Nikolai Gogol's radical short story The Overcoat was first published in 1842 and tells the story of Akakii Akakievich, a poor, lonely clerk whose worn out overcoat is beyond repair. He scrimps and saves for a new one, becoming obsessed with its purchase. When he finally gets the coat, it is stolen and in spite of pleas for help to retrieve it, is ignored and he falls ill and dies. A ghost that looks like Akakii is then seen roaming the streets of St Petersburg stealing overcoats.
Gecko has interpreted this in a stylised and fantastical way, keeping broadly to Gogol's story while making it very much their own. The object of desire, the fur-trimmed overcoat, symbolically hangs out of reach throughout the performance. But there is also the object of desire in the form of the girl Akakii loves and he is seen in his cramped apartment, dreaming of her, practising how he'll woo her with a red rose.
Gecko shows the workers huddled together as commuters, then in their office environment where clerks are shown in tableaux of toil at desks of various graded heights.
Any speech in the play is in a variety of languages but, the tone of the actors and their gestures make it clear what is happening so the audience has to suspend disbelief and accept the bizarre but fascinating nature of the piece. With the imaginative use of eclectic music, stunning props and effects and theatricality, it is no wonder they got a standing ovation.
Times: 13-31 August (not 18,25), 5.20pm