Theatre
Looney tunes
ANN RANDOLPH spent years as a mental health carer, and from this came an implausibly successful musical cabaret. She talks to Steve Cramer.
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A game show that cautions us about the pointlessness of consumerism? It could only happen in the theatre. Steve Cramer talks to Americana Absurdum’s John Clancy about Fringe First winner CJ Hopkins’ new show SCREWMACHINEIEYECANDY.
o what will yott do tonight?
Watch television‘.’ If you do.
you’ll no doubt remark to yourself how rubbish much of it is these days. Nevertheless. you'll find yourself watching the endless parade of people buying houses or other objects. sweary chefs trying to make entrepreneurship pay in a restaurant. or young business executives trying to show the right spirit not to get fired. Or maybe you'll watch the mystifyingly successful Big Brother. a narrative about boring people competing to win £l()().()()(). All of these shows are stories told by the tnedia to reinforce its ideological message of consumerism. an insistent. repeated injunction to strttggle for material wealth. It is. in fact. astonishing how ideologically similar they are.
But even if you feel you aren’t taken in. if you keep watching. the media is doing its job. keeping you in place in the hierarchy. Your guaranteed passivity in watching this crap is perhaps just as important as its relentlessly ideological content: for as long as you‘re watching. you're transfixed into inaction. and the reality of the world outside is moved away to a safe distance. The philosopher Baudrillard tells us of the all pervasive power of this medium to act as a surrogate for reality. turning its into robotic voyeurs of news services that bring us appalling information. but render us inactive. mediating reality in such a way that we do not act upon w hat we know is true.
Perhaps the perfect formats for representing this debilitating trend of recent decades are game shows and reality TV. These two genres combine alarmingly in the figure of Big Bob. the game show host of .S't'rewmm‘ltine/ l'.‘_\'et'u/1(/.\'. the latest grotesque to be brought to the Fringe by the
barnstorming folk of Americana Absurdum. This outfit have piled success upon success at the Fringe of the last few years. with such pieces as Vomit and Roses. Goner. Horse C ountr)‘ and last year’s Fat/my. combining caustic and observant political satire with the occasional existential question. all wrapped in a witty. fast paced delivery.
The script by (‘1 Hopkins. a Fringe First winner with Horse Country. is about as well-pedigreed as it could be. and Big Bob. played by the splendid David Calvitto. makes for a fascinating cypher of contemporary capitalism. In this piece. the host first confuses. then brutalises his contestants. in a hyperbolic version of a recognisable format.
‘The idea is so simple. which is what makes it so effective. Seeing it in the theatre. in real time. is important. The host. be that George W Bush. be it a capitalist generally. is free to go anywhere. He‘s got a little pulpit up front as well. but he's free to roam about. while the game show contestants are trapped on these little podiums. They look like sacrificial animals in a pen. while this thing circles about. They‘re trying to play the game. but the rules keep changing.‘ explains director John Clancy.
The piece has a classical precedent. and the more Clancy explains Hopkins‘ adaptation of Euripides. the more appropriate the analogy seems: 'The specific tragedy it‘s based on is The Bore/me. with Dionysus coming down and saying. “You don‘t recognise me. you don’t know who I am. so I‘m going to end your world.“ We have forgotten the power of mystery. the power of everything else we should know.
‘We think we know what‘s important: we think we know how to live. We