You are watching three actors sat at a table. Their names are Rose Wardlaw, Azan Ahmed, and Shannon Hayes, or at least that’s what they say. There is a thick beige curtain and a smaller curtain directly behind them. What are they hiding? What’s behind the curtain? We need to know! They’re obsessed with a photo. I won’t tell you which one, but you’ve probably seen it before (it is everywhere!). Every detailed observation leads to a conspiracy which goes right up to the top! You know who I’m talking about…
What’s behind the curtain? We need to know!
Joshua Pharo’s flickering lighting design and Kieran Lucas’ sound design ramp up the air of intrigue, as if we can’t quite believe what we’re experiencing – is it some alien or government interference? Jack Perkins has written some snappy dialogue which spirals into increasingly incredulous complexity, yet with each revelation the energy seems to stagnate – each shock yielding diminishing returns. It’s as if they become stuck in the web of intrigue they weave for themselves.
Perhaps all this dialogue is a red herring to keep us distracted from the truth. The beige curtain remains closed. What’s behind the curtain? Some plot twist? Some experiment in form? Something which will make us re-evaluate everything? There must be something that will blow the show itself wide open.
I loved Barrel Organ’s previous work. I’m looking for the thing that made them so distinctive, but the liveness and layers of meaning are not there. No, it must be! I want to believe. I want there to be more. This can’t be it! Can it?
