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What is theatre without it being something that stretches the norm. That’s what Institute, currently at The Liverpool Playhouse, certainly does, right from the moment the lights suddenly drop to descend the auditorium into darkness … and there’s another appropriate term for what ensues. Darkness.
A semi-play/ semi-physical theatre exploration of what it is we – all of us – need on an emotional level, there is very definitely a lot to talk about. The lights and the music for one. Layer upon layer of hallucinogens seem to flood The Playhouse for a little over an hour, as the cast of five in languages varying in turns from French, to English, to German, to Italian and all points in between, take us on a frantic flight of fancy.
Then there is the interactive set, which truly deserves to be crowned magnificent. It’s facier filing cabinet drawers and cupboards become harbingers of doom and joy in equal staves, whereas the use The of props is almost balletic to witness. The choreography is marvellous and suits the action to a tee.
Yet whether it fits the scenario is another thing altogether.
There’s the man under pressure to exceed. The man torn between the reality of his banality and his fettered, fruitless search for feminine recognition. The man in charge who is anything but. The man who conjoins everything by simply accepting whichever role he is given. All of them are singular. All of them equally troubled. All of them startlingly portrayed. All of them integral to each other’s “existence” without being integral to anything but themselves.
The energy being expunged is as admirable as it is undeniable and that the message of understanding of each individual’s mental state is important. Yet what comes across is something that somehow tries too hard to sit just the correct side of self-righteous.
Yes, there are some moments of humour, tenderness, empathetic connection and virility. There are also moments, however, of pretentiousness that dilutes the overall objective.
Institute
The Liverpool Playhouse
November 15 – November 19, 2016
Producer: Rosalind Wynn / Gecko
Creator: Amit Lahav
Cast: Chris Evans, Amit Lahav, Ryan Perkins-Ganges, Francois Testory
Running Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
PR Rating: *** Memorably Needy