Longwave (Tour-Drum Theatre)

Chris Goode (The Adventures of Wound Man and Shirley, King Pelican, MAD MAN and so much more) remains as unpredictable as ever.

Longwave, first performed some years ago, is an intense two-handed exploration of relationships and intimacy but with the only speech courtesy of radio programmes.

Long-term Goode collaboraters Tom Lyall and Jamie Wood play, with tremendous observation to detail, Max and Herman the silent beardie weirdies who live together in a wooden shed (a multifunctional space courtesy of James Lewis) in the middle of a seemingly hostile environment complete with biting birds.

They are clearly scientists carrying out ritualistic experiments on what seems to be a large lump of old baloney – measuring, weighing, licking, electrifying and more – but for an unknown purpose. And strangely spacing the physics with a bit of self-indulgent microscope dancing.

Between Nsuit-clad sorties outside, time is filled with backgammon, sketching and food while the ritual continues with customary seating arrangements and roles.

This is embodiment of theatre of the absurd – characters caught in a hopeless situation carrying out repetitive actions and where silence is the logical conclusion.

There are shades of Stoppard’s existentialist tragicomedy Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead as
Max plays the game of chance with unlabelled cans which deliver the unexpected along with the mundane while Herman races tape measures and strives to accommodate his world map.

In an uninterrupted 70 or so minutes we start to understand the characters, their irritable but caring relationship and witness their unravelling.

Impatient Herman is poised to leave following a poignant radio message from his young son but a need to care for an incapacitated Max stalls his escape. Max meanwhile, thwarted in his attempts to practice the harmonica and fed up with constant second place is on a slow burn to breaking free from the repressive sameness.

An interesting – and at times delightful and touching – concept in extended mime but the experiment falls rather flat as Longwave takes us nowhere and relies disappointingly on radio commentary for understanding.

Perhaps I’m just not on the right wavelength.