Theatre / Reviews
Review: The Hours Before We Wake, Wardrobe
One hundred years from now, we will take a pill that allows us to control our dreams. And in the morning we can upload them and share them with the world. That’s the all-too-feasible premise for Tremolo Theatre’s new show, performed with a cast of four, a minimalist set and a couple of Macs at the Wardrobe Theatre.
Like most good science fiction, the world in The Hours Before We Wake is more of a mirror of today’s society than a genuine prediction of how life will be a century from now. Current trends are extrapolated to their natural conclusion – smartphones that are built into our forearms, absorbing their users just as much as iPhones grip today’s teenagers; unscrupulous corporations that take our personal data and sell it back to us; personal digital assistants with soothing voices who keep us doing what their corporate masters want (who’s Siri now?). Although the show may not have the most substantial story underpinning it, the world it creates on stage is utterly absorbing and believable.
Working collaboratively, the Tremolo team has engineered – and that is the right word – the slickest choreography you are likely to see for a long time, a perfectly meshed routine of constant movement and preparation which never misses a beat, creating a visual universe out of nothing but thin air and three wooden blocks which constantly change position to become chairs, stairs, a lift: a whole world of the future.
The most essential element in creating that world, however, is sound designer Rowan Evans’ soundscape. An almost continuous sequence of electronic bleeps and voices, perfectly cued and perfectly pitched, transforms the bare stage into the world of 2115. It’s both a tour de force of sound design and a brilliant solution for creating a complex setting in the sort of space that a small theatre company can afford, saving the cost of building an expensive set by simply painting perfect pictures in the audience’s mind.
The combination of sound and movement executed with absolute precision by the cast means that The Hours Before We Wake is not only an entertaining evening out, but also an object lesson in how few physical resources are needed to utterly suspend an audience’s disbelief. It should serve as an inspiration to theatre makers with limited budgets everywhere.
The Hours Before We Wake is at the Wardrobe Theatre until February 6. For more information and to book tickets, visit www.thewardrobetheatre.com/livetheatre/the-hours-before-we-wake/
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