Forced Entertainment’s latest show continues the Sheffield collective’s preoccupation with deconstructing the nature of theatre and performance. A deliberately inept attempt to tell the history of man in two hours, The World In Pictures explores the comedy of failure with a chaotic montage of cavemen in bad wigs, lusty errant knights, a flurry of fake snow and an interminably dull slide show.
Parodying bad theatre is always a risky strategy and unfortunately Forced Entertainment don’t really pull it off. The piece is not nearly as funny or clever as it wants to be and the conceit soon wears pretty thin.
Every gag is overcooked so your boredom threshold is continually tested, particularly during Gerry Killick’s convoluted monologues that top and tail the piece. The fact that this is a deliberate ploy is no excuse. Indeed, it gives the whole show an air of self-indulgence and although the audience is directly addressed throughout, you sometimes feel you are simply witnessing an extended in-joke.
It is not all bad news though as the show is visually spectacular, offering intricately layered, surreal tableaux and expertly choreographed movement sequences. You can’t fail to be spellbound by the constantly shifting and bizarre images, including a woman being showered with fake snow, a caveman vacuuming a carpet and a Viking lazing in a deck chair.
As a theatre production, The World In Pictures is disappointing but as a piece of live visual art it has a lot to recommend it.
Production information can change over the run of the show.
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