Mayfest 2022 Review: A Crash Course in Cloudspotting, The Weston Studio, Bristol Old Vic – ‘Intimate and captivating’

Entering the Bristol Old Vic’s Weston Studio, you’d be forgiven for thinking that you’d walked onto the set of a Wes Anderson style sci-fi film.

A ring of muted yellow paper encircles a space lined with triangular beds. We are invited to take our shoes off and enter the space, find a bed and lie down. On choosing my bed and getting comfortable, I look up to see an exquisite tangle of copper wires, each with a small light tricking down above me. There is ambient music playing.

A voice sounds from inside my pillow, telling me to sink into my bed and breath. At this point the phrase “glorified meditation session” comes into my head. However, what follows is a fascinating and deeply thought-provoking performance.

Raquel Meseguer Zafe created the installation to raise awareness for people with chronic illnesses; particularly those, like her, who must rest horizontally for a portion of the day. Zafe refers to these people as ‘The Resters’. She has collated 48 stories from people with different disabilities, all of whom have this need for daily rest.

After a brief introduction from Zafe, we hear these individuals recounting their stories. All of them are told from the heart, and deeply saddening.

The second half of the installation features Zafe herself performing in the space. Entering in a wetsuit with snorkel and flippers, she performs a monologue reflecting on her own hidden disability.

She compares the feeling of resting to astronaut Scott Kelly’s year in space, and reflects the feeling of coming back down to earth as being akin to the pain felt after resting. It’s a deeply moving account, brilliantly set to poetic language. The performance feels so intimate, and for the audience, it’s a shared and highly emotive experience.

In real time, ‘The Resters’ affect what happens in the space. The copper lights, one for each individual, illuminate only when that person is resting. The ambient drones of the soundscape from string and electronic instruments swell and shrink based on the movement of their bodies.

These elements create a dynamic space that is constantly changing. You feel as though you are experiencing a collective, which may have been devised by one person but has been built by many.

With subject matter such as this, there may be a risk that audiences could see the piece as ‘virtue signalling’; a fun exercise in making the average theatre goer feel better about not paying attention to hidden issues. However, A Crash Course in Cloudspotting feels so personal and sincere that it sidesteps any such concerns.

Zafe has created something that is not only hauntingly beautiful, but manages simultaneously to inspire.

A Crash Course in Cloudspotting is at The Weston Studio, Bristol Old Vic from May 18-28, as an audio installation or a performance; times vary. Tickets are available at www.bristololdvic.org.uk. The show is running as part of Mayfest. For more information about the festival programme and ticket links to all shows, visit www.mayk.org.uk/mayfest-programme.

Main photo: Paul Samuel White

Read more: Mayfest 2022 Review: Birthmarked, Bristol Old Vic – ‘Beautifully human’

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