Last Seen - Slung Low at The Almeida Theatre

On occasions one does come across a company who would seem to be on the cusp of mainstream success doing something a little different. Slung Low are surely one such company. Winners of the Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust award - which bagged them a slot in The Pit at the Barbican around this time last year with Helium - Slung Low will be back at the Barbican in the Autumn season of BITE09. This performance does bode well for them - it is compelling and innovative while still accessible. While it is far from perfect, this is a different type of theatrical experience and one that seems to advance the site-specific centric innovations in contemporary British theatre.

They claim to be driven by "the intention to use all the technology and resources available to a 21st Century artist to achieve that oldest of artistic aims: to tell a good story". You cannot claim that they do not fulfil either element of this goal, but you do feel there are improvements to be made.

We enter the auditorium of the Almeida Theatre. We are asked if we have a preference. We sit in one of three designated areas, where there are headphones waiting for us. A rather chipper usher named Jeff introduced himself and got us up to speed with the health and safety of the event. We then sit through by far the least interesting element of the evening. They explain every thing at the beginning far too thoroughly. Some rather amateurish graphics (which do not seem to be processing fast enough on the flat screen TVs) roll over while we are very condescendingly introduced to the concept and told not to disrupt the story. There does need, I feel, to be some element of communal trust that we all want the story to succeed and I resented being told to behave myself. I also felt it was unnecessary to be told when the other groups left "This is not your story, wait here and your story will start soon". There are surely more interesting and structural ways to encourage this.

Anyhow, Lolita Chakrabarti in her self-composed monologue held our attention admirably, though it was a slightly breathless performance, and the writing a little expositional and heavy handed. I should at this point make it clear that I saw only one of three stories - Joy - rather than Reason Season Life Time or The Great Bear so some of my observations may be particular to the story I ended up following.

Work like this is not unique. Parrot {in the} Tank, a wonderful young company who may well be in the position Slung Low are in at the moment, held Excursions at the Roundhouse as part of The Accidental Festival 2009. That performance brought you around the central hub of the Roundhouse with a really fun and insightful play on what is happening in front of you and what is happening on the camcorder you are carrying around. That show, while short, played with the form of live and recorded performance in a much more exciting way.

Still, it does have a powerful effect. I was once privileged to attend a silent walk through southeast London. It was fascinatingly powerful to meditate on the city in silence, as a group, seeing things you would normally overlook. It was a three-hour walk that left me feeling invigorated and excited about an area I had found alienating and unpleasant. This performance, at its best, did just that. It also had the added joy of not always knowing what was real and what now (the golden apple core, yes, that must have been part of the performance; the boys on bikes, yes, them too; the couple making out beside our performer, probably part of the performance, but I'm not sure; the girl having a smoke in the park, probably not; the three cans of Stella in the park, maybe; the surprised woman in the Church, I really don't know).

Most of the time it was not so much that we saw the city differently but rather that the city saw us differently. My personal favourite moment was when the Chakrabarti was outside a restaurant with big glass windows. We, across the street, looked and listened intently. Everyone in the restaurant did too. It was a real moment of connection through the glass.

I do feel, though, that these events need to be more poetry than prose. To create a true experience we need to be uncertain of what we are seeing, not always process the symbolism, sometimes fail to understand. The story was incredibly textual and the other sonic and visual elements did support it but did not stand alone. I was not always convinced that the headphones were essential or made us listen differently.

Still, this was a little gem of a performance. Not fully subscribed, which is a real shame, there was a sense of a small community being formed for a short while. We never spoke to one another (the headphones saw to that) but we were connected by a shared experience, and that really does get to the heart of performance.

If you can, get to it tomorrow (12th of July) for performances at 4 and 6pm. Otherwise, watch out for Slung Low in the Autumn at the Barbican. They are definitely worth the look.

- James Grogan