Livewire – “When We Start Over”

Review by Ian Beckett

SATURDAY 31st August and for 90 minutes I was transported, along with my 10-year-old daughter, into a post-apocalyptic Harlow, and the surrounding towns and villages, now simply known as “the outside”. We were at the versatile Passmores Academy for a performance of “When We Start Over”, an original piece of creative theatre devised by young people from “Livewire”.

It’s more than twenty years since “the Great Floods of 2019” and the remnants of something that still looks human, on the surface at least, is as divided, misled and lied to as we ever were. A story unfolds through theatre, dance and live music, about a community rebuilding after “the world, that we know, has ended”. And that’s pretty much all I’m going to tell you!

Not that I want to deny “Livewire” of a spectacular and well deserved review, or the readers of a glimpse of the extraordinary vocal, choreographic and performance art skills that were on display but, much to my surprise, and I suspect others in the audience not intimately acquainted with the company, what we saw was in fact “work in progress”.

Once the cheers and applause had died down, Sam Ashford, informed the audience that in the weeks ahead, the music score will be recorded in a professional studio, scenes will be filmed on location and site specific (a plea was made for anyone who has an empty warehouse to contact Livewire – please?) and a multimedia expansion of this sensation piece of theatre art presented for a wider and larger audience at Harlow Playhouse on Tuesday 5th November. “Yes” said Sam “I know it’s Bonfire Night, but the real fireworks will be onstage!” I encourage you to book your tickets now!

Credit was duly paid to the hard work of Livewire’s young people and their supporters, and to Arts Council England, whose funding has enabled the company to take their work to another level. In a world dominated by uncertainty it was a joy to see the social, political and economic awareness of these young people played out in the Passmores arena with such great creative aplomb!