Arriving at Fitzwilliam auditorium at 9pm on the final Tuesday of term, my expectations from its striking advertising had enticed me to enter the world of Crow - I was ready to watch an “ominous figure deconstruct the legitimacy of social custom”. But as I entered a well-lit (and packed) auditorium, I realised this was not “a world of infinite blackness”. In the well-lit space a live projection of mono-printing (happening in the stage corner) was on the back-wall and on stage the cast lay strewn around a large black construction – Crows’ egg. What then proceeded to unfold for the next fifty minutes was beyond any expectation I could have had. Sam Fulton’s (director and adapter-writer) remarkable adaptation of Ted Hughes’ poetry collection was clearly well rehearsed and thought through. Elliot Wright, as Crow, kept the audience engaged and with a laugh on their lips throughout. Moreover, through the impressive use of comedy, Crow’s self-awareness allowed the adaptation to be a comfortable and enjoyable experience for everyone, even if it was not quite what the audience came in expecting.

A high-point of the show was the promised full-frontal nudity. The scene was long (in time - in other ways, well you should have been there). Here was perhaps questionable (obvious) relevance of nudity to the poems, and in fact the whole of Crow in some ways seemed to draw the audience’s focus more towards the stage performance than the poetry readings, however Crow was funny and ultimately this plus its pure creativity was its biggest strength. In this context then, I think the nudity scene was faultless, well-integrated and it very much added to the comedy: relatively soon in the performance, stripper music started to play over the poetry recording and the audience knew what was coming. Elliot toyed with us for as long as possible, until another actor came on and stripped off his boxers, Elliot then commented “that escalated quickly” but rather than the scene ending there, it was put to use. Serious sounding poetry recordings resume and Elliot continues to run around, naked. The comfort with nudity made it easy to watch and fully enabled the comedy of his performance. In fact, Elliot’s acting performance was outstanding throughout and although the nudity was a comic highlight of the show, the rest too was of equal caliber.

When, eventually, the nudity came to an end, the show was clearly not over. I wondered how Crow would be able to keep delivering after what had seemed to be a climatic point. However I am ashamed by my doubting. What ensued continued to captivate and engage. The use of sound and silence throughout, whether a poetry recording or using the architecture of the auditorium to create live and echoey shouts from offstage, was impressive. The constant live-feed showing mono-printing was really cool, with the cast contributing to the prints and moments of humor thrown in, such as showing the running order of the performance. The fantastic group of actors filled the entirety of the space; for example at the start, Crow entered by running around the entire auditorium and climbed down through the audience.  Balloons were thrown from the balcony and swept up. Actors held up a string on stage, onto which a mono-print of boobs was hung, which Crow then cut out. The performance truly was a frenzy of sound, music and performance that stretched, but did not over-reach, it’s ambition.

Sam Fairbrother (choreographer and co-creator) was constantly present because he was doing the mono-printing, but during the second half of the production he actually became directly involved. Having just heard Quintin Langley Coleman vary the poetry reading by singing and playing guitar the audience were then treated to another stand-out performance, Sam’s impressive dance scene, using an apple – which he ate at the end. The dance was professional and captivating, rightly winning applause from the delighted audience.

I thoroughly enjoyed this performance, which was constantly doing something new and interesting, nevertheless at forty-seven minutes the inevitable thought of how long was left crept into my mind. It occurred to me that my senses were becoming exhausted from this all-engaging show, but the variety had been feeding my energy. But, impeccably, two-minutes later the lights came on and Crow came to an end. Extended applause and immediate chatter from the lingering audience evidence of a spectacular show. YET, it was not over – as the audience filtered from their seats they found outside Elliot reading from Crow, still in costume. Every element of this long-awaited production was well thought out, right until you actually left the building. Despite set-backs that potentially limited the show, for example not being able to make use of the lighting and sound systems in the ADC, the potential of the performance space had been exploited to the full. As promised the poetry was merely one component of a much wider and cohesive vision; it could be said the performances on stage at time detracted from the poetry, and at points it was hard to hear, but having arrived at the show with an open mind I think the fact that the show was so enjoyable to behold meant that even if Crow was not what you expected it to be, it would be unfair to let this take away from the fact the production was extremely fun and engaging to watch.