Hopeless Games
@ Union Hall
2:00pm, Sat 2 Mar 2002
Score: 8
Short Review: Curious
Groo, what an interesting piece of work. For some reason I seem to be getting myself into a whole bunch of dance and physical theatre stuff this ff, and this is one of the more visually impressive.
“Hopeless Games” opens with some interesting theatrical tricks, and winds up with a neat “russian roulette”-type scene. The second piece is a superb piece of physical theatre – the miming is superb, and the players look positively wretched (as befits the ghosts they have become). There’s also a clever suitcase fight(!), and the balloons of the final piece are a neat touch.
Interspersed thoughout the work is several short films, which themselves lend a feeling of hopelessness to the proceedings – neverending staircases, train tracks, et al. The last bit of film of fireworks projected over stage fog to which the performers exit the stage, does seem a little trite and indulgent, however.
In short – yep, this was visually appealing, and well worth a look. However, it was missing something that stopped it from being truly exceptional.