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Synopsis A door leads from the commuter hall of London Bridge station to a vast labyrinth beneath. This is the new home to Shunt, an artists' collective whose Dance Bear Dance won last year's Time Out Live Award. From September, the door will open each Thursday, Friday and Saturday evening for their new show Tropicana, on one of the most exciting and unsettling spaces in London.
Go through a nondescript door in a wall at London Bridge station, step through a locker (why not?) and you enter a panelled room. You might be in an ante-room in a grand college or gentlemen's club. A measured, RP voice tells you over the public address system that tomorrow the bar staff may be reptiles, so make the most of it. Panels at different heights are removed to reveal friendly purveyors of booze.
The voice announces that the Institute is in charge, that doors are locked, that its watchword is "understanding" and that we are most alive when we fear. People smile a little apprehensively: no doubt this is a joke, but we are after all powerless and this is no place for claustrophobics. You enter an industrial-style lift with 30 others and apparently proceed downwards, guided by a liftman who takes a Polaroid snap as if we are on a Disney ride.
Darkness is the main feature of the next section, when after being 'welcomed' by a young woman in charge of a stack of cages and warned that it will be useful to distinguish an elephant from a stick man (helpful drawings provided), we are herded into a vast, arched vault. What proceeds is beautifully, subtly lit - a man violently attacking a pineapple, glittery feet walking, suspended bodies in cages passing by, a hearse slowly guided through the gloom, showgirls posing in feathered head-dresses - but it is far too long.
If I am supposed to be disorientated, I'm not particularly, merely irritated. This looks far more fun to be in than to watch. The audience is rendered inferior, passive, uncertain of its role. Is this someone else's party?
Next, there is a 1960s-style happening with showgirls swinging on trapezes and dancing on the hearse to loud rock music, which is fun, but so what? The last section confronts our ultimate fear - death, but the joke autopsy is not frightening, thought-provoking or funny enough. There is no follow-through from the Orwellian beginning. And, disappointingly, no elephants.
The vaults themselves, Shunt's base for the next three years, are magnificent - a huge, arched, dusty, atmospheric space. Tropicana is presented in collaboration with the National Theatre. It is encouraging that the NT is not resting on its considerable laurels. Better luck next time in the experimental stakes.
The production, set in dark haunting vaults complimented by the loud clunking of machinery and sporadic alien cries, I assume is designed to intrigue and frighten but the only frightening moment comes with the realisation that you have another hour and a quarter of this trite to sit through. Simply awful. - 213.2.17.172)
14 Feb 05
An amazing experience, reminiscent of practitioner Artuad, bringing to life his writings and dreams. breaking many people's perceptions of conventinal theatre it leaves you feeling utterly bewildered, confused however totally inspired, I recomend you not to try and define it, for not all things can be articulated, merely appreciate it for what it is. I didn't feel it was meant to be something 'deep' or immediately understandable, merely thought provoking. Go with an open mind and expect the unexpected. - 195.93.21.70)
06 Feb 05
Yes, interesting to see the pro/anti divide on this one. I'm definitely pro, but then I almost automatically love anything placed in odd spaces and settings so I was an easy scalp for them, I suppose. I also love prolonged use of darkness in theatre and there's plenty of that in this piece. I disagree that things happening vaguely in the distance aren't interesting, I love theatre being able to pull off hints and suggestions of stuff like that (DreamThinkSpeak's Don't Look Back, at Somerset House, did this really well in summer 2004). I don't get the puzzlement of the WOS reviewer and some of the contributors here concerning what it's all about. You're born (squeezing through the cupboard), you wait around, people tell you things and instruct you on what to do, you wait around some more, you see stuff happen, then you die. Seems pretty straightforward to me. I do agree that the autopsy bit at the end felt a bit unnecessary, but for me that was more than balanced out by the whole experience. I'm going to go again and see if it's any different - not that I'll be disappointed if it isn't. - 194.82.50.2)
03 Feb 05
From reading some of the reviews its clear that there is, like with most theatre, a random response to a random piece of performance art. i enjoyed it but why i'm not so sure? I think its purpose isn't for anyone to say wheter they like it or not its merely an invitation to give surrealism a chance, and why not, its because your left speechless that the majority of people didn't rate it. What does it represent? what does it communicate? that is left for you as a 'participant' to decide because its left open. - 172.202.202.103)
14 Dec 04
It seems you either love it or hate it. Well, I'm neither ! Not as good as the wonderful Dance Bear Dance, but still highly original with much to enjoys (and in a wonderful venue). Go on, try it. - 81.134.81.210)
04 Dec 04
This is the third shunt event I have attended and Tropicana like all their other work is a completely unique and unmissable experience - those who are looking for a night out at the theatre - or those who attempt to understand it in a traditional manner are probably missing the point.
From the moment I entered shunt's strange and beautiful world I was gripped.
Immersive, electic and sexy.
This is what theatre should be. - 81.153.97.28)
09 Nov 04
Pure, unadulterated crap. See this and Brighton Rock in the same week and you may never want to go to the theatre ever again. Shame on the NT for having anything to do with this disaster. - 66.32.107.163)
07 Nov 04
This was quite appalling. I have been to many site specific events - such as HG and the astonishing John Berger/Simon McBurney event at Aldwych tube a few years ago - and this had none of the imagination and flair that you experiences at such events. The space was not used properly. The script was impoverished. The visual element in the show was very poor. We were literally kept in the dark for far too long. And on top of all this was the naked commercialism so that not only was there a bar before the show, we had to endure a totally unnecessary interval for more drinks and then a third bar at the end. Utterly woeful. - 80.177.231.164)
25 Oct 04
I thought this was an amazing and exhilirating night of theatre. I only wish now that I had seen Dance Bear Dance if it was so much better than this. It was certainly uneven in parts (though it was still a preview), but overall it never stopped surprising and delighting me. I see a lot of theatre at the National but it's nice to see something totally creative and different once in awhile. Bravo to the National for giving this amazing company a higher profile - 81.153.186.171)
18 Oct 04
Well .... I thoroughly enjoyed (probably wrong word) the evening. From the moment I joined a queue of people being let in through a door with no real clue as to where I was going, until being let back out into the under-railway-arches night to find my way home I was engaged ENGAGED.
Maybe I was being challenged as to what I accept as theatre, maybe I was in an east European dictatorship or a post Apocalyptic somewhere but I was certainly being asked to witness/react to an extreme environment. When I was asked to react to violence or death I was being challenged to laugh at it.
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