*Camden People's theatre, London*
Kindle's double bill fuses theatre and music: Lady GoGo Goch transforms Welsh heritage with a loop pedal, while A Journey Around My Skull evokes every slice of a knife during surgery
For a theatregoer who also revels in musical experiment, these two pieces from Birmingham-based theatre company Kindle are a joy. The first, Lady GoGo Goch, has one of Kindle's three artistic directors musing on her Welsh heritage through folk, pop and choir songs, plus a few playful parodies of national stereotypes. Sam Fox first appears shrouded in a woollen shawl, nattily clog-dancing and ululating sounds that slowly converge into syllables. With black wig and saucy dress, she transforms into an incorrigible Shirley Bassey; stripping again, she becomes the dark soul of Tom Jones's Delilah. Her collaborator, musician Ricardo Rocha, uses loop pedals, guitars, violin bows and slices of slate to envelop her in sounds that pulse and moan. Not all of the characters or cultural reference points are recognisable, and the atmosphere of the stories is clearer than the content – but Fox's humour and passion, and Rocha's virtuosity, are unmistakable.
Another co-director, Olivia Winteringham, takes over for A Journey Around My Skull, a tale of unrequited love between a Hungarian neurosurgeon and her patient – a role fulfilled by the audience. The tale unfolds slowly and gently until we're taken inside the patient's brain during surgery; not only does Iain Armstrong's sound design, heard through headphones, agonisingly convey every slice of the knife, every shiver through the cells, but the extent of the neurosurgeon's sexual obsession becomes icily apparent. Again, atmosphere is stronger than narrative, although the comic set piece in Budapest's Gerbeaud cafe is delightful, all brandished butter-knives and china smashed. It's the careful interweaving of the patient's auditory hallucinations that most impresses, not least in subtly undermining trust in the surgeon. Similarly astute is the recognition of how easily ill people become defined by their symptoms, the individual beneath disappearing from view.
• Did you catch this gig – or any other recently? Tell us about it using #GdnGig
Rating: 3/5 Reported by guardian.co.uk 13 hours ago.
Kindle's double bill fuses theatre and music: Lady GoGo Goch transforms Welsh heritage with a loop pedal, while A Journey Around My Skull evokes every slice of a knife during surgery
For a theatregoer who also revels in musical experiment, these two pieces from Birmingham-based theatre company Kindle are a joy. The first, Lady GoGo Goch, has one of Kindle's three artistic directors musing on her Welsh heritage through folk, pop and choir songs, plus a few playful parodies of national stereotypes. Sam Fox first appears shrouded in a woollen shawl, nattily clog-dancing and ululating sounds that slowly converge into syllables. With black wig and saucy dress, she transforms into an incorrigible Shirley Bassey; stripping again, she becomes the dark soul of Tom Jones's Delilah. Her collaborator, musician Ricardo Rocha, uses loop pedals, guitars, violin bows and slices of slate to envelop her in sounds that pulse and moan. Not all of the characters or cultural reference points are recognisable, and the atmosphere of the stories is clearer than the content – but Fox's humour and passion, and Rocha's virtuosity, are unmistakable.
Another co-director, Olivia Winteringham, takes over for A Journey Around My Skull, a tale of unrequited love between a Hungarian neurosurgeon and her patient – a role fulfilled by the audience. The tale unfolds slowly and gently until we're taken inside the patient's brain during surgery; not only does Iain Armstrong's sound design, heard through headphones, agonisingly convey every slice of the knife, every shiver through the cells, but the extent of the neurosurgeon's sexual obsession becomes icily apparent. Again, atmosphere is stronger than narrative, although the comic set piece in Budapest's Gerbeaud cafe is delightful, all brandished butter-knives and china smashed. It's the careful interweaving of the patient's auditory hallucinations that most impresses, not least in subtly undermining trust in the surgeon. Similarly astute is the recognition of how easily ill people become defined by their symptoms, the individual beneath disappearing from view.
• Did you catch this gig – or any other recently? Tell us about it using #GdnGig
Rating: 3/5 Reported by guardian.co.uk 13 hours ago.