The End is High-Concept

The setting is a spaceship, the crew and passengers are a disparate collection of lightly sketched characters, and the computer (with more than a nod to Red Dwarf’s Holly) undergoes a personality change following an update. Comedy is delivered through sketches, distinct narratives told as asides from the main story, with video projection helping to set the scene and give us alternative perspectives. Neither the humour nor visuals are particularly successful.

The collaboration with local digital artists and 3D animators is admirable, and I assume the motion capture to turn an actor into a rabbit or lizard is live, but this is more a gimmick.

Voice projection is poor but even microphones wouldn’t help with the breakneck speed at which these six performers deliver their dialogue. Lines are delivered flat, cues are missed, comic timing is almost entirely absent, and technical issues abound, which interrupts the already messy flow.

There are insightful concepts for the ‘near future’: finding the right avatar for your loved one after death, how robots deal with humour, but they are unoriginal and muddled in their execution. Perhaps with a tighter script, better rehearsal, and more precise technical cues, the humour will rise to the surface.

Mark Wickett

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