Currently running, this festival ends on March 6. The venue is spectacular – a series of underground tunnels just by Waterloo station. The festival features a wide and diverse range of innovative theatre, comedy, music and dance. The emphasis is on new and emerging talent – ‘the next generation of creators’ –  which lends an exciting and ‘happening’ edge.

Last night I saw ‘The Various Lives of Infinite Nullity’ by Clout Theatre. The theme is suicide. Which may not sound like a great night out. But it was. Very much so. I am still thinking about it 24 hours later. Not in a sad, mournful, tragic sense, but partly in a quizzical ‘what was that all about’ sense as well as a ‘looking back in laughter’ sense. At times, it was skittishly funny.

Three characters, all ‘dead’ as a result of suicide, constitute the post-event support group. The performance takes us on a journey – absurdist at times – that veers off on many different paths (sometimes inexplicable but I think that that is actually the point). I was absorbed throughout, electrified by the energy of the actors, jolted (not uncomfortably) by the thematic pirouetting, impressed by the depth of the imaginative leaps, and totally seduced by the courage and fearlessness that the script and actors displayed throughout. Also bizarrely flattered that Clout Theatre believes that people like me might ‘get it’.

I think that I did, but am still reflecting on this. For me, the play highlighted the absurdness of the human condition.We desperately try to control ourselves and our destiny as much as possible. A pointless exercise. In the end, we are all fragile, vulnerable and completely out of control. Which may actually be ok.

 

CQ