King’s Theatre
Five stars
When a pair of fancy
dress cops break up the onstage party instigated by American auteur Geoff
Sobelle and an ever-expanding cast in his epic evocation of building a home
from scratch, one could be forgiven for thinking it a nod to current civic
thinking towards anything resembling fun. With lights strung across the
auditorium to decorate assorted weddings, birthdays and other life-and-death
shindigs, Sobelle’s creation becomes a mass housewarming to which we’re all
invited.
By this time, Sobelle
and his company of seven plus deep-fried crooner Elvis Perkins have constructed
a piece of architectural magic, which sees the foundations of a des-res put in
place by several generations of the house’s occupants. As a bedroom is seemingly
conjured from thin air, we see children, mothers and lovers rise from their
slumber to go about their days and nights.
With a fully functional
kitchen and bathroom on the two slotted-together floors of Steven Dufala’s
ingenious set, this allows for comic criss-crossing aplenty in Lee Sunday
Evans’ dizzying production. The shower scene alone is timed as impeccably as
anything patented in silent movie slapstick.
Things, however, are far
from silent. As well as Perkins, who haunts the house like a wraith-like
bar-room troubadour, a soundtrack by Edinburgh street-band Brass Gumbo leads
all the revellers a merry dance.
Beyond the fun of
co-opting volunteers from an audience to become all too willing guests, there
is a poignancy to Sobelle and co’s extended study of human behaviour. To
witness the assorted energies that are brought into a home by each individual adds
a quiet ennui to the human chain who walk through it. As a new set of memories
are packed away, they leave an empty space to be filled with fresh blood even as
they go on to pick up more baggage elsewhere.
The Herald, August 25th 2018
Ends
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