Donald Trump announcing a new tariff against Burkina Faso or Lytham St Annes. This show however from the outset has the smack of professionalism, forethought, and planning.
The joker has invited some 'friends' round for a game of cards, or has he? From the very outset there are questions the audience are left asking; Is this real? Is it a metaphor? What's this about? They are good questions, questions which intrigue, draw you in and encourage reflection and after thought.
The setting is a darkened studio with black walls and a single white table with 5 chairs placed around it. Sweeping camera work with the beautiful use of lens flare and gliding tracking shots flow through the gathering of performers. The players have an almost doll like appearance and a staccato vocabulary of movement. The combination and interplay of dance choreography and camera work is quite wonderful without taking anything away from the focus of the performance.
There are short sequences where players are introduced and then the car game begins. There's an ambiguity in the story and roles and to me it seemed like echoes and remembrances of a life unseen faded in and out of view as the play developed. The drama of this high-stake card game becomes a metaphor of something we had yet to understand.
This piece of theatre becomes curiouser and curiouser as it develops. The table and four chairs move from stage to combat arena and eventually the cyclonic centre of this confounding encounter. The quasi-characters shudder in and out and are disturbing in their strange and unexplained manners.
As a piece of online theatre, the medium is a good compliment, and the performance is confronting and engaging. You are left with no explanation, the story has no narrative, and the tale has no telling, but it does leave you thinking and pondering. It's a good piece of theatre and well worth watching.
Delivered Online
Show Time: Anytime
1 -25 Aug
Ticket prices: Free
Tickets: https://res.cthearts.com/event/34:3742/34:63439/
https://media.edfringe.com/event/34:3742/34:63439/