Black Country Touring presents Wild at Bromwich Hall

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Wed 16 Oct 2024 - Sat 26 Oct 2024

Black Country Touring’s latest show Wild delves into what the word ‘wild’ conjures up in our memories and imaginations. And, based on a series of interviews with people from across the Black Country, the answer is a very wide variety of different elements.

With those ideas then woven into a script by Rochi Rampal the production, which lasts just over an hour, takes us from the tops of mountains to the seashore, onto the dance floor and into the streets of the city at night.



Directed by Frances Land and Steve Johnstone, a cast of four re-tell and act out those stories, taking on a series of different characters from small children to mountain rescuers and police officers through to older people.

A little like the flow and ebb of nature, sometimes the stories run together to create a series of images of one element, at times they course side by side drawing parallels which may initially seem unlikely and at others, they crash together.

So, for example, we have four different people telling us their memories of being at the mercy of the elements through a typhoon. One is high on a mountain and survives despite the odds, another sees strange birds circling in the sky before realizing he is looking at spinning roof tiles and another is at a rock concert dancing in the rain.

There are some clear parallels when a former soldier talks about his training, having to fend for himself alone in the wilds and the hunger he feels – coupled with a mother discussing how she has to rely on food banks to feed her children.

There are also some shocking memories such as the schoolboy who talks to classmates in the day and is then chased by them in a National Front gang at night. We are also reminded of the vastness of the wild with scenes of stargazers pointing out constellations and people running into the sea feeling themselves carried away by its power.

The cast of four, Holly Alanna Williams, April Nerissa Hudson, Virmal Korpal and Graeme Rose, easily inhabit their different characters so that even when there are no costume changes we know they have switched into another narrator within moments of them beginning a new story.



The show is touring community venues across the Black Country and I caught it at Bromwich Hall in West Bromwich where the heritage building gave an added resonance to the atmosphere. With the action being played out between two facing groups of audience, the actors are also within touching distance of many of us and frequently make eye contact, drawing us into the experience.
A community choir gives great accompaniment to the piece with songs and music composed by Katy Rose Bennett and, at the close the singers join with the cast to become one.

Wild certainly poses many questions - are we more at ease in town or country, what is the wildness in people which changes their behaviour when they become pack animals, can we survive the wild?

And to enhance the engagement, each audience member has a card on which they are asked to write three words and/or draw an image which come to mind at the word wild - it’s interesting to see some people answer immediately and other stuck for a response.

In this way Wild both draws on the local community for its source material but also reflects it back, asking us all to join the conversation.

Wild continues at Black Country venues until 26 October, see here for more information.

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