Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2017 – The Nature of Forgetting *****
Theatre (physical theatre, music)
Tom’s daughter patiently reminds him which jacket and tie he is to wear, today is a special occasion. He is confronted by a wardrobe rail of many garments. Tom is near to loosing his mind as his memories discharge like synaptic shrapnel across the stage.
This mesmeric, multi-platform performance takes us through his fragmenting recollections through mime, music and slow-motion balletic physical theatre. Episodes slide with segued synchronicity where composed music, momentary voices and ambient found-sounds weave a tapestry of complex childhood memories in an ecstasy of articulate fluidity that within an instant transfixed him like psychotic glue.
Classroom furniture are reimagined spacial metaphors, sound effects enhance Tom`s increasing confusion as he becomes entangled in vortices of fragmented discontinuities. His grasp on objectivity slurs, stammers and oscillate as scratch-mix vinyl and wireless station tuning static overwhelms his senses. His nuptial wedding kiss is snatched away – even is love strangled, frozen in perpetual stasis. Dementia – the diminisher of the soul’s own purpose.
Poignant, intelligent and celebratory, the pathos is complemented by elevating wit and fundamental humanity. Conceived and directed by Guillaume Pigé (Tom), devised by the Company, composer/multi-instrumentalist, Alex Judd’s aural expressionism is magical. Katherine Graham’s lighting design might have come directly from the Beyond Caravaggio exhibition currently at the NGS.
Part of British Council Edinburgh Showcase 2017 The Nature of Forgetting renders superlatives near redundant, setting the bar so high this Fringe ’17 that aspirant shows will experience vertigo in the matching. Today is Tom’s birthday – he is fifty-five. He blows out the candles on the cake. We all know much more is being extinguished. The wardrobe rail is ransacked and scattered – it is Tom’s grasp of self being stripped asunder. Utterly unmissable.
Interview with Theatre Re –
Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33. 12:00. 1 hour 15 minutes. Suitability: U
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on#q=%22The%20Nature%20of%20Forgetting%22