THEATRE REVIEW: C-O-N-T-A-C-T ★★★

C-O-N-T-A-C-T

Various Locations, London

Monday 31st August - Sunday 11th August

Split up between three seperate locations around London, with this review coming from Central, just across from London Bridge, C-O-N-T-A-C-T is an immersive, 50 minute production focusing on the life of Sarah (Laura White), who we follow around, listening to her thoughts, as well as her mumbling singing ability, right before encountering a mysterious figure in the form of a man (Max Gold). Without giving too much away, there's more to Gold's character than meets the eye, as we are whisked much further away than our feet can travel, whilst we're planted on the ground.

With the production fully immersed through our ears via an audio provided on a specially built smartphone app, the actors themselves mouth along to the audio with almost perfect unison. It should be noted here that the voices are that of Aoife Kennan and Richard Heap, who would be performing the exact same show, simultaneously in a different location at the time that our audience were watching in Central.

The beauty of an immersive show is the constant changing surroundings that we journey through; on this particularly drowsy evening, the backdrop of the shard glowed with pure bliss as White and Gold interacted with eachother and weaved throughout the settings, whilst Cyril Barbessol's soundscape interjected throughout this idea of a grander scale for the production and it's limits, which was conjured up in Paris, where this production originated years back from the brains of Gabrielle Jourdain and Samuel Senè, with Eric Chantelauze's writing being adapted into English by Quentin Bruno, with a gentle ease that wasn't too difficult to muster.

Overall, C-O-N-T-A-C-T is a visually compelling, two-hander production which pushes the idea of what an immersive show can produce, whilst keeping us grounded on a very religious, spiritual journey between one woman and a mysterious stranger.