Rear View -IOU
I didn't really know what to expect from Rear View - when looking through the Norfolk & Norwich Festival events, I spotted the event thumbnail, an image of the IOU custom-made bus - the intrigue of that alone sold the event to me. That intrigue, my desperate need for nourishment and the beautiful weather, had me arrive early for the tour with enough time to stroll around for some grub and liquid refreshments in the sun. Spotting a menu on The Red Lion door, which is a stone's throw from The Great Hospital - where the tour starts - seemed perfect. It turned out that they weren't open, however after taking a seat near a few chaps also enjoying the sun, I thought about other possibilities for eating and drinking with my ever tightening timeframe. I quickly got a glimpse and an insight into the event, stoking my intrigue even further. It came to light that one of the chaps I was sat near, Peter, was actually a volunteer helping out with the Rear View tour. We began to chat about the event and life in general and he cracked out a giant pack of crisps helping me cross off my 'get food' issue. Then The Red Lion finally opened their doors, we both grabbed a drink and our spots in the sun again.
Fed, watered and with a smile on my face after discussing some small fun although greatly impacting moments of life with Peter, I made my way back to The Great Hospital. As everyone with a ticket enjoyed the sun in a courtyard, we were soon called into a room in The Great Hospital. The room was intertwined with easels surrounding a chair placed atop a sturdy table, life drawings of a woman were hung on the walls, and gasps of "I can't draw!" echoed. The life drawing class began, with looking at ourselves as the subject. Little did we realise, the tour had already started. This was Cecilia Knapp's version of the tour, but she's not herself, she's older now, a lot of her life experiences are behind her, she's in a position of life were she can look back on much more then there is to look ahead to, she's 65 years old.
After meeting our guide, we poured out of the life drawing class, filled the bizarre bus, surrounded ourselves with beautiful music from the supplied headphones and our winter years journey with Cecilia began. As we embarked on a short journey around Norwich, we were making stops on our guide's life journey. We looked back on the fleeting moments, the moments that you don't realise are actually shaping your life, until you're so far away from them that you can see what they really represented. Loss.."My life is entirely defined by her absence", regret.."It's hard to know how to say sorry, it's hard to know how to say goodbye", love.."always smiling, you" and all of life in between.
As our journey came to an end, the fleeting moments recollected were highlighted again, as the end of this tour doesn't mean the end all together as we're left with the resonating words "eventually, you'll realise, you are enough". This life journey tour was beautifully eye opening and thought provoking. Cecilia's written words and performance looks at relationships with males, with Jemima's written words and performance looking at relationships with females. I have no doubt that both versions are just as beautiful as one another. If you have the time to open your mind to the various perspectives of life as well as your own today, you should, and take advantage of Norwich being the first stop on the national IOU tour of Rear View.
