Money – Shunt Theatre Company
42-44 Bermondsey Street, London Bridge
Since settling in their home in the labyrinthian vaults under London Bridge, Shunt has successfully established themselves as a unique collective who continually produce experimental work. Having now been turfed out of the hallowed space of the Shunt Lounge – along with a large number of Londoners trying to make the trendy bar their local watering hole – it is now left to the group to make the move to the new space as seamless as possible.
Money is Shunt's third production since the company formed in 1998, and their first since 2006, taking for it’s theme the speculation in Emile Zola's novel L'Argent. And here the collective place the action inside a disused tobacco factory off Bermondsey Road in South London. A giant piece of machinery occupies the centre of the warehouse, and according to the company, the purpose of this machine is unknown.
Black out. Heavy grinding and hissing sounds. Black out again. The prelude is ominous. Once ushered into the 'machine' by the invigilators dressed as doomsday motorcyclists, the audience find themselves in an enclosed space waiting to be transported in a whirlwind of total darkness.
Slowly the audience are able to piece together elements of the fragmentary narrative as we sequentially are introduced to Aristide Saccard, asking for a loan from the financier whose office the audience now find themselves in. They’re introduced to his, at times, savage girlfriend as well as the moneyman in question while the space continually shifts with floors dissolving, ceilings disappearing and doors banging. More than just a theme park simulator, the audience is then invited to go upstairs to drink and play, becoming part of the action themselves.
The only way to experience Shunt's ingenuity is physically. The experience of being in an alternative site outside the realms of the traditional theatrical space is one of the company's motifs in making theatre and in this instance the content of the show is deliberately vague and fractured allowing the staging to be centralised. A spectacle indeed. I only wonder whether they needed Zola's story to achieve it.
Ingrid Hu
Money runs at Shunt until 22nd December
No comments:
Post a Comment