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Theatre: Golem | The Young Vic

Golem is a thoroughly modern play which probably isn't for everyone (I saw at least 6 people get up and leave before the first half hour was up). It runs for 90 minutes with no interval, and showcases dance, music and performance art in an original way. At one point the characters perform in an 80s synth-punk band called Annie and the Underdogs, which I can't get out of my head a week later. There are moments of laugh-out-loud hilarity mixed in throughout the play. I can't fault the script or storyline but I can understand how the style of the performance could grate on people. In fact there were moments where, despite my fondness of quirky theatre, I felt on edge from the offbeat pacing and (deliberate) awkwardness of the characters.

However, if you can get past those minor points, Golem is a brilliantly original piece of theatre. The play is all about technology, and an impressive amount of digital technology is used by animator Paul Barritt in realising the set's hand drawn, analogue look. The actors interact throughout the play with a projected two-dimensional set with a number of doors and windows hidden amongst the screen. This interaction is close to flawless- an impressive display from theatre company 1927's actors who are adept practitioners of physical theatre and dance. A polished live soundtrack which ranges from warped jazz to 80s synthesisers keeps the bizarre atmosphere going.

 "move with the times or you'll be left behind!"

1927 have been making a name for themselves in the world of rather surreal theatre since they proved a big hit in the 2007 Edinburgh Fringe with a collection of warped fairytales called Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea. It's taken four years for this play to come to fruition and it's no wonder why considering the perfect interplay between the real and the virtual.


The entire play is surreal, but leads me to remember the last play I saw with such interaction between the actors and their projected set. This was at Laterna Magika in Prague - another baffling display, created to take your mind on a magical, gently dizzying journey.

The story centres around Annie Robertson and her brother Robert, the archetypal nerd and early adopter of any technology available to him. His inventor friend creates Golem - "a man made of clay who can only obey" who utterly changes his life. Initially the hulking clay oaf proves to be somewhat useful, and soon his inventor friends business is snapped up by a mysterious corporation which soon finds a way of gradually updating our lovable Golem. He gets faster, more efficient, and seems to know what Robert wants before he does. But is this really what Robert wants?

It is not just an audio-visual journey we are taken on this time; our collective intellects are stirred to ask "do we control technology, or does it control us?". Various parts of the work heavily hint towards today's technology giants- Apple, Google in particular. We are told many times by the grandmother character, swept up in the wake of Roberts new devices, to "move with the times or you'll be left behind!".

I can see a certain irony as I write this on an iPad which is fully linked up to the Google ecosystem. The play serves as a clear reminder of what we all know- we are giving away our personal information, desires and needs all the time to huge companies, with the trade off that they make a few of our daily tasks a little smoother and sleeker. This play is perhaps more powerful as it puts us in an alternative reality where there isn't a mobile phone or computer; it pokes fun at our reliance on technology without a reference to those devices we are so reliant on in 2014. 

Golem is playing at the Young Vic, Waterloo until 31st January. Tickets here

 Here's a link to the young vic's trailer: http://youtu.be/QQO2eOeCedQ

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