Way Out West, The Sea Whispered To Me – The Greenroom, Manchester

Creators: Cupola Bobber

Reviewer: Katherine Kirwin

The Public Reviews Rating:

Cupola Bobber are a contemporary performance male duo, comprised of Stephen Fiehn and Tyler B. Meyers, from Chicago who have brought their absurdist style to the UK, currently Manchester. The duo, by their own admission, work slowly when creating a new piece of theatre, usually allowing two years for the development of each piece before touring. This lengthy consideration and development is evident in their current work, Way Out West, the Sea Whispered To Me, in the attention to detail and the pace of the piece, which poses the question: why are people so drawn to the sea?

The style of Way Out West was unashamedly absurdist, treading a fine line between pathetic illusion and co-operative illusion, inviting the audience to join them in the pretence that the blue tarpaulin was a wave crashing against the shore, that the giant piece of white tarpaulin is a cloud or is it wave, or is it just a piece of tarpaulin? The pace of Way Out West obviously evolved from a Beckett-ian sensibility, stretching moments of tension and thought until the audience could hardly bear the silence before the duo broke it with a slight of phrase, not exactly a pay-off for the silence, but persuaded the audience to seek the beauty in the delicacy of the moment; the power held by the audience to disturb the silence.

Cupola Bobber’s manipulation of timing and silence was assured and confident, definitely borne out of the lengthy development process the piece had been through. Furthermore, the gentlemanly suits worn by Meyers and Fiehn seemed to be a nod to Waiting for Godot as much as inspired by the work of Gilbert & George.

This piece was not without its failings, there were moments of confusion where I lost my concentration, often allowing the intellectual musings of the pair to wash over me…similar to the waves of the sea. There was not really a peak of action or a coherent plot to the piece, but I believe that there was no intention of one, rather there was a continuing thread of different themes (the sea, nature, male duos: Laurel & Hardy, Morecambe & Wise, Gilbert & George) taking the audience on an ‘adventure’ into the unknown, just like the houses that crumble into the sea.

As a performance duo, Fiehn and Meyer equally enter into the history mismatched, odd pairings combining energetic everyman with pensive inertia; purposefully exaggerating those elements of themselves to create the performative selfs which are the characters of this piece.

There were moments of brilliance and enjoyment; the use of a desktop fan against a microphone, gently revolving, created the noise of the waves crashing with no pretense of illusion; the flexibility of their tarpaulin set to create waves, a diving pool, a cloud, a thunderstorm was just ingenious and highly entertaining in it’s childlike creative way. Fiehns running around the stage semi-naked covered in blue tarpaulin shouting “I’m a storm!” will remain one of the funniest moments I have been part of in a theatre.

Although I thoroughly enjoyed the show and it did give me plenty to think and talk about regarding man’s relationship with the sea, I feel that the production is very cerebral and requires an awareness and appreciation of the contemporary theatre approach, making it quite an exclusive performance; my boyfriend stated that he felt like he was sitting though a theatrical in-joke which no-one had included him in. Fantastic, thought-provoking fun for me, baffling absurdism for him.