Tron Theatre, Glasgow
3 stars
How would you spend your final hour and fifteen minutes on earth before
the world finally ended, with a bang, a whimper or otherwise? One
possibility is to idle the time with the black-toothed double-act
waiting for rapture in this transatlantic alliance between two ex
Benchtours visual theatre types reinvented as The Occasional Cabaret,
and the creative couple behind New York-based Edinburgh Festival Fringe
stalwarts, Clancy Productions. Combined, these creative couples have
put together a politically inclined compendium of monologue and song
which, in an ideal world, would soundtrack their way to Heaven. Or
Hell.
With the audience sat at cabaret tables and a scarlet-draped stage
squeezed into the Tron's Changing House space, Lulu and Gdjet are a
couple of gold-garbed crones resembling end of the pier fortune-tellers
who didn't quite predict what was coming next. As vamped into being by
Catherine Gillard and Nancy Clancy, and aided by musician Tim
Brinkhurst, the pair play-act all four horsemen from the book of
Revelations to point up the evils of global capitalism and other ills.
There's a healthily cynical sleight of hand too, as liberal sacred cows
are slaughtered, while Lulu and Gdjet's heavenly ideal is exposed as a
totalitarian dream-state.
Scripted by John Clancy and directed by Peter Clerke, Apocalypse is a
self-consciously kooky experience. On one level it's recession-driven
Poor Theatre in exelcis. Yet, for all its rough-shod appeal and one or
two killer lines, such an indulgence might sit better in a late-night
bar-room slot. At the moment, things feel too formal, as if being
performed into a void. Given the show's theme, might well be the point.
The Herald, October 7th 2011
ends
3 stars
How would you spend your final hour and fifteen minutes on earth before
the world finally ended, with a bang, a whimper or otherwise? One
possibility is to idle the time with the black-toothed double-act
waiting for rapture in this transatlantic alliance between two ex
Benchtours visual theatre types reinvented as The Occasional Cabaret,
and the creative couple behind New York-based Edinburgh Festival Fringe
stalwarts, Clancy Productions. Combined, these creative couples have
put together a politically inclined compendium of monologue and song
which, in an ideal world, would soundtrack their way to Heaven. Or
Hell.
With the audience sat at cabaret tables and a scarlet-draped stage
squeezed into the Tron's Changing House space, Lulu and Gdjet are a
couple of gold-garbed crones resembling end of the pier fortune-tellers
who didn't quite predict what was coming next. As vamped into being by
Catherine Gillard and Nancy Clancy, and aided by musician Tim
Brinkhurst, the pair play-act all four horsemen from the book of
Revelations to point up the evils of global capitalism and other ills.
There's a healthily cynical sleight of hand too, as liberal sacred cows
are slaughtered, while Lulu and Gdjet's heavenly ideal is exposed as a
totalitarian dream-state.
Scripted by John Clancy and directed by Peter Clerke, Apocalypse is a
self-consciously kooky experience. On one level it's recession-driven
Poor Theatre in exelcis. Yet, for all its rough-shod appeal and one or
two killer lines, such an indulgence might sit better in a late-night
bar-room slot. At the moment, things feel too formal, as if being
performed into a void. Given the show's theme, might well be the point.
The Herald, October 7th 2011
ends
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