Review: Experimental group turns theatre on its head

It’s hard to describe Karaoke. This apparently simple, one hour-long show by two people on an almost bare stage who speak and act only to prompts to a giant autocue screen projected up for all the audience to see, turns theatre on its head. Who is watching who? Who is controlling who?

What, if anything, are they acting? The text suggests images of alienation, but is it they or us who are alienated. And what from?

Structured like a pop song, with intro, chorus, verses and bridge, the show has all that form’s emotional intensity, but here delivered dead-pan. As with a pop song, the text is pared down to the bone, each word carrying an emotional punch that lasts only as long as it remains on screen and in our heads. The more that is taken out, the more the audience has to put in. So we become part of the performance, acutely self-aware, yet carried along by the strange elusive narrative.

Where does the story take us? It’s hard to say, but having seen it, I feel I have been somewhere that is familiar and strange at the same time. It’s a disconcerting experience.

Sleepwalk Collective are a small experimental theatre group that works between the UK and Spain. Over the years they have developed a reputation for original intimate performances that question the barriers between actors and audience, playing with our expectations.

Karaoke is a weird, fragile, event. Some might find it self-indulgent. I found it intriguing.

Nick Le Mesurier