First and foremost, the lady sat next to me sported the most stupendous bob. Cut deep into the nape, sharp, straight and vertiginous to the cheekbones, fluffy density in the feathery sweeps around the neck. Perfection.
BOiLEROOM (as they call themselves) are a new theatre company who won the Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award to develop this piece. From what I gather from Time Out, previous recipients of this award went on to produce work varying from the mediocre to the downright awful, so I was a bit worried, but this time much more support was given to the winning company, who were mentored by Mark Ravenhill and given much support by the Barbican. And the good news is that I really enjoyed it.
The piece was about the effect of electricity and technology in our lives, set amongst a weird Victorian / Edwardian household (I think) comprising an opera singer who has lost her voice, her nurse, a young adopted girl and a mysterious Doctor with a bag of tricks. Visually and sonically, it was very strong. The bare set was framed by scaffolding on which various weird things were hung, with other bits and bobs being wheeled into the middle from time to time. The piece incorporated projections and some sound art. On the negative side, there was a pre-recorded narrator, and the actors, rather than speaking, mumbled in a kind of Mr Bean kind of way which got really irritating, and the text of the narrative was a bit trite. Also the narrative petered out with none of its strands coming to any sort of denouement. None of this really affected my enjoyment though; it was more like a piece of mime or dance, and the “generous” ie a little slow pacing and visual and sonic styling gave it a ruminative, meditative effect. A company to watch.
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