Beginning with a post-show discussion of a production which the audience has not seen, this play by Bush Moukarzel and the Irish company, Dead Centre, takes us on a journey from absurdist comedy to surrealist tragedy. The central theme is lip reading, but the play extends this to become an exploration of all communications between human beings, demonstrating how we understand or, more often, misunderstand each other. An unconventional structure leaves us never knowing what to expect next and creates an unsettling effect which helps to keep us gripped, at least until an overlong final filmed section which appears to owe a great deal to Samuel Beckett’s Not I. Well acted and imaginatively staged, the production gives plenty of food for thought.
Performance date: 10 August 2014
The Beast's Pen 