performance art – Hannah Nicklin

It’s late now, and I’ve run out of jokes. Sorry. Or not. Depending on how much you like my jokes.

I didn’t even get a little bit rained on on this day. No even a little bit. I did, however, sit on a bench with the faint whiff of chlorine hanging in the air, wearing goggles and a water polo hat. Enter:

The Time Out – Non Zero One

Part of the Forest Fringe. A piece for 8-12 people (but it has to be an even number) who are informed by a shouty man with quite a magnificent moustache that they are 9 minutes away from a potential glorious victory. The water polo hats that you don at his instructions have discretely hidden headphones, and as the lights fade and the shouty-moustache man slows, a voice begins to speak in your ear. It begins to talk to you, about how strange a situation this is, but that the shouty-man seems so real, maybe we should just go along with it. As time passes this same voice asks you to do or say small things, make eye contact with others around you, reveal simple details about yourselves, shake hands, touch foreheads. To try and understand yourself as a group, as team mates.

The Time Out is a gentle, self-aware and intimate examination of what it takes to be more than the sum of your parts, that carefully weaves the responses of the participants back into the fabric of the work. This is the point where I normally end on a slightly unnecessary flourish, but you’re going to have to make do with: ‘I liked it.’

Alma Mater – Fish & Game

An iPad show. 20 minutes, and a kind of fairy tale for an empty room. You’re instructed to use the iPad ‘like a camera’ – so as the display moves its angle on the room, you move the screen so that it aligns, filling the room with characters, objects, a tale about a little girl, growing up. Another thing that I’d heard a lot of people respond quite favourably to, but that I found a tad underwhelming. An interesting story, but not really a visual language that worked for me. It felt like it should respond like a video game viewpoint – using the point of view of a player-character made me crave more responsivity; at least a navigational level of interaction. Continue reading Edinburgh: Day the third

Derelict building image via

I’m running more than a little behind on responding to shows, but still wanted to, so here’s how it’s going to work. We’re all going to pretend you’re reading this late on Wednesday. Maybe if you go to bed before midnight, you’ve clicked on the link the next morning. I want you to think carefully about where you were, what you were doing, and briefly insert the experience of reading this into that memory. There. Fixed.

SO IT’S LATE WEDNESDAY NIGHT AND I’M WRITING EVEN THOUGH I’M TIRED BECAUSE THAT’S HOW MUCH I LOVE YOU, DEAR READER.

I went to see some shows today, shall we* talk about them? Let’s.

After the End (by Dennis Kelly) Direct from Dundee

Probably the wrong time of day to see this kind of thing, really. Bit, y’know, swear-y and rape-y. Not really 1pm kind of thing. When I was more into proper plays Dennis Kelly was one of my favourite writers. Still is, I mean, but I think this is a quite tough piece to play. Especially to 3 people at 1 in the afternoon. The performances were a bit broad brushstrokes, it would fill a studio theatre, but was a little too much for an oversized crate. Still, the actress playing Louise was quite interesting, and it reminded me what a fascinating triple-layer piece of thinking the play is. It’s about gender in two ways, as well as the literal, in-front-of-you content. And no one comes out of it clean. Chewy, is what I’d call it.

Also, after googling to remind myself of the character names, I have signed up to wikipedia to start expanding on their records of plays and playwrights. WATCH OUT.

The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik

I think I may be the tin-woman, because I’m pretty certain anyone with a heart would have been swept away by this piece. And I wasn’t. It’s very good, with some lovely puppetry (I wanted there to be more) and quite clever projection. But I was a bit, a tiny bit bored of watching, not seeing, being with it. I’m usually a sucker for things about flooding, too. Sorry. Someone please find me a Wizard. Continue reading Edinburgh: Day the second.