Review: Five Lines, Barbican Centre
A technically superbly executed production that has space and times for a little more human drama.Summary
Rating
Good
As part of MimeLondon, Frau Trapp bring us Five Lines, a hybrid piece of micro-cinema and theatre that follows a love story through an apocalypse. There’s more than a little of Orwell’s 1984 here as a couple fall in love before being forced by climate catastrophe to shelter underground, where their lives come under authoritarian control in a pseudo-Utopia. Society becomes rigidly supervised, there is mention of AI as a significant influence, and they ultimately escape into a reimagined world. But perhaps more new is said in the process of telling this tale than in the story itself.
With a team of four talented artists (led by Matteo Frau and Mina Trapp), a huge amount of work is involved in the production, which encompasses a vast array of media techniques. Aside from live streamed close-up film there are pre-recorded segments, zoetrope images, a narrative voiceover, both live and pre-recorded music and performance and precision object manipulation. I’m sure I’ve missed a few things from that list too!
Miniature dioramas are filmed and projected onto a screen at the rear of the auditorium and ideas of manipulation in the theme are echoed very literally by use of puppetry and object handling, as visible giant hands put a tangible human presence into the narrative. There’s excellent camera work, perhaps shifting focus in one frame so things are seen differently without our ever changing position, so making a commentary on perception and how it can be altered. There’s temporal uncertainty, as we’re unsure what is live or not; which are events from the past and what might exist today. The message is “Time exists simultaneously”, giving contemporary relevance to familiar themes.
We’re given moments of humour, including what looks like a large Voldemort puppet ruling the Council, and any inclination to stare solely at the screen is avoided by including live physical performance, including trumpet playing from Frau. The 2D and 3D elements are quite well balanced out. It’s all highly commendable and impressively achieved in a practical sense.
With so much going on it’s then a little surprising that come the end the whole feels unsatisfactory. It’s hard to quite put your (giant manipulative) finger on why. Certainly the narrative is word heavy and, although suggestive of a film noir detective style, it eventually becomes soporific, such that on a couple of occasions my head nodded. There are some visual gaps in transitions when the screen is blank, which slacken the pace. Even turning the camera’s attention to the unpredictable future by looking to the unknown in the spectators present lacks drama.
Perhaps it’s also that in achieving the heights of cinematic success the visceral, emotional aspects of the theatrically portrayed elements don’t reach the same levels. The cartoon love story is nice but passive. A murder happens in a moment and is rapidly passed over. We don’t feel enough of the human to recognise what’s being removed by the authoritarian takeover and robot overlord technology. Even the live music, which could potentially whisk us to another level of feeling, is muted and it’s as if there’s a jazz lounge vinyl spinning in the background.
There are some though-provoking ideas here, questioning what we’d do if there was an apocalypse, drawing on climate change as a very probable catalyst for this, reminding us of behaviours familiar from the past – but they’re largely ideas we’ve seen elsewhere. So what does this show bring to shake up the conversation? Certainly its innovative form allows us to examine things in a different way. However, a little more balance between human and machine would bring greater impact.
Script: Matteo Frau, Natalia Barraza and Mina Trapp
Direction: Natalia Barraza
Manipulation and interpretation: Matteo Frau and Mina Trapp
Original music: Matteo Frau
Camera/Technique/Editing: Sebi Escarpenter and Dalo Lozano
Miniature/Scenography: Mina Trapp
Costume: Mina Trapp
Light design: Ivan Tomasevic
Miniature light design: Sebi Escarpenter
Five Lines runs at the Barbican Pit until Saturday 2 February. Further information and booking details can be found here.