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Megalith

 Four stars 

 The earth doesn’t quite move at the start of the Mechanimal company’s multi-media meditation on ancient rock formations, copper mining and standing stones, but its conceptual double bluff shows just how pretty much everything is affected by a technical meltdown. The fusion of techno beats, Flintstones samples and animated graphics that follow are heightened in physical form by good old fashioned graft, as performer Charles Sandford and sound artist Xavier Velastin duet to create what director Tom Bailey calls a ‘theatrical poem’.

 

Taking the roots of copper mining 10,000 years ago, and its key role in electrification as its source, rather than make a polemical piece on fossil fuels and seemingly endless extraction, Mechanimal have carved out a living mash-up of sight and sound. This builds as wildly as a Julian Cope excavation of sacred sites en route to something near seismic in intent.

 

The result is a playfully hypnotic virtuoso display, which by the end has become a quietly ritualistic construction that remains plugged in to history throughout. With mesmeric visuals provided by Limbic Cinema, Megalith is the sort of theatre The K Foundation might have once made if they could have been bothered. Get your rocks off and dig it.

 

Zoo Southside until 13 August, 12.15pm; 21-28 August, 4pm.


The List, August 2022

 

ends

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