HOME

HOME starts, fittingly, with its creator and main performer, Geoff Sobelle, nailing together part of the structure that will become the house and setting for an extended one-act performance. In an entertaining use of black screen and lighting, the set is built before our eyes. Multiple characters then populate the stage, appear from nowhere, pop out of cupboards and refrigerators, share beds and then disappear. They perform the same actions – wake up, shower, go to the toilet (!), pass each other on the stairs, take out laundry baskets and get ready for the day. It’s dealing with the mundane but in a lively start for a show that promises to be: “A visual physical spectacle [combining] dance, illusion, live music, home-spun engineering, and an inventive use of audience interaction.”

The performers are energetic and hit their choreographed marks. But it doesn’t take long for an uncomfortable feeling of transience to descend. It starts with the appearance of troubadour Elvis Perkins in his white suit and strumming his autoharp. In case we get lost in the dialogue-less landscape, the show employs Perkins as musical narrator. His songs provide a continuity of sorts, and add to the unease – they are a bit off-kilter: they sound like a radio, tuned just off-the-dial, heard from another room. (Dressed in black as a musical desolation angel, he could have performed the role of grim reaper.)

However, while the momentum continues, the plot stalls. There’s DIY without decoration; house-moving sans stress; a house fire with no smoke; nudity, but no sex. The characters overlap but don’t intersect, like cardboard cut-outs. This seems to be the point. Like a flat-pack, pre-fab house – as owner you pour in your own personality. The show’s creator wants us to fill in the gaps with our own experiences. Some viewers were obviously willing and able to do that and absolutely loved the show. But relying on too much technique runs a risk.

Beth Morrison Projects who produced the work are all about innovation, industry disruption, discovering new forms. And, for most of the audience, the overall effect was energising and satisfying. For others this style won’t be enough without the substance of a real connection to the performers or to the theme about ‘home’ and what that means. Without dialogue, everything else must be stronger and work harder: the visuals, the stage illusions, the music, the movement, must all be stunningly succinct – even if you do want your audience to set their own context.

An extended ‘audience participation’ street-party scene, stringing lights and dancing a conga with the appearance of someone in a grim reaper fancy-dress costume was an all-too-obvious coda. At the end, this is a concept with plenty of promise. And I suppose if you have never seen any stage work by Philippe Genty or the films of Jacques Tati, then you won’t miss the magic that could have been. But I really wish that this HOME had had more heart.

Beth Keehn