A recent interview in the Independent with Shunts, the theatre company behind the show explained one of their aims is to disorientate, confuse and baffle, from my experience, they managed it pretty well. The opening monologue got off to a bad start. It went on for far too long about some pseudo theory on Architecture. I am all for an insightful or satirical take on architectural theory but it has made its point in the first minute but it went on for 5. This over-egging of an idea carried on with the middle section where we were all supposed to be on a cruise ship and jokes regarding behaviour and activities on the ship were funny, but it was 30 minutes of variations of the same joke. There was an overall storyline about a controlling incestuous family which had a hint of satire about it but it didn’t work as a narrative. The “finale” felt like it belonged to another piece altogether. It was funny in places and it was an interesting space and could have done a lot more with it. The labyrinth before the show was interesting to explore but the expectation of us returning during the show was sadly incorrect. I suppose they succeeded in “interrupt an audience’s expectations” as stated in the interview. Credit to them, they have mostly achieved what they set out to do but personally, something more innovative to distract from the lack of narrative and coherence would be preferable. It was neither one thing or the other at the present state and definitely managed not to meet my expectation but not quite in the same way they intended.
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