The Window Company @ Bakehouse Theatre
2:00pm, Wed 27 Feb 2008
Yay! A matinee! Boo! A bunch of school groups! And Matt Byrne, turning up 15 minutes late for a show. Again. I’ve never seen that man arrive on time.
Despite the veiled promise of something deeper, The Window tells a rather telegraphed tale of a woman on a quest for her self. A disrupted upbringing, unplanned pregnancy, and failing relationship see her desperate for answers – for who she is, where she came from, and whether she can maintain the life she’s chosen to lead.
While it’s a simplistic tale, the production is anything but. A large screen is used to display pre-recorded media, live digital camera feeds (from cameras positioned on props), and even rear-projected shadows. Three rails radiating from backstage allow sets of props to be easily slid into place between scenes. There’s puppetry, live voiceovers… a trivial production this is not.
But it all comes to naught. The drama is so overwrought, so predictable, that most of the enjoyment is gleaned from analysis of the production. The multimedia aspects are really well done, with beautiful audio and visual cues used to convey movement, impart feeling. It’s just a pity that the story is so passive and unengaging.