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Splice - A Theatrical Ode to Cinema

Published Thursday 23 June 2005 at 15:25 by Jason Best

Pants on Fire Theatre takes a hectic and hilarious breakneck dash through a century of movie-making in Splice - A Theatrical Ode to Cinema, which receives its UK premiere at Oh! Art before travelling to the Edinburgh Fringe later this summer.

Previously performed by the troupe Blue Inc. in Canada and the US, the show recalls the Reduced Shakespeare Company’s vaudevillian romps through the classics but has its own a distinctive spirit, achieving its best effects through physical theatre and mime rather than quick-fire gags.

Using a minimum of props, the five-strong company sprint through cinema’s first century, deftly evoking many of Hollywood’s most enduring icons and images - Charlie Chaplin’s tramp, Harold Lloyd dangling off the clock tower in Safety Last, a stone-faced Buster Keaton, Fred & Ginger, Marilyn Monroe and a mumbling Marlon Brando.

They brilliantly distil the essence of three classic Alfred Hitchcock films into a handful of tableaux - the shower scene from Psycho, of course, a witty précis of the plot of The Birds and a virtuoso abridgement of Vertigo. The latter climaxes with a recreation of the famous visual effect whereby Hitchcock conveyed James Stewart’s disabling fear. How do they convey this tricky forward zoom and reverse tracking shot? With a bundle of broom handles.

The company reduces Steven Spielberg’s oeuvre to bite-sized chunks and condenses the convoluted narrative and mythology of the original Star Wars trilogy into a five-minute burst of close-harmony singing a la Manhattan Transfer. Yoda becomes a green oven mitt.

Bringing things up to date, the performers wittily convey the gravity-defying martial arts choreography of such films as The Matrix and Hero with some nimble and satiric mime.

The movie references come so thick and fast that the spectator is left dizzy. You don’t need an encyclopaedic knowledge of cinema to enjoy the show but film buffs will be in heaven.

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