Forced Entertainment latest offering has two performers on stage postulating the future. Every scenario is briefly sketched out and goes something like this: in the future, there will be no war, there will be no nation and everyone will live in harmony, or in the future, there will be continuous warfare between country, and so forth. There are some back and forth between the two and gender is certainly a topic which the male and female performer explored. There are some thought provoking suggestions, and some that sounds like a bleak future but in fact something that is already happening, such as one about segregation and ghettos. And speculation about a drug that people can take over the weekend which will bring out all the aggression in people and hence be calm enough for the working week on Monday is a beautifully put description of alcohol. There is a lyricism to the delivery and a few poetic gems among them but the main problem is its repetitiveness. Each snippet of the future is a 15-10 seconds monologue and the format repeats itself over and over for the full 80 minutes. Although the content occasionally brings a welcome interruption to the ceaselessness of the show, it is not enough to stop the feeling of an angry annoyance bubbling up. The feeling is not dissimilar to a politician droning on the same subject and line of communication when interviewed on the radio. Maybe that’s part of the point but one cannot ignore that anger just underneath the surface. It is an odd combination of a well written and thought provoking show and all the while maddeningly repetitive.
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