A marvelous Mayfest weekend

Ear plugs were necessary at the show that ended Mayfest for this year at Spike Island on Sunday evening, a gig with lyrics drawn from Conservative Party speeches and assorted literature.

Taken out of context, Torycore felt like a brainwashing exercise, like something out of 1984 where our thoughts are not our own.

The music was loud, very loud. And lyrics were screamed as well as being projected onto a wall from a laptop in an intriguing juxtaposition of punk gig and political polemic.

“If there’s one thing more irritating than Michael Gove, it’s fucking PowerPoint,” said lead singer Lucy Ellinson as her computer was malfunctioning.

Let’s hope the purple party don’t get a foothold on power. The next show by these guys could be even angrier and even louder.

Torycore guitarist Chris Thorpe was busy over the weekend, also being one half of the performers in I Wish I Was Lonely at The Island, part poetry and also another kind of brainwashing, as we were made to think how much mobile phones have taken over our lives.

Audience members texted, left voice messages for each other and arranged to meet up like Jesse and Celine in Before Sunrise. It’s quite possibly a life-changing show, and you can’t say that about many pieces of theatre.

A life-changing experience informed Hardy Animal, a solo work by Bristol choreographer Laura Dannequin in the Arnolfini which was a thought-provoking and moving look about coping with chronic back pain.

Before the debilitating but as yet undiagnosed condition struck, Dannequin was a dancer and it was dancers that performed one of the best shows of Mayfest this year at the Old Vic.

Constellations from Spanish company Aracaladanza was enthralling and enchanting, the magical movements of the dancers weaving a magical spell over the youngest of audience members, mesmerised by the colours and giant balls of wool.

Choreographer Enrique Cabrera was inspired by the abstract work of artist Joan Miró and has created an enchanting piece with the dancers ‘painting’ a giant canvas behind them with their movements.

From the grand Old Vic stage to a tiny room at BV Studios in Bedminster for The Assembly of Animals which was quirky, eccentric and charming as Tim Spooner manipulated homemade objects in varying sizes with the help of magnets and vacuum cleaners.

If that’s an interesting combination, then My Son & Heir from Search Party in the Old Vic studio featured everything from Peppa Pig to a sceptre, although one spouting bubbles.

Peter Phillips and Jodie Hawkes communicated via semaphore at Mayfest 2011. This time they were communicating as parents of a new baby.

With elements of slapstick, it was very funny but also deeply poignant as they explored the differences between your most optimistic hopes and dreams for your offspring countered with the harsh realities of the world that we live in today.