London
Light
Presented by Theatre Ad Infinitum

Battersea Arts Centre, (BAC): to 13 Feb
Lavender Hill
London SW11 5TN

7.30pm.

Running time: 70mins, no interval

TICKETS: 0207 223 2223
On-line: www.bac.org.uk;

Review: by Carole Woddis of performance seen Feb 2, 2015:

Precise, incisive
There are many elements swirling around in Theatre Ad Infinitum’s Light – Orwellian warnings, oedipal conflicts, sci-fi films and contemporary politics of surveillance.

In the law of unforeseen consequences, Edward Snowden’s revelations are spawning a whole raft of theatrical responses. Ad Infinitum’s Light is one of them – a light show with a difference, pitched in darkness, lit by LED torches, sound-tracked like the crack of doom – at other times, Stanley Kubrick-like, swathed in irony with snatches of Beethoven, Benjamin Britten and Wagner.

Like Pink Mist, the production George Mann recently co-directed with John Retallack for Bristol Old Vic (currently running at London’s Bush Theatre), the precision of the cast is extraordinary. Now you see them, now you don’t – sudden snapshots of characters caught on the run, grappled to the ground, tied to a torture chair. Heart-stopping stuff and fairly relentless. But so impressive in execution.

Mann says the inspiration came from waking in a cold sweat from a nocturnal nightmare. His waking nightmare is that as a society/nation, we are sleepwalking into Orwell’s 1984 vision of dictatorship by mind control.

Created along with deaf actor, Matthew Gurney (here playing the political `Father’ figure with terrifying authority),with Light he’s certainly produced a 70 minute dystopian thriller with a story focussed around a young agent sent to capture a `terrorist’ leader intent on `disconnecting’ themselves from the controlling implants in the brain.

It is also a show that, by its visual, physical and subtitles framework crosses boundaries making it accessible to both deaf and hearing audiences.

Above all, Light is a futuristic warning as to where the digital, social media technology currently providing so much instant gratification could be leading us in a style as convincing and frightening as any Hollywood sci-fi blockbuster.

Dressed in black boiler-suits, with faces mainly seen only in profile – apart from small right and green light bulbs representing the thought message sent from one brain to another – Ad Infinitum’s superb cast create an indelibly paranoid world, with a young Eileen Atkins lookalike, Deborah Pugh particularly striking as the terrorist-leader whose identity presents the young agent, Alex, with his biggest life and loyalty challenge.
We have been warned!

Light
Presented by Theatre Ad Infinitum
Devised with the company

Performers:
Charlotte Dubery,
Matthew Gurney,
Deborah Pugh,
Michael Sharman
Ben Thompson

Director, Writer and Live Vocals: George Mann
Associate Director: Nir Paldi
Composer and Sound Designer: Chris Bartholomew
Costumes and Set Design: Fiammetta Horvat
Lighting Consultant and Production Electrician: Matthew Leventhall
Stage Manager: Lauren Cameron
Dramaturgy: Omar Elerian, Liran Fisher and Avye Leventis
Research Assistance: Liran Fisher & Dr James Rucker
Costume/Set Assistants: Celia Dugua, Katrina Felice, Rosie Gibbens

Light is a co-commission with the London International Mime Festival, in association with Redbridge Drama Centre, The Lowry, Arts Council England, Theatre Bench and Birmingham Old Rep.

World premiere of Light, Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2014, then 2015 International Mime Festival, Barbican Theatre London.
First perf of this revival at Birmingham Old Rep, Jan 28, 2016.
First perf at Battersea Arts Centre, Feb 1, 2016

www.theatreadinfinitum.co.uk | bac.org.uk/light | @TheatreAdInf | #Light2016

2016-02-04 09:29:12