The Ticket

Published on Sunday 22 April 2007 01:26

Futurology - A Global Revue

SECC, Glasgow, Wednesday, April 11

****

NOT for the first time, Suspect Culture has split the critics. Depending on what paper you read, Futurology: A Global Revue is either a four-star triumph or a one-star flop. On balance, I give it the thumbs-up - it's too original in form, too slick in execution and too well performed to dismiss out of hand - but not before acknowledging its shortcomings.

Devised by the Glasgow company's international team of associate artists, the show imagines a two-day Kyoto-style conference on climate change in which the delegates must bash out a statement upon which they can all agree. While the bureaucrats get sidetracked by pleasures of the flesh, an unfortunate delegate from the sinking Sandwich Islands tries to precipitate a change in policy that will save her home.

But by giving her story a central place in the show, directed by Graham Eatough in a co-production with the National Theatre of Scotland, the company runs into a contradiction. The intention behind Futurology: A Global Revue was not to offer an analysis of the global warming debate, but rather, in this company's characteristically postmodern style, an analysis of the analysis.

What they actually offer is the story of a woman, played with clownish daffiness by Angela de Castro, whose home and culture is destroyed as a result of global warming. That's a narrative too weighty to sit alongside a light-hearted send-up of conference etiquette and an ironic commentary about how confusing we find all those troublesome eco-theories. In this context, the company's political ambivalence is frustrating to the point of irresponsibility.

But if - and clearly it's a big if - you can live with a show that has the taste of topicality without the substance of real politics, Futurology: A Global Revue is a novel and entertaining piece of theatre that deserves to be seen.

What makes it stand out is its juxtaposition of the 21st-century conference with the altogether less cerebral world of cabaret. Underpinned by Nick Powell's excellent live score, the show is continually inventive, always witty (though less frequently laugh-out-loud funny) and boasts strong, self-contained performances. The crunch point is to do with whether the show is about society's decadence as doomsday approaches (the ghost of pre-war Berlin cabaret looms large) or whether, in its detachment, it is decadent in itself. Either way it is an extraordinary piece of theatre, even if it will be remembered more for its form than its content.

Touring to Aberdeen Exhibition Conference Centre (0870 040 4000), Wednesday to Saturday, 8pm. www.nationaltheatrescotland.com