A multi-vocal and instrumental performance, using speech and sound to articulate the overwhelmingly constant multiplicity of global events, Container encourages the audience to rethink their own perspective in the face of overwhelming crises. Summary
Rating
Good
In its publicity, Container is described as a “multi-vocal performance … exploring the violence and tenderness of living through catastrophe”. The declared intention is to explore the multiple experiences we have globally in everyday modern life and perhaps mitigate the feeling of personal helplessness that might occur in the face of such overwhelming crises.
The stage is dark, the audience seated in traditional format, lights shimmering down on the curtains at the back: the patterns created often resemble a cityscape. A number of instruments are laid across the floor. Five music stands are front of stage, with evenly distanced intervals between them. The performers arrive and pause for a moment before speaking, all taking it in turns to look closely at each other, from one end of the row to the next. They start with single words each, in turn, but move to overlapping each other. Sometimes it feels as if there is a defined narrative, sometimes it feels more like a jumble of loose thoughts. Writer, director and performer Alan Fielden uses his interest in polyphony (many voices at the same time) as the inspiration for the form. It is hypnotic, if confusing.
All performers are talented musicians, playing a number of different (and at times unexpected!) instruments, but it is unfortunate that when using a technique of interweaving choral narratives some of them take some time to warm up, meaning the result is slightly jarring.
The content veers from the everyday to the catastrophic nature of global warming. We see two miniature Samurai models centre stage narrating moral tales before moving back to the speaker-based medium. Occasionally speech refers to the concept of a container and its globally dictated size for maximum efficiency. Lists of things that can be transported in such a vehicle are endless, monotonous almost, until a shocking throwaway line of “Vietnamese refugees” startles the audience back into consciousness.
Ben Kulvichit’s lighting design is excellent, allowing attention to be drawn away from the cluttered stage at any point and instead to the performer. Despite the conventional seating arrangement, there is little fourth wall as the audience lean in to be more involved and the performers address them directly.
This is an interesting, if slightly underwhelming, performance despite great intentions. It is too long and could easily be cut by 15 minutes to make it a crisper hour. It is also monotonous to the extent that the constant sounds can mean the audience loses focus. This may be a reflection of our inevitable inertia to a never ending, global crises-driven newsfeed, but if so, that does miss an opportunity perhaps to enable us to navigate our way through the noise into individual reasoning. I wonder as well if a more immersive experience emphasising the physical nature of a container, much like the black box set we were part of, would remind the spectator of the shocking reality of global people trafficking, driven in the main by global climate change.
Written, Directed and Performed by: Alan Fielden
Devised and Performed by: Jemima Yong, Clara Potter-Sweet, Ben Kulvichit & Tim Cape
Lighting Design by: Ben Kulvichit
Container plays at New Diorama Theatre until Saturday 12 April.
