LIVING IN PARADISE. To 4 June.
Birmingham/London/Colchester
LIVING IN PARADISE
by Julian Maynard Smith, Susannah Hart and Station House Opera
Level 3, The Mailbox Wharf Side Birmingham, The Courtroom Toynbee Studios 28 Commercial Street London and St Martin's Church West Stockwell Colchester To 4 June 2005
Mon-Sat 7.30pm
Runs 1hr 20min No interval
TICKETS: 0870 730 1234 (Birmingham0
07952 769633
www.stationhouseopera.com (London)
01206 500900 (Colchester)
Review: Timothy Ramsden 30 May at Toynbee Studios
A performance more honoured in the experiment than the achievement.The Holy Roman Empire was apparently neither holy, Roman nor an empire. So Station House Operas is not operatic, has nothing discernible to do with police or rail depots, nor anything especially masonic about its site-specific ventures. Nevertheless, the HRE was for centuries a force across Europe and SHO has its place in modern theatre.
With all the to-ing and fro-ing I was beginning to lose track of my thoughts, says one character somewhere possibly Birmingham; sitting at the London end of this tri-city production by Station House Opera and De Daders, I knew how he felt. It's more intriguing for what it attempts by way of joined-up video linking than coherent dramatic content.
It's fascinating to watch a cast member, partially seen through an open door fencing, while watching the actor on screen front-on, filmed in the corridor with brolly as sword, his opponent's brolly also in view. And video goes inter-city; a cash-box, secreted in a Colchester church seems to emerge from a curtain before our very metropolitan eyes.
There's ingenuity seeing 2 pianists battling to command a keyboard (a duel-duet), one live and on screen, the other videod 100 miles away. (It would be even more enticing if the keyboard weren't split-level so one could see the joins.) Video/internet technology generally hasn't kept pace with theatrical ambition; images from other venues is fuzzy and tends to digital meltdown, while sound delays make for awkwardness.
Merging live performance and video isn't new these days. Still, the link-up concept is, and available for when technology improves. And there are moments when it achieves poetic, dreamlike suggestion - an image of a character from elsewhere flicks indiscernibly to that of a similar-looking character in one's own space, where the video and actual angles of perception provide their own double-perception.
But what has this piece to offer dramatically in repayment for our attention? Precious little, as some tired old sexual interplay and shabby fake violence indicate. It's intriguing, but if I've seen the future of theatre then it jerks, wavers, blurs and hasn't much to say for itself anyway. As yet.
Birmingham:
Performers: Matthew Bowyer, Mara Oldenburg, James Stenhouse
Director: Susannah Hart
Camera: Debbie Aston
IT Technician: Richard Bate
London:
Performers: Gareth Brierley, Claire Little, Simon Vincenzi
Director: Amanda Hadingue
Camera: Tony Pattinson
IT Technician: Kevin Jacobs
Colchester:
Performers: Abi Cunliffe, Ben Livingstone, Barbara Peirson
Camera: David Page
IT Technician: Harry Harris
2005-05-31 07:50:54