“I’m not a criminal, I don’t know what laws I’ve broken” was my response when I was ‘arrested’ as part of this reality show-style production . I think the police believed me, or at least sympathised. My lawyer, Mr Huld, did not.
Welcome to theatre without boundaries. The evening began in the reception of the Department of Digital Privacy at Shoreditch Town Hall. I waited for my appointment.
Real-world theatre, such as Future Cinema, specialises in putting on fantastic shows and initiating audience participation. The Trial is an experimental interpretation of Franz Kafka’s novel, adapting its themes of remote, inaccessible authority for a modern audience.
But unlike other real-world theatre productions, there is no audience. It’s incredibly intimate and certainly not for the faint hearted.
After waiting in the reception for 15 minutes, the steely-eyed secretary calls my name. I head downstairs to be left alone in a dank basement.
I step into a ruined room. Strewn papers and overturned desks litter the floor while a TV flickers showing a looped video of a man talking about subjects I don’t understand.
I could have waited in that room for a while — I’m sure many do — but instead I decide to test the illusion. I try the doors and walk through one to find a lit fire in a back alley.
A klaxon sounds just before I consider rapping on a residential door. A woman comes outside as I’m poking around some dustbins. She tells me I should not have been in that room.
An enforcement officer then pushes me against a wall before arresting and charging me. After this I meet a useless lawyer and his seductive assistant before a shocking death concludes the show and I’m left with a vague understanding of how law works.
It dawned on me while searching for a lawyers office in East London that I’d completely lost perspective. When did the performance begin? When would it end? Were the cars and cyclists meandering around the street real or part of the illusion?
Retz have perfectly captured the feelings of confusion and illusion that experimental theatre induces. And I’m not off the hook, my court date is set for early April.
4/5 Stars
