Spooky goings on, disembodied voices and household items gaining their own personalities … Gash Theatre are back, and this time they are getting ghosted by pop-culture masculinity and patriarchal norms.
This film builds on their signature style of multimedia and interdisciplinary theatre to bring serious chills to Maddie Flint and Nathalie Ellis-Einhorn’s day. The production values are very high, making this work as both theatre and virtual stream.
Things are familiar, but not in the places you would expect them: it’s all very unnerving. The montage of romantic scenes from films have a nightmarish quality as they flicker in snowy images in a darkened room. Objectification in action. On the surface this film seems inconsequential, but there is a lot more going on behind the scenes. This is clever stuff.
Gash bring together such a rich tapestry of images and suggestions that their shows veer from disturbing to hilarious. They can never be accused of being boring; they always provoke and challenge with their female, queer narrative.
Whether performing to the camera, staging curious scenes which aren’t quite realistic, or knocking against the door of respectability, this company have it covered.
Gash Theatre Gets Ghosted is baffling, inventive, and scary. If you’ve ever been stuck in a room, seen shadows in the dark, or believe in the supernatural, you’ll get sucked into this strange world.
You can take away from a Gash Theatre production anything you want. There is a sense of the playful and the ridiculous (an overfamiliar song takes on new meaning), but underneath there is something much more unsettling: about control, coertion, communication.
The creative team deserve a nod: sound designer Sam Kaseta; videographer Kristina Pringle; production manager Amy Daniels; puppet master Amy Mawer. All add something tangible to what we see on screen, and their work is exemplary.
You can watch Gash Theatre Gets Ghosted until 24 April 2021 via Camden People’s Theatre – book here.
Read my November 2020 review of Gash Theatre Makes A ThirstTrap, which is also available through CPT until 24 April.