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An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
2012
Theatre
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Music
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Always been a fan but never seen them live. I was ecstatic to be part of this epic event. WOW!
London,
Henry Hitchings's rating
Reader rating
What do you get if you combine corsets, cabaret, abstract dance routines, CCTV monitoring, thunder, a lot of weatherproofing material, scores of brown envelopes, some wilfully terrible jokes, energetic dressing-up, and mordant political satire?
One answer is "a long first sentence"; another could be "a mess".
A third is Architecting, a joint venture between TEAM (New York's Theatre of the Emerging American Moment) and the National Theatre of Scotland.
Bizarre though it may sound, this devised piece, which began life as a 10-minute squib at the Battersea Arts Centre three years ago, is now a sustained exploration of the theme of personal and ideological reconstruction.
In part, it's about the rebuilding of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
It links this to the Reconstruction that followed the American Civil War, using Gone with the Wind to contrive the connection.
Priapic producer Scott Staph (a decidedly creepy Frank Boyd) is remaking the classic film in a ghastly modern idiom.
All the while Architecting addresses the idea of how people refashion themselves and of how their gestures contribute to the spirit of their country.
As past, present and future liquefy before our eyes, the key figure is Carrie Campbell, a property developer.
Played with self-lacerating conviction by Libby King, she tries to carve out a post-Katrina niche, both architecturally and emotionally.
Others jolt in and out of the story. The chronology is puzzling but as one character remarks early on, this is "thermodynamic history" - and therefore driven by entropy.
One moment Kristen Sieh is a pettish Scarlett O'Hara, for instance, and the next she is someone else. All the actors take several roles.
The production is formally innovative. Yet the use of montage and cutaway makes for a confusing experience; the multimedia collage recalls the surreal experience of a night in which one wakes repeatedly in the midst of dreams.
Moreover, it takes too long for the different strands to come together. "It is going slower than anticipated," says Carrie early on. She's right about that.
Architecting is a bold piece from a committed and dynamic ensemble, imaginatively directed by Rachel Chavkin. But its poetry and cut-and-paste whirl of images are not for the faint of heart or head.
Until 14 November (020 7638 8891).
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
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