BEHIND THE LABEL
****
Weston Studio, Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, Thurs 28 Nov
I don’t think there is any theatre project quite like Behind the Label. A candid and raw insight into the lives of others, where brute honesty is handed to the audience on a plate. A flight attendant and a captain give the safety announcement one would typically hear before embarking on a flight, littered with sex and drug innuendos that provide a comedic introduction to what is a difficult-to-watch but incredibly necessary piece of theatre.
The audience were first invited to listen to the childhood dreams of the cast. Whenever anyone is asked what they dreamed about when they were a child, every person smirks, as if transported to childhood again. Endearing and powerful, for the cast members, all of whom have experienced the worst kinds of abuse, addiction and trauma began to feel like friends.
Exploring the ‘baggage’ we all carry that we can’t get rid of (or don’t wish to part with), each member of the cast unpacks theirs in a series of monologues. The intimacy of the performance is almost uncomfortable, as we are confronted with the struggles of those that society prefers to ignore, no matter how loud they scream. Each cast member comes forward to tell their own tales of abuse, prison sentences, addiction and homelessness. It is brutal, honest, upsetting and beautiful.
Never has there been a production documenting these sensitive, difficult subjects in such a way as Behind the Label, as the first-hand accounts transport you to a place hopefully you have never been. It forces the audience to look at every homeless person you walk past on the street, every person hanging around a street corner. The production shatters prejudice, until all that’s left is a sense of guilt for ever feeling it in the first place.
At the heart of each person’s story is a need to be loved. Often, the situations in which they find themselves are muddled pursuits to chase the love they thought was available to them.
Behind the Label gives a voice to the lost souls. Those who can’t seem to find their place. As one performer told the audience, “No wonder I got lost. I never got found in the first place.”
words DAISY GAUNT