[And Then There Was Fun]
Directed by Leo Gene Peters, Security in Numbers, the brand new manufacturing from A Barely Remoted Canine takes the acquainted framework of a locked room thriller and throws away the room.
Created and carried out by Andrew Paterson, Jonathan Worth, Jack Buchanan, Charlie Chignell, Jackson Collier, Tiani Taia Po’ona, Brianna Linkhorn, Eli Lockie, Tane Patterson, and Ruby Wills, Security in Numbers takes the acquainted parts – a bunch of eccentric characters/suspects, a single location, a superb detective, a bodycount – and performs it out at breakneck pace.
The ensemble play a number of characters, by a intelligent mixture of floating backdrops (care of designer Nati Pereira), lighting and sound (Sam Clavis), and a few easy however ingenious transitions (one performer taking part in an interrogation between two characters by the easy elimination of a hat or glasses).
There’s an inherent ridiculousness to tackling a style like this with half the forged and little mise-en-scene, and it’s a part of the enjoyable.
One facet of the present I appreciated was the way it by no means tried to overburden itself with jokes. The presentation is so inherently foolish that usually the funniest moments are when the gamers undergo the acquainted tropes, both by clue-finding, interviewing witnesses or discovering a recent homicide sufferer..
And whereas there may be some back-and-forth with the viewers, for essentially the most half the efficiency is carried with no wink. The inventive group recognise that this materials is funnier whether it is performed extra earnestly.
The present’s different power is that the tempo by no means lets up. There isn’t a sense of repetitiveness or filler scenes.
The one facet of the present that feels a tad extraneous is the interplay with the viewers. Whereas it’s humorous, it’s so peripheral to the efficiency, it feels virtually pointless.
This can be a minor niggle. Security in Numbers is a stable style piece elevated by the inherent surrealism of its manufacturing and a sport forged.
Security in Numbers performs Q Loft 12-17 July 2022.
