It's been all quiet on the Dumbshow front for the best part of a year - just as it's been rather too tranquill on the blog as a whole since my review of The Breakfast Club. But now one of my favourite theatre companies, formed out of the genius of Clockheart Boy at the University of Warwick, are bringing their acclaimed creation Electric Dreams to (roughly) my part of the UK.
For those of you who didn't read my preview of the original run of Electric Dreams in 2014, its return to Camden in 2015 or its subsequent appearance at the Edinburgh Festival, the show is inspired by Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine.
The play revolves around Rose, who inexplicably has no recollection of
the first 18 years of her life. Aided by a group of librarians whose
premises are facing imminent closure, she begins a journey of discovery
spanning 1950s mind control experiments, the erosion of the welfare
state and the second Iraq War.
Electric Dreams will be playing at the Dorchester Corn Exchange on July 6 from 8pm, at the Marine Theatre in Lyme Regis on July 7 from 7.30pm, and at Bridport Arts Centre on July 8 from 8pm. If you seriously cannot be bothered to come to the West Country (goodness knows why, it's beautiful), the show will also be performed for six nights at Battersea Arts Centre in London between July 12 and 16. To get tickets follow the links embedded here or visit www.dumbshow.org for more details.
Daniel
Before you accuse me of just giving a plug to my fellow Warwick alumni, I'm not the only one who's been singing the show's praises. Lyn Gardner of The Guardian called it "an ambitious piece
of political theatre", while Dominic Cavendish of The Daily Telegraphy said that it was "told with conviction, theatrical ingenuity and a touching central performance." In an era of big-bucks escapism, political theatre of this intensity and calibre should be celebrated in Britain, and Dumbshow's track record for quality is impeccable.
Daniel
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