Helen Herbertson & Ben Cobham @ Secret Location(!)
6:30pm, Tue 2 Mar 2004
Score: 8
Short Review: Exquisitely subtle
The description in the Fringe Guide was sooooooooo attractive: “You are taken to a secret location, eat and drink a small exotic treat, enter pitch black, silence, as light grows you see a figure moving in the distance.” How could I not attend this event?
After jumping in a mini-bus (driven by lighting designer extraordinaire Ben Cobham), we were taken well outside the CBD to a shed in suburbia. Inside, after letting our eyes adjust to the absolute, inky blackness, we were guided to a small seating area. A bite-sized piece of polenta & mango, a snifter of Brooks Brothers muscat, and the actual performance began.
As with Herbertson & Cobham’s production in ff2002, Delirium, the lighting is really the star of the show. Every aspect of the performance (both lighting and movement) was exquisitely paced, with an utterly unique mood being generated over the three acts of the piece. And a real surprise in store for the ending, too :)
Back out of the darkness for the mini-bus ride home, and the experience is complete. No aspect of this event was “sharp” – but everything about it was carefully calculated, allowing to subtleties of each element to collect into a single, wonderful experience. I’m so glad I took a chance on this one :)