For as long as people have been going to the theatre there has been the unhealthy allure of its sulky, demented and damn right noisy conjoined twin: Experimental Theatre. Usually comprising the half-baked fodder of angsty students, Experimental Theatre is definitely beginning to show its eyeliner-clad face in ever-increasing circles of… well, respectability.

For example, a successful showcase of experimental theatrics was staged in Chelsea during the spring and the usual smattering of crazy little ditties are making people feel decidedly uncomfortable at the ole Edinburgh Festival as we speak.

The rather divinely titled Sacred theatre festival in Chelsea boasted some seriously well received experimental productions like the face to face cat and mouse and cat conundrum Crossed Wires. A wee homage to Hitchcock style film noir, Crossed Wires is a sort of one on one chase through the actual streets of London as the audience member (more accurately ’spectator’ I suppose) has to stalk the ‘victim’ whilst being pursued by at least one other shady character. Not exactly your average drawing room comedy is it?

Now, we all know that the Edinburgh Festival and experimental theatre go together like Sweden and hot tubs, but there might just be a little added zest to the lunacy at the Fringe this year. One play that’s causing quite a stir is called The Factory and tries to recreate the final few moments of an inmate’s life at Auschwitz… how charming.

The frivolous subject matter is only further fluffed up by the piece’s interesting style of delivery… obviously when I say ‘interesting’ I mean ’shouty’ and when I say ‘delivery’ I mean ’shouting’.

One poor BBC journalist who was supposed to review The Factory describes how the audience were lead downstairs from the Pleasance Courtyard into the cavernous vaults beneath and made to stand in two straight rows. A giant steel shutter was then rolled down behind them over the entrance and the ‘guards’ began shouting, swearing and banging the steel door with ferocious intensity. After a few minutes Angie Brown had this to say:

“The noise and the intimidating men enveloped me and I became more and more anxious until I suddenly managed to make a run for the door, which was being opened for a man who was also fleeing.

“And then I just started to cry from the sheer shock of the experience.”

Crumbs.

Not the most revealing of reviews I’m afraid Angie, still I think the main points were sufficiently brought up between bouts of hysterical sobbing and the bludgeoned resurfacing of countless latent nightmares. Even looking at the article online, I’m convinced I could see stains on the page where salt tears had made the ink all runny.

It has to be said that slightly more sober reports have not been very positive… and I can see why. I mean, if all the performance consists of is banging a steel door in an enclosed space and shouting at audience members from several inches’ distance then this is, quite simply, piffle isn’t it? Stop me if I’m wrong but what the Flying Scotsman is this supposed to be saying about the Holocaust? Is there any evidence for this exact behaviour? Because it seems a little rich (if not utterly offensive) that six million innocent people were murdered in freezing death factories around eastern Europe and the best way to teach people about what it was “actually” like is to maniacally pound a steel shutter?

Eye opening.

No, that doesn’t sound like something I’d be into at all. Basically, I’m suspicious: I’m suspicious that this drama troupe have latched onto the ideas of that rather enigmatic Frenchman Antonin Artaud and had a little fun with them. He developed what’s called “the Theatre of Cruelty”, whereby plays like the one described were staged to gruesome effect (usually his productions resulted in members of the audience literally vomiting in the street outside). Anywhatsit, the idea of clumsily stapling the very real horror of the Holocaust to this shock fest in some misguided attempt to scratch out some political gravitas is pretty weak.

I’m sure they only had the best of intentions but maybe a little more insight into the source material (if you’d ever dare call it that) is needed. Whatsonstage described how:

“The Factory fails – in every department – to salvage anything meaningful from this woeful production.”

Pretty, pret-ty damning no? Still, what do you expect - it’s Experimental Theatre. It’s not supposed to work every time but at least they’re trying something new. After all, even the great German hairdresser Karl Nessler had to render his devoted wife totally bald twice before he managed to invent the perm…

No pain, no gain.

Technorati Tags: auschwitz, breath, chelsea, crossed wires, edinburgh festival, Edinburgh Fringe, experimental drama, experimental theatre, holocaust, pleasance courtyard, sacred, shocking art, shocking drama, shocking theatre, the chelsea experimental theatre festival, the factory

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This entry was posted on Monday, August 18th, 2008 at 4:21 pm and is filed under Theatre. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.