Review: The Rewilding of Uncle Dad, Bold Theatre 

We’re out on a hot, humid afternoon in Elephant & Castle, trailing a character who looks like a walking rambutan.  

The Rewilding of Uncle Dad by Bait Theatre is a charming live soundwalk about an ageing ‘salaryman’ who’s so ordinary and committed to the rituals and routines of work that he doesn’t know how to exist outside the confines of the office. The guide/narrator (played by Lizzy Shakespeare, one half of Bait Theatre), heard through headphones, tells us that Uncle Dad commutes to the office daily, spends his days with colleagues and his evenings with the same faces at the pub. He’s the type of person who joined a company young and stayed for life, a creature of habit who clocks in the same way he’s done the last forty years. But the Uncle Dad (played by Michelle Madsen, the other half of Bait Theatre) we see on the street is undergoing a metamorphosis.  

The Uncle Dad we’re introduced to – prancing about, jumping in and out of buildings with unbridled joy, or chewing with his mouth open – is an odd fellow. His spiky yellow-maroon hair, and multi-layered black jacket, bunching behind the shoulders into something resembling a hunchback and angel wings, stops passersby in their tracks. And soon, so do we. Participants become a spectacle wandering around the Elephant Square, a pack of listeners chasing after a yellow-haired man and a narrator with a large microphone. There was a collective sense of play in the process of watching and being watched in the midst of a performance. 

Shakespeare’s narrator character is exceedingly serious and provides a brilliant comedic foil to Uncle Dad’s quirkiness. Maintaining an extraordinarily deadpan expression and monotonous voice, Shakespeare abruptly breaks into bizarre dance movements without breaking character. The physical comedy from both Shakespeare and Madsen is hilarious, often leaving participants laughing out loud. Shakespeare also takes on additional duties as a live sound effects artist and does an admirable job of juggling her multiple roles while keeping us safe on the streets.  

The show invites participants to ‘rewild’ themselves simply by slowing down, paying attention, and surrendering to silliness. Bait Theatre has built a reputation on experimental performance inspired by clowning, and on bringing people into their work. They take the same ethos to Rewilding to make the ordinary strange and extraordinary. In between sightings of Uncle Dad, we start to notice the person resting on a bench, the commuters rushing home from work, the hardworking people restocking shops, the urban wildlife around the Michael Faraday Memorial, as busy as the commuters. City soundscapes are amplified through the microphone. We hear the cacophony extra loud – the sirens, footsteps, voices, the rumble of the train below, even the sounds of a cash machine. If you’ve ever wondered what drawing your salary out of a cashpoint sounds like, the show has got it covered. 

The technology, unfortunately, mars parts of the experience. Sorting out the headphones took a good twenty minutes after the start time, and the sound effects sometimes produced loud unpleasant noises that disrupted the storytelling. The transmitter seemed at times to turn itself off. For a piece that relies on immersion, the tech issues proved distracting. Still, when the tech works, the walk offers a one-of-a-kind experience. Uncle Dad is a charismatic character discovering the second act of his life. We feel a dear tenderness towards Uncle Dad when he finally breaks free and leans into his sense of wonder. In that short hour, hopefully, so have we learned to take pause and enjoy the world around us. 

Writers and Performers: Michelle Madsen and Lizzy Shakespeare 
Site Specific Performance Mentors: Silvia Mercuriali, Nigel Barret & Louise Mari, Darren O’Donnell, Greg Wohead 
Field Recording and Sound Mentor: Kate Carr 
Live Sound: Thomas Mayer 
Outside Eye Berlin: Shai Cohen 
Outside Eye UK: Rachel Gay 
Costume: Lena Boeckmann 
Dramaturgy: Maria Hüber 
Production Consultants: The Uncultured 
Images: Abel Steen 
Video: Vincent Jondeau/Michelle Madsen/Lizzy Margereson 

The Rewilding of Uncle Dad has concluded its run at the Bold Theatre.