THE WORLD IN PICTURES. To 15 December.

Tour

THE WORLD IN PICTURES
by Tim Etchells and Forced Entertainment

Forced Entertainment tour to
Runs 1hr 55min No interval
Review: Timothy Ramsden 12 November at Riverside Studios (Studio 2) Hammersmith

The creative pulse keeps things going.
It can be (and increasingly is) artistically understandable to have a no-interval 2-hour show. But ars longa ignores the vita brevis of cramped muscles, brimming bladders, short attention spans and thirsts more material than that for cultural improvement. In short, even with the best of material, it can seem a long time while it’s happening.

Yet, when a Forced Entertainer told us The World was about to end, I assumed he meant one section, that more would follow. Two hours had all-but-passed all-but-unnoticed.

It’s partly a tribute to this cast, partly a willingness on the part of Entertainment’s driving force Tim Etchells to engage in rough-hewn, vigorous material to create his human comedy. This outline world-history spends a lot of time with black-wigged stone-agers cavorting to thundering theme-music from erstwhile Hollywood blockbuster One million Years BC, showing the enthusiastic anarchy of a Monty Python out-take.

But it goes beyond the encapsulations of history, the Bible and Shakespeare offered by theatre companies with words like ‘Brent’ or ‘Reduced’ in their name. The show parallels mankind’s faltering history with the uncertainties of theatrical creation, apparently developing while it’s being performed, as humanity makes its history as it goes.

So, timing becomes a problem, scenic effects are inappropriately provided (Wendy Houston keen on offering snowfalls even in the tropics), ideas and examples are whisperingly supplied by Robin Arthur to Terry O’Connor’s narrator, who moves from detachment to involvement in the action (she can’t resist the rock beat of the later 20th century).

The idea’s there from the beginning when, on the bare stage, the company offers helpful advice to Jerry Killick for his opening scene. Nor is the basic urge that keeps the species going ignored, with plentiful male nudity (who’s the predator here then?) and a fair slice of simulated masturbation.

The bare stage fills with the detritus of performance (or history) to be swept away at the end in a nuclear-sounding 4 minutes. And, to end on a point that presumably isn’t the point, the intelligent design behind this seeming chaos is the co-work of Etchells and his fascinating, ever-surprising company.

Performers: Robin Arthur, Davis Freeman, Wendy Houstoun, Jerry Killick, Richard Lowdon, Claire Marshall, Terry O’Connor, Bruno Roubicek,

Director: Tim Etchells
Designer: Richard Lowdon
Lighting: Nigel Edwards
Assistant director: Cathy Naden

2006-11-15 09:28:25