The Secret Life of You and Me (Contact, Manchester)

Shift is a two-day Festival of contemporary experimental performance and live art in the theatres, greenroom and foyer of The Contact Theatre. Arrive early for one show and you may find yourself taking part in another. I traded my trilby for a cowboy hat to explore identity and the power of imagination in Paul O’Donnell’s So Far West.

Shift seems determined to tackle the impression that performance art is, well, pretentious. O’Donnell’s participative show has a comedic undertone whilst the autobiographical basis for The Secret Life Of You And Me allows writer and performer Lowri Evans to anchor the show in mundane reality. This is a world in which identity is examined not by introspection or mind-altering drugs but by trying on different outfits in the cheap and cheerful T K Maxx.

The Secret Life Of You And Me is described as a scrapbook of storytelling, which is almost literally true as handwritten extracts from notebooks are projected onto a screen at the rear of the stage. It also captures the disjointed method of presentation that jumps from performance to art installation without any explanation.

Evans has her mid-life crisis early; rather than celebrate her 30th birthday with a party she designs a show to examine whether the disturbing possibility that she has achieved little in her life is valid. She plays a game with her best friend trying out alternate clothes and personalities until photos in a celebrity’s glossy cookbook make her wonder if the celeb might be playing the same game.

The autobiographical anecdotes alternate with performance art as Lowri makes a sketch by tracing a photograph of kitchen utensils. The live art aspects are quirky and interesting but it is sometimes difficult to spot connections between the different elements of the show.

When the live art and performance elements of the show link together the effect is stunning. Lowri describes the outcome of an experiment inspired by her work with people with dementia and based around the concept that memory fades.

Members of the public responded to her request to send photos of a description written on steamy windows of the single memory they would wish to retain. A series of projections show the outcome and as those involved included a bus full of schoolchildren the results are anything but predictable. The most powerful, however, has to be ‘ How to get home’. But such connection between the different elements of the show is an exception rather than a rule.

The abstract elements of The Secret Life Of You And Me make hard to form an emotional connection and the presentation is so laid-back that the approach of the climax is apparent only if you are taking notes.

Nevertheless the gentle humour and undeniable charm challenge the idea that performance art is too remote to have general appeal.