CityLife

Spectacular

CURRENTLY celebrating almost a quarter century of being at the cutting edge of British cutting edge theatre, Sheffield-based creative collective Forced Entertainment have been regular visitors to the right side of the Pennines during much of that time and they return now with their new two-hander.

Two-hander? The title’s ironic then? Yes, of course, what else did you expect?

Still under the artistic direction of Tim Etchells, this company-devised piece returns to familiar Forced Entertainment obsessions, in particular, the act of living in the here and now and, more, relevantly in this case, the act of dying, which, in various guises, has permeated their work from way back when.

Skeleton

Dressed in a skeleton costume, a lone performer (Robin Arthur) wanders on stage and begins apologising for the lack of spectacle.

The scenery is missing, there ought to have been a band, other potential performers are absent.

After 15 or so minutes of this prattle, Claire Marshall enters, announces that she wants to do her death scene and proceeds to spend the next hour staggering about weeping and moaning and so on, while Arthur continues his low-key monologue.

How you react to all this is going to be a very personal affair.

Unfathomable

You might – as the company probably hope – find unfathomable depths of meaning about life and death as the elaborate production you might have seen morphs into this minimalist experience that explores the boundaries of theatrical performance.

You might spot what I assume to be the ultimate message, which is – how can we possibly be sitting here wanting to be entertained when the world outside is in such a mess?

And you might think this deliberately tedious experience worth 75 minutes of your time.

Or you might find it an emperor’s new clothes load of excruciatingly boring old twaddle.

Spectacular is at the Contact Theatre until Saturday, November 22. Tickets on 0161 274 0600.

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