Shelf Life : Central Library, Swansea

Shelf Life, performed at the now defunct Central Library in Swansea is an experimental collaboration between National Theatre Wales, Volcano and Welsh National Opera, mixing drama, dance and music. Although the production tried to open the audience’s eyes to the possibilities created by a multi-discipline piece, it was not wholly successful.

The production attempted to raise many interesting issues about the future of our libraries, the increased threat of technology, as well as questioning the sort of society that closes libraries, and destroys books. These themes, if developed and dealt with convincingly could have been fascinating and thought provoking, however this was most definitely not the case.

This is not to say that Shelf Life was a complete failure. The production excelled in its early stages as a masked community choir filed into the courtyard, creating an almost pageant-like atmosphere. This coupled with an acrobat swinging rhythmically to the music, before settling to read her book on the building’s roof, only increased my expectations for the show ahead.

Unfortunately, the piece failed to build on the dramatic effect its opening scenes had created. Rather, the audience was introduced somewhat flatly to the concept of the Genizah, a burial space for Jewish religious texts, which added very little to the production. It seemed to be merely a stop-gap in the action to allow for the preparation of the following scenes and locations.

Before leaving the courtyard and entering the library, we were invited to take part in a literary clinic, and offered books as cures for our ailments. This injected humour into the piece, as well as using audience participation effectively to draw us into the play, and break down the barrier between audience and actor through our direct input into the production.

The audience entered the stacks, and was invited to explore this underground labyrinth; full of nooks, crannies, and long forgotten memories. This part of the production did not deliver because of the lack of coherent structure. Yes, it was an inspired idea to allow the audience to explore the stacks without guidance, however after a few moments we were all wandering aimlessly trying to work out what we were supposed to do, and what would happen next. This section should have been shorter, tighter, and the audience should have been given more leadership.

Following what felt like an eternity in the stacks, the audience was led into the reading room. Yet again, the piece lacked a sense of direction and a clarity of purpose. The audience was left wandering around the room, waiting for something, anything, to happen. At last we were directed to go and find the book which matched the library card we had received. This was a clever, playful use of the location and its props to ensure the audience was interacting with the production as well as playing their part in shaping it. However, asking audience members to read from their books was taking the idea of our participation too far, as some individuals were clearly uncomfortable with this, but felt compelled to continue.

Shelf Life tried to deal with too many issues at once, and therefore failed to grapple sufficiently with any of them. Furthermore, ill-discipline and a distinct lack of direction meant that most ideas were poorly executed or insufficiently developed.