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Writer/Director: Will Adamsdale Reviewer: Jemma Bicknell & Rick Grant The Public Reviews Rating: First assembled in 2006, Will Adamsdale’s The Human Computer enjoyed a run at the Edinburgh Fringe the following year, and here returns to the Battersea Arts Centre for a second showing. Adamsdale’s theatrical resume is extensive, including a Perrier award for his one man show, ‘Jackson’s Way’. The Human Computer is another solo effort with a charmingly ramshackle set fashioned out of cardboard boxes and felt-tip pens. The Human Computer tells the story of our protagonist’s constant struggle with the endless source of infuriation that is the humble desktop PC, blending observational comedy and a healthy dose of audience interaction with self-sufficient theatre. At times pleasing, yet sometimes awkward, the mix of self-deprecating stand up comedy and fantasy tale are woven together to take us on a tour of Adamsdale’s ineptitude at working with technology. This later becomes the source of the action; Adamsdale assumes the role of a classic hero, ‘the chosen one’, because his inability to understand computers makes him immune to the danger of the ‘devil numbers’ – those befuddling clumps of code that zip by every time you start your PC. We follow him through a melodramatic journey inside the computer, making friends with the cursor ‘arrow’ and enemies of the ‘annoying symbols at the bottom of the screen’. The names he assigned to the characters were part of the charm of his offering at the beginning of the show. The audience laughed knowingly as he wittily captured our empathy, relating to phrases all too often heard in the office or even just sat at home. My inner-child marvelled at the cardboard box set when a few surprises were thrown in. Using crafty, yet amusingly shoddy pulley-work, perspective was created above the audience’s heads through the [...]

I’m meeting David Gale outside the red post box by Costa Coffee in the middle of Waterloo Station. The station is my choice but the meeting place his – “Let’s meet by the red pillar box outside Costa’s” he says somewhat conspiratorially “I’ll be the one wearing the long blue overcoat”. Whilst this could be taken simply as practical meeting arrangements, Gale somehow manages to imbue the whole thing with a sense of adventure. I have to stop myself from confirming that I’ll be the one wearing the red carnation. Welcome to the wonderful world of David Gale. Part puckish imp, part earnest documentary maker (more on that later), this gleaming eyed slapstick aficionado is an avant-garde theatre maker with a history of boundary breaking performances under his belt. But he is also a man who is a million miles away from the pretension that often hangs like an albatross around the ‘live’ artist’s neck. Gale is the proud father of the delicious performance package that is David Gale’s Peachy Coochy Nites, a monthly text/image entertainment show at Toynbee Studios where presenters or ‘Coochers’ each chose 20 slides and have 20 seconds to speak about each. In his current show at the BAC Gale has continued his experiments with the short form in Dash Dash Dash, a series of six 25 minute plays produced in conjunction with Wimbledon College of Art where he is a visiting lecturer. Gale was originally given a brief to write a number of short pieces for the student designers to respond to within a pedagogical format. But the quality of work created within this setting inspired him to take these pieces into a professional framework; the culmination of which begins tomorrow with all six shown together in Dash Dash Dash: The Omnibus. The …

Devised/Performed by: Polarbear Reviewer: Honour Bayes The Public Reviews Rating: Whilst the terrain of performance poet Polarbear is a decidedly urban one of cool blue surroundings and computerised flickering descriptions, it is in many ways similar to the simple, barren beauty of the natural ice peaks that play home to his majestic animal namesake. An atmosphere of epic stillness pervades both environments, invoking an immense feeling of inquisitive calm. The Return is an enigmatic mixture of storyboard description and intimate dialogue that skates between environmental invocation and human interaction with a confident élan that defies moment to moment categorisation. Noah has returned from a whirlwind existence in London to a world he used to know like the back of his hand but now seems at once both alien and inherently familiar to him. Quick firing and softly spoken he pads about the stage gently imparting descriptions of names and faces in sentences reminiscent of stage directions as he sketches for us the mundane streets and front rooms of his hometown. A small pause for breath and we move from seeing these places to being in them, our focus drawn to the snatches of delicately laced dialogue mixed with idly used street slang that form the conversations between brothers, ex-girlfriends, mothers and acquaintances long forgotten who pepper Noah’s life. Coming from the eminent Apples & Snakes company, Polarbear is unique in his subtle and suggestive approach towards spoken word performance. Whereas others in this group confidently perform fast paced works of polished brilliance, his pieces leave gaps for the audience to fill within stories that feel as though they are mere glimpses into never-ending worlds, not finalised and complete stand alone pieces. His quietness and speed sometimes make it hard for the audience to catch everything his mellow caramel tone imparts, but in leaning [...]

Nic Rawling is clearly a very passionate man, he oozes enthusiasm and excitement as he talks openly about his work with The Paper Cinema which originally came out of the music scene in Bournemouth. The Paper Cinema are currently performing their 2008 Edinburgh Fringe hit production of The Night Flyer at London’s Battersea Arts Centre, here he talks to The Public Reviews editor John Roberts. You are first and foremost and illustrator, was this always going to be a career choice for you? I never really see myself as an illustrator, but it has always been in the family. My father was an Illustrator for Walt Disney and worked a lot of Mickey Mouse Cartoons, I went off and did a fine art course but afterwards was not really sure if this was the area I wanted to work in, so many jobs followed including a stint as a Gardner. Whilst living in Bournemouth I started to meet and mix with several bands and musicians and over time they started to incorporate my images into their live performances and from then on things started to progress, other than The Paper Cinema I still do freelance Illustration and am constantly looking for commissions – but it was never the plan to become one. Over the past two years you have entered into the theatrical arena – how did this come about? Whilst touring with The Paper Cinema we happened to be doing a gig at the BAC and afterwards they approached us, asking us to create an instillation to be used as part of Punch Drunks – Masque of the Red Death, the piece was King Pest and based on the Edgar Allan Poe story, and from that several other projects and commissions came to light. Working in a theatre environment [...]

By George Orwell Adapted by Blind Summit Reviewer: Marie Kenny For those looking to avoid the silly string and screaming children this festive season, BAC has 1984. Not so full of the joys of Christmas! Audiences may connect this play to Channel 4’s Big Brother which is beamed into our living rooms, but I doubt they’d be expecting the emotional terror described in the book. In a twist from the novel, Blind Summit have created a play within a play. The piece opens with a chorus of uniformed, brainwashed citizen-actors ready to take on their roles in Orwell’s story. Never leaving the stage, the ensemble presents the story of wistful, idealistic Winston; a civil servant wanting to rebel against an all-seeing state. The Ministry of Truth monitor every move and change the past to suit whatever the current governing policy is. For Winston it’s only a matter of time before his illicit romance with Julia is discovered, and the consequences at the end are crushing. However, this particular version of Orwell’s classic does manage to bring a level of humour to the piece, with one particularly memorable sex scene in a field that sticks in the mind. This comic element is blended with an extremely Brechtian feel to the whole piece. Each scene is given a title and narration, from the chorus, an A level teachers dream but as a result it’s not until the very end that we begin to feel for the character’s plight. Rather than the predictable multi-media extravaganza, they’ve opted for a very low tech, minimalist approach- even the spying televisions are made from cardboard. The handful of puppets have cardboard heads and soft bodies, and yet they are manipulated in such a believable, humanistic way. The incredible strength of the production is the physicality and [...]