Moving Being Productions: Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat

Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff

Mon 1-Sat 6 Mar

How can a group of actors who have never been directly involved with war represent this challenging concept to an audience as far from conflict as Cardiff? This is an issue that Moving Being Productions are currently taking to heart as they rehearse for their production of Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat, due to be performed in Chapter at the start of March.

‘It seems to be so indicative of the way we live our lives nowadays,’ responds actor Gary Knowles, referring to how the production is composed of numerous short plays which function to convey a landscape of human experience. Wales’ premier of this production will see the group take seven works from the script’s repertoire of 17 playlets. The shorts use this multifaceted collage format to take account of the numerous relationships to war through select fragments of experience.

It is the way that Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat taps into the unique angles of conflict, alerting audience members to the fact it is not just those in camouflage who feel the suffering as war stealthily infiltrates into the most unsettling places: the secure bedroom of a seven-year-old, the tranquility of a Japanese garden, and – powerfully – the theatre where we expect to be relaxed and entertained.

Yet gruesome as it sounds, there is a certain tenderness to this work. ‘There is a clear message with this piece,’ states Knowles drawing on the fact that the production is already characterised by its power to provoke laughter in the most unlikely situations. It is the reassuring insertion of wit into the tragic, together with the sensitivity of the talented cast, that will see the group encourage more humorous and indeed humanising, readings of their tales.