BLOODY MESS. To 4 December.

London

BLOODY MESS
by Tim Etchells and the company

Forced Entertainment at Riverside Studios 1-5 November then tour to 4 December 2004.
Runs 2hr 20min No interval

TICKETS: 020 8237 1111
www.riversidestudios.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 21 October at Warwick Arts Centre
(also 22 October 7.30pm Tckts: 024 7652 4524 + post-show discussion)

Performance about theatre drawn from life.At their best Forced Entertainment means compulsive viewing. Though there are occasions when it's more a matter of a captive audience hooked by the company's reputation or a wish to explore the famous cutting edge (a place where more cuts would usually be advisable). This time round it's the clashing elements of theatre that maintain an often comic momentum for well over 2 hours.

From the start, where two men undo each other's work moving chairs, the world behind the seemingly smooth-running teamwork of performance is undermined. Once the chairs are set in a row, we have a pre-show version of the post-show talk, each performer introducing themselves. Speaking with the assumed modesty and nervousness of actors outside their roles, the id breaks through with cruelly accurate verbalisations of personal agendas. Sophocles, Shakespeare, the poetry, the themes; forget it. I want to be seen as the hero. I want you to recognise my reputation. I want you to desire me. All that and stage fright on Equity minimum; why do they bother?

It's a hard life. The one who wants us to desire her spends the evening in a gorilla suit. The techies, voices never rising above a mumble, bear long, thick hair and are forever trying to impose unwanted devices on or around the actors. It's part of the essential conflict between dramatic truth and theatricality. One performer concentrates all in a single gesture, intended to alter audience lives forever. Of course, this isn't the night she hits it, but in any case no-one on stage is noticing. Life goes on and technology intrudes.

There's an extended, pointless discussion about types of silence none achievable when technicians again want to tone their equipment. And there are times Tim Etchells, the force behind Forced, might forego his tendency to develop moments into long speeches. Still, with the stage increasingly littered by the detritus of tat while the material spans Creation to the end of life, there's more than enough invention plus multiple clashes and ironies to justify Etchells' new creation as another fine bloody mess he's got us into.

Performers:
Robin Arthur, Davis Freeman, Wendy Houston, Jerry Killick, Richard Lowdon, Claire Marshall, Cathy Naden, Terry O' Connor, Bruno Roubicek, John Rowley

Director: Tim Etchells
Designer: Richard Lowdon
Lighting: Nigel Edwards

2004-10-22 10:08:00