Group hugs, cult chants
and it's all your fault ++++=
Back with three new
immersive scenarios after causing a stir last year, the 101 team show just
how compelling theatre can be with the most elementary of resources. No special
effects, no set, scarcely anything you'd call a costume and yet the young
company does a thoroughly persuasive job in commandeering your imagination.
In the 11am scenario, you
are co-opted into a primitive religious sect, pagan chants, ritualistic
gestures and all. There is a good deal of cultish hugging and call-and-response
liturgy as you await the coming of a living goddess, a figure of terror or
liberation depending on the depth of your faith.
By the time the show
mutates into a *3Beauty and the Beast*2-style myth, you realise you have been a
participant in a morality tale with a bitter and unhappy ending.
You could make a case for
the show being about the perils of group thinking or the hazards of blind
faith. You could make an equal case for it being a load of made-up tosh. What
you can't dispute is the utterly absorbing and intense nature of a thrilling
performance. (Mark Fisher)
C Soco, 0845 260 1234,
until 21 Aug, times vary, £7.50–£9.50 (£6.50–£8.50).
© Mark Fisher 2011
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