Theatre review: Amusements, Summerhall (Venue 26), Edinburgh

By JOYCE MCMILLAN
Published on 24/08/2012 16:46

WE ENTER a modern basement lecture theatre where large, soft headphones lie on the desk in front of each seat.

Amusements

SummerhalL (Venue 26)

Star rating: * * *

We follow the instructions, put them on, and the technology works like a dream: in moments, we are immersed in the sound-world created by the acclaimed young English-Spanish performance group Sleepwalk Collective.

We breathe, we travel, we find ourselves on a beach, while performer iara Solano Arana speaks breathily or with sudden harshness into a microphone, leading us on. Sometimes there is darkness, and sometimes we are allowed to watch her, standing in front of us in a red dress, then beginning to slip off her underwear, as if she was about to plunge into the sea.

So it’s a high score for technical merit, in Sleepwalk Collective’s latest 45-minute piece, Amusements, but alas the artistic impression soon wanders down a cul de sac, as the text dwindles into a circular theoretical meditation on the nature of the audience, as a living, breathing, sentient voyeur. And by the end, Solano Arana is making sweeping statements about how bored we all are by our lives outside the theatre, and how sexy we all are when we are in it, that seem at best presumptuous and at worst, given how boring some of this show is, downright inaccurate.

• Until 26 August. Today 5:45pm.