Window is the highly ambitious project of Witness Theatre, a relatively new company on the Fringe scene. One of the winners of the IdeasTap IdeasFund Brighton Fringe Award, it is a solo multimedia show that examines our obsessive relationship with technology and the internet. Alice (Siane Mendes) spirals out of control as she ekes out her existence online, sacrificing her real world relationships in order to stay ‘connected’. It was all very ambitious but still needs a lot of work.
The multimedia aspect of Window was certainly innovative but not particularly well executed. The use of the projections showed promise at times - the moments when Alice reacted with a projected film of her parents, as if in a Skype call, were entertaining and worked very well. However, their use was often somewhat perplexing – it was difficult to gauge the relevance of all the film snippets used, and it distracted from the acting itself. Occasionally, as Siane Mendes spoke her lines, a silent image of her speaking said lines was projected onto the screen behind her, seemingly completely unnecessarily – it was out of sync with the actress herself, and diverted the audience’s attention away from the performance. It also felt as if the performance was missing the element of sound to support the performance and perhaps fill the gaps between projections.
The set was attractive and well-used at the start. Alice’s bedroom is structured against two large flats covered in white cloth, on which the projections are shown. It was a clever idea and simply executed. However, bizarrely, half way through, the two flats were separated, leaving a dark space in between, perhaps to represent the black hole of a window that Alice was letting herself fall in to. However, the projections were still running, meaning that the audience could only see half the screen. The scene-change itself was also rather clumsy, at one point forcing the actress to move in order to get out of the way.
Siane Mendes herself executed the exceptionally difficult task of carrying the show alone well, though there were frustrating moments. It was occasionally difficult to hear her over the buzz of the projections (and under the duvet!) and at times it felt as though the multimedia was dominating, rather than supporting her performance.
Overall, Window failed to live up to its promise. The central ideas are very fascinating – in a world where access to the internet is beginning to be considered as a basic human right, the themes it explores are very relevant. Several kinks need to be ironed out, however, and the use of the multimedia adjusted to support the performance, rather than drown it out.
