Theatre/Film review: Super Night Shot

THERE'S a strange tension built into Anglo-German theatre group Gob Squad's long-running instant cinema project. Having taken to the streets of whichever city they're mounting their production in an hour before screening the end results, the four-person team conclude the shoot by filming themselves re-entering the venue while the waiting audience cheer them on like conquering heroes. It guarantees their single-shot film '“ shown on four adjacent screens with a live sound mix (a concept borrowed from Mike Figgis's Timecode) '“ has a triumphant final scene. Sadly, however, Super Night Shot's first Scottish outing '“ which took three attempts to get working '“ wasn't especially deserving of the preemptive whoops.

Reacting to real drama didnt seem within Gob Squads grasp

The Arches, Glasgow **

Brought to Glasgow by The National Theatre of Scotland, what sounded in theory like a unique blend of theatre and film played out more like a pleased-with-itself theatre troupe’s outdated idea of cutting-edge cinema. At its best, it served up a few accidentally beautiful shots of the city.

At its worst, it revealed Gob Squad to be thoroughly ill-equipped to react to anything genuinely serious – as happened when two of the cast separately skipped past an ambulance crew attending what looked like a body lying on the street: a grim irony given they were making a superhero film.

True, sections of the capacity crowd did cheer throughout, but in a city that provided Under the Skin with a memorable backdrop for Scarlett Johansson to target unsuspecting members of the public, Super Night Shot felt like it had passed its sell-by-date.

ALISTAIR HARKNESS