Two shows played simultaneously in two adjacent venues, with video screens in each theatre displaying the goings-on in the other. It’s a novel idea, not to mention brave, with seemingly infinite potential for things to go wrong. Seeing Double: Vision comprises half of that grand notion, along with its sister show Seeing Double: Figures, and delivers a fast-paced hour of farcical comedy that gives a glimpse of the full picture, while still standing on its own merit.
The story centres on a group of ‘pro-dram’ actors preparing to stage a terribly important, terribly artistic ensemble production of Macbeth. When the original director quits in a temper, the producer decides to appease her mutinous cast by bringing in a challenging, avant-garde artist named Julio Buenaventura. What she unwittingly gets instead is an opportunistic delivery man named Craig, who has smelled a chance for a quick buck. It’s a fairly standard farce plot, but it’s presented with style and allows for plenty of witheringly accurate digs at pompous theatre types.
A lot of the show’s success is down to the actors. Writer/directors Alex Woolf and Sadie Spencer have assembled a formidable team of comic performers who truly elevate the material. As the air-headed, pretentious thespian Dale, Barney Eliot is utterly brilliant, turning even the most dry, functional lines into comedy gold with his richly smarmy delivery. Tania Pelly is memorable as acerbic, pretentious Mabel, and Milly Thomas’s ditzy, pretentious (there is a theme here) Summer is wonderfully oblivious.
The fast-moving script does leave a few rough edges. A few aspects of the plot are glossed over or just left unexplained (how exactly does one character survive apparently being duct-taped and locked away for more than a week?). A romantic subplot erupts out of nowhere at roughly the two thirds mark, though to be fair the script does poke fun at itself for it. Also the tone isn’t entirely consistent, with one scene suddenly taking a strangely violent turn that doesn’t quite jive with the light-hearted humour that has gone before and continues after.
Even with these minor gripes, this is a bold idea that deserves respect and is bolstered by first-rate performances. A little post-show research informed me that I would have done better to have seen Figures first. If it’s as fast, furious, and funny as Vision then it’ll be worth the price of another ticket.
