I Guess If The Stage Exploded...

Every theatre-maker wants to make an impact and have their show remembered by the audience but German theatre performer Sylvia Rimat has gone one step further with I Guess If The Stage Exploded....

Her desire to create an unforgettable show, quite literally, has turned an hour of theatre into a series of remembering exercises. With a vein of airy comedic charm running through her set pieces, Rimat brings her audience into the show by giving them tasks dedicated to burying the show deep into the long-term memory storage centres of the brain.

Throughout the show authoritative sounding voiceovers give a more analytical analysis of memory and seem to contradict Rimat’s desire to make this particular memory stick. To help her in her quest she employs a number of techniques including Skype conversations with people overseas, a Bauhaus-inspired dance wearing a lampshade, and a rather adorable brown owl who stays around to meet his fans after the show.

Rimat explores an interesting idea but it’s an idea that can never be tested. There’s no way of measuring if her audience now has this show etched forever in their memory, leaving the whole exercise feeling a little too much like the audience is a hamster running purposelessly around a wheel.

Reginald Theatre, Seymour Centre (finished)