Gareth's Culture and Travel Blog

More site-specific Tennessee Williams to follow 2012’s The Hotel Plays (https://garethjames.wordpress.com/2012/10/20/the-hotel-plays) which are about to be revived. This one, occupying the fourth floor of a building awaiting renovation, is a very different experience, more narration / dance / movement than play(s). I found it rather captivating.

A promenade piece in which we move from dance hall to one room apartment to plush parlour to giant bathroom, Beata Csikmak’s extraordinary design has Punchdrunk’s detail but we absorb more of it because we stay in each location longer. The sound design by John Zalewski contributes much to create the atmosphere. The narrative is really narration, with the three actors telling us about things that have happened and what they feel whilst their interactions are largely physical rather than verbal. The words are based on several texts plus interviews rather than being plays themselves and the evening, directed by Annie Saunders (who also performs) & Sophie Bortolussi seems to me to be more about atmosphere than meaning.

The actors (Anthony Nikolchev & Chris Polick accompany Saunders) move around us and each other, intertwining their bodies and engaging with individual audience members, both physically and verbally (nothing too racy!). They climb over the furniture, contort themselves and occasionally surprise us by their arrival, direction or disappearance. Somehow the combination of this sensual movement, the rooms themselves, the soundscape and the words they speak convey Tennessee Williams’ world without actually being a Tennessee Williams play. Hugely atmospheric and more impressionistic than literal.

I have to say I was enthralled for 70 minutes, though I couldn’t tell you what it was all about. It probably isn’t for those who like their TW literal and conventional, but for a lover of the eclectic like me it was a bit of a treat. A big welcome to LA-based company Wilderness and a big thank you to hosts Theatre Delicatessen.