Year after year Belvoir’s B Sharp program continues to come up with interesting theatre. The latest offering is ‘My Arm’, a local production of a fringe play from Britain. Tim Crouch originally wrote and performed ‘My Arm’ in the UK, and now the Group Theatre has put on a production with Travis Cotton doing the performing honours and the production being directed by Iain Sinclair. Sinclair is a local director who is getting a lot of work at the moment, also directing ‘Hurlyburly’ at the Stables Theatre.

‘My Arm’ was an ever so simple and effecting piece of theatre. It featured just one young man on stage, unassuamingly, sitting on a chair, and smiling quietly at people as they streamed into the theatre. He asked each member of the audience to give something from themselves, from their wallet or anywhere, that he could use during the performance.

The lights went down, and with just the help of a small video camera and a toy man, Travis Cottheld the audience in the palm of his hand as he told the audience the poignant tragic story of a boy who came from a dysfunctional family and had a very slim grip on life. He spends his life trying to come up with something that will see him noticed, that will have some impact on the world around him. At the age of ten he stumbles on an action that gives his life some meaning, he puts his arm above his head and leaves it there. For over thirty years, and despite the various permutations of his life, he continues to leave his arm sky-bound.

Yes, it is theatre in the absurdist tradition but heck ‘My Arm’ has a theme as old and universal as the hills. There have always been human beings who have done outrageous things just to be noticed, just so that they can feel important. Travis Cotton’s charming performance, complete with his incorporating audience paraphenalia within the narrative, was the icing on this theatrical fare.