Reviews

Lost (for) Words

Lost Words, Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th November 2011, Clayden House

Charlotte Monk-Chipman

***

As a piece of immersive promenade theatre Lost Words is wildly ambitious, but in a piece so reliant on audience autonomy and the improvisation of the actors, the writers/devisers intention can become diluted. As audience members, we were presented with so many choices, yet there was no sense of right or wrong, or answers to be granted. We were plunged into confusion, constantly questioning “Trust the cat, don’t trust the cat?” and undoubtedly, there was something very ‘Alice in Wonderland’ about the whole experience. On an aside note, when it comes to stage make-up less is definitely more...

As it was inspired by the works of Poe, I felt as though I was supposed to be much more influenced by clear literary nudges, but instead, perhaps due to my unfamiliarity with his works, I was left to my own devices and hence confusion ensued. I was also promised a dark and sinister environment and rather than feeling threatened by the characters, they all seemed quite friendly towards me. Even the most aggressive and menacing of the characters held my hands in an all too gentle way which had risk assessment written all over it. What Lost Words does provide exceptionally well, is an intimately stimulating, and exciting atmosphere and experience for its audience with clear potential, but for me, the fun eclipsed the fear.

In such a complex and riddling piece It cannot afford to be rushed, yet from the beginning we were given something to read, then whisked away into another room before I had even finished the first sentence. This created an immediate irony of a performance seemingly reflecting Poe’s influence on cosmology and the space-time continuum; with an environment unhinged by any given time, space or reality. I felt that It attempted to frame the experience in too many different ways, using a tourguide around a museum, to the aliveness of characters in a book and finally as if we were local tearaways in an abandoned building, so that dramaturgically, the overarching concept needed better clarity.

In our performance, evidentially curiosity did kill the cat, but ultimately when the question was posed “who is the maddest?” I was all too aware that there was a woman pretending to be an animal in the room which clouded my judgement. In this final “riddle”; as it was referred to, it seemed that the performance was out of its depth to question what constitutes labelling someone mad in an environment where social and historical constructs were deconstructed.

As an experience, I have much to take away from the performance (including an inked and blooded hand), and ultimately huge enjoyment of the experience. But critically, as a piece of immersive theatre which was teeming with riddles and tasks, the title aptly fits my bemused state of mind upon exiting as the outcome seemed irrelevant and the answers remained lost.

 

Post your Review:

Name:

Email:

Show:

Your Review: