Contains Violence/Rear Window

My experience of David Rosenberg's intriguing new play Contains Violence, a Hitchcockian inspired project which allows its audience to spy on the actors.

This weekend I went to see a fantastic piece of theatre called Contains Violence. It took place amongst the deserted roofs and office buildings of Hammersmith, London. We, the audience, sat on a rooftop terrace, wearing headphones, clutching binoculars and spying on proceedings.

Our narrator, actor Simon Kane, walked around the audience with microphone in hand – Jeremy Kyle style – informing us through our headphones that he would tell us what to pay particular attention to. As the play unfolds, it starts to become apparent that his version of the story might not be the absolute truth. The images and sounds we're presented with, the flashbacks and revelations, make for a confusing web of intrigue. To arrive at at a conclusion about what we've witnessed entails living our very own Jimmy Stewart/Rear Window experience. The disparate strands of story require piecing together like a jigsaw.

This Hitchcock inspired performance encouraged me to re-assess the great man himself. It's generally agreed that Jamaica Inn (1939) marks the end of Hitchcock's British films, although his next film Rebecca (1940) remains intrinsically British in character despite being made in America. This is perhaps because both of these films were adaptations of books by Cornish writer Daphne Du Maurier. Rear Window is far more universal in theme. The film centres on the desire to watch other people, whilst remaining unseen by them. It also allows us to witness a crime, without becoming directly involved. Contains Violence shares the same focus, satisfying the voyeuristic mores of cinephiles and theatre-goers alike.

Recently I have also been writing extensively about Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson. Like Hitchcock, Jackson enjoys making cameo appearances in his own films. Check out Peter Jackson – The Early Years for a few pointers on these brief occurrences.