Pulse 2012. The first full week. Day four
It’s billed as a work-in-progress but Morgan Lloyd-Malcolm’s The Wasp is one of those rarities which –even in an embryonic stage – leaves you impatiently asking “what happens next?” Two women, who were at school together a long time ago, meet in a coffee bar. Their lives have followed different paths; the one with a childless marriage which has brought a comfortable lifestyle, the other with a feckless partner and a cascade of children.
Thre’s a strand running through this year’s Pulse which might be described as lecture-theatre. Jon Spooner of Unlimited Theatre is writer, performer and co-director of The Ethics of Progress, which evolves from an illustrated discourse on quantum physics (no, I still don’t understand them do you?) to quite a wide-ranging and very serious discussion of how knowledge and invention can be harnessed equally for good and for ill. The smartly-projected designs and visuals are by Mic Pool and Andy Edwards.
Tgen there’s Cutting the Cord from Flying Eye. This tells the story of a young Jpanese woman (Sachi Kimara) who has left her own country for a new life in London but finds that, when called back home as her father is seriously ill, that her two separate existences collide. It’s intriguingly enough staged by Matt Spencer – part promenade performance overlaid with pared-down symbolism – with live music from Daniel Marcus Clark, dance elements and some interesting lighting effects conjured up by Kristina Hjelm. But I’m not sure that I could believe in it.
