Impact Theatre Company, based in west London, has come up with an intriguing and technically highly accomplished play.
Set in an art gallery with well-known (and some less well-known) paintings projected onto the walls, in 10 scenes the production takes us into a world where the paintings become real and events unfold around them.
Each scene is prefaced by a guide bringing a group of visitors into a gallery room and discussing the painting in front of them.
The visitors ask questions and enter into discussions about the image they are viewing and then, as they leave the stage, the image becomes real and we are treated to a short drama that emerges from it.
As each of these pieces concludes and we await the return of the guides with their visitors to another room in the gallery and a fresh painting, a mysterious faceless figure, dressed from head to toe in black, appears on stage dancing then scurrying off just as the new scene begins.
This innovation works supremely well. It keeps the production going and the audience interested as scene changes take place.
But what really stands out in these sections is the quality of the dance – whirling, exciting, confident and dramatic. And there is something about the anonymity that the costume gives that seems to bring out the best in the dancers.
The cast then has great fun with each individual scene as they become part of the themes of the painting in each room.
They begin with a compelling piece constructed around Edvard Munch’s famous, disturbing painting 1893 The Scream. (Incidentally, I visited the Munch Museum in Oslo recently and if you think The Scream is depressing you should try Angst, Death in the Sickroom and Despair for the full misery experience.)
This is followed by a piece constructed and developed by the actors around Belgian artist James Ensor’s rather scary 1890 painting The Intrigue, which features a wedding party of 11 masked figures, two of them holding hands.
Next up is a bar scene inspired by August Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party (1881) in which a bunch of friends are some way in to a boozy get-together at a restaurant by the River Seine.
It’s all very clever and riveting stuff and moves into more modern times with a brilliant urban construction site-themed, hard-hatted dance and music piece, using brooms, dustbin lids and other building site objects as instruments.
There is also a beautifully done – and very funny – evocation of the flower power era complete with yogis, the Woodstock festival, a 1960s soundtrack and other things that hippies used to take very seriously.
The whole evening felt very fresh, admirably ambitious, original and well paced. Impact is to be commended for a very technologically adept production, where the lighting and imagery really drew in the audience and made them believe.
The format of the production enabled a large cast of actors to take part as the tour groups trekked in and out with their guides and as each of the 10 scenes unfurled.
The play began apparently as a sort of variety show with the aim of keeping things simple but the performers developed it into something far more adventurous.
As so often happens when people with learning disabilities get involved in the arts, the performers clearly exceeded expectations and gave the audience something very complex and intriguing to chew on. The actors, singers and musicians – some a combination of all three – all excelled.
It was a great evening where the audience experienced something very ambitious realised smoothly and successfully.
