Theatre: In the Shadow of Picture Frames at Croydon Clocktower (From Elmbridge Guardian)

Theatre: In the Shadow of Picture Frames at Croydon Clocktower

10:35am Thursday 26th November 2009

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Green Eyed Zero have been touring their first show for the last two years but when the curtain comes down at Croydon Clocktower next Thursday, it will be coming down for the last time.

After the performance, Rachel Pollard and Sebastien Valade, the two members who make up the small company, will be turning their attentions away from In The Shadow of Picture Frames and concentrating on their next project.

"This is the last date of the current tour and we won't be performing it again after that," says Rachel.

"This is our second tour with it and maybe in a couple of years we might bring it back but for now we are moving on to our next piece."

Rachel and Sebastien are certainly talented, with just every art form under the sun included in the show which centres around a young couple experiencing a series of ghostly goings on in their new home.

"We have got circus, acrobatics, aerial work and juggling as well as physical performance, video projection and dance woven into the whole story," adds Rachel.

"It all revolves around a plot that sees a couple move into an apartment and then all these things start to happen to them.

"There's a phone that keeps ringing, strange noises coming from upstairs and a notebook depicting some odd situations.

"It's a bit like a little thriller that happens within the play and bit by bit the tension grows.

"The video projection happens throughout the piece and the acrobatics all happens at the end in the final big scene in a big movement section.

"All the cues are done by us on stage as well with remotes we have hidden in books or in draws or even on ourselves as we are performing."

Rachel and Sebastien met at Circomedia, the School of Contemporary Circus and Physical Theatre, in Bristol where they did a one year course together before forming Green Eyed Zero.

It is just them in the company so as well as performing they are behind the writing, the choreography, the filming and editing of the videos, sound editing, prop design and creation (including the steel structure around which the set is based), producing, tour booking, marketing and even their website.

"There's a few reasons why we like to have it as just the two of us," says Rachel.

"As a small theatre company it keeps the costs down but the main thing is we like to do all these things.

"We just really wanted to have control of it too, it is our first piece so we can get a bit carried away."

In The Shadow of Picture Frames, Croydon Clocktower, Katharine Street, December 3, 7.30pm, £7.50. Call 020 8253 1030 or visit croydonclocktower.org.uk.

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