. This is similar to Frantic Assembly in a way as Frantic said 'It was all about the performance and the relationship between performer and audience. This was dynamite.' when describing their performance of 'Klub'(A piece that provided the audience with a relentless look at the importance of club culture in mid-nineties Britain.) in collaboration with Spencer Hazel.




 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What do they aim to achieve/communicate?

 

 

 

Love Song 

 

Lovesong was directed by Abi Morgan in 2011. Lovesong conveys the intertwines a couple in their 20s with the same man and woman a lifetime later. Their past and present selves collide in this haunting and beautiful tale of togetherness. Lovesong utilizes many physical theater skills as their are a number of contemporary dance elements that are used to help create a physical representation of the characters relationship. The movements in my opinion are absoultely beautifully directed and choreographed with imaginative precision. The incorporation of these movements really evokes a sense of sadness within the audience as they were able to explore universal fears such as death, youth vs old age e.t.c these created a strong connection between the actors and the audience.