More Matter (Less Art)

‘I am Hamlet…’ Shakespeare’s iconic tragic protagonist is lost, detached from the play in which they live; not quite the blank slate of an actor who has forgotten their lines, and not quite the prince of Denmark either. Cyclical questions spiral from misplaced words, misremembered events. A sense of dread lingers, a void of self into which we can pour questions, yet will find no definitive answers.More Matter With Less Art takes a knife to the once experimental form of absurd theatre, carving out a queer exploration of identity and performance. The play is not written with characters in mind; the two performing roles are nameless, referred to in the script only as numbers. A disruption of the traditional relationship between playwright, character and actor, More Matter inverts the narrative structures which cast much of theater in the mold of white, European men. What is left is a skeleton of poetic, almost labyrinthine prose, blurring the line between monologue and dialogue. Ultimately, More Matter With Less Art asks us what it means to be – or rather, to not.Camden Fringe Festival