Theatre / Reviews
Review: Infinity Pool, Hamilton House
If you’re going to stage a play about unfulfilled lives in a bleak office setting, the Conference Room at former office block Hamilton House is an excellent choice of venue. Beneath the strip lights and polystyrene ceiling tiles, the dusty air and functional grey carpet still reek of futile meetings and corporate dronedom.
Infinity Pool – written and performed by Bea Roberts – is an exploration of a life frustrated, based (loosely) on Flaubert’s Madame Bovary. This Emma is trapped in a Plymouth plumbing supplies office, her escape into a romantic fantasy starts with e-mail banter with a complaining customer, and it catches fire through the medium of iMessage.
This is not so much a one woman show as a no woman show. Roberts scurries to and fro across the stage, her main task being to operate a Heath Robinson array of computers, audio-visual equipment and an imaginatively used overhead projector. Part tech operator, part foley artist, part mime, she creates an immersive blend of projection and sound to carry the audience into Emma’s mundane life.
There are a host of characters, and plenty of dialogue: but none of it is spoken. Instead the interactions are presented through the medium of PowerPoint, a script unfurling in real-time on the wall with wit and ingenuity. Roberts also uses AV to address one of the big challenges facing today’s theatre: how to present on stage the many screen-based interactions which make up such an essential part of the contemporary character’s life. Instant messaging, web browsing, SMS: the audience can watch it all happen on the screens, without the need for any theatrical contrivance.
As a drama, Infinity Pool is a little hit and miss. Yet its unusual manner of staging makes it both engaging and funny. And for those with an interest in contemporary drama it offers some interesting ideas about how to present all aspects of the 21st century character’s life – emoticons and all.
Infinity Pool continues at Hamilton House, Bristol until Sat 8 Nov. For more info and to book tickets, visit http://www.hamiltonhouse.org/theatre-west-presents/
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