Tim Etchells on ›Under Bright Light‹
Themes
On Stage
Under a sky of cool white light six figures in identical blue overalls get to work shifting tables, chairs, ladders and cardboard boxes. Things go from one pile go to another, and from there to another and from there to yet another. Boxes are stacked, tables set down, chairs shunted and then carefully placed. The figures work with determination, heads down, no nonsense but despite their best efforts the task is somehow never completed.
Forced Entertainment’s ›Under Bright Light‹ is a Sisyphean slapstick, a warehouse somewhere in a cartoon hell, a brash video game on a broken loop. Glitch by glitch, error by error, subversive move by subversive move, the machine goes wrong, descending into chaos, reinventing and transforming itself in unexpected ways.
With direction by Tim Etchells, performance by the core group of Forced Entertainment and an original soundtrack by artist and composer Graeme Miller, ›Under Bright Light‹ is Forced Entertainment at its uncompromising best; a dark and unsettling successor to the group’s acclaimed recent works ›Real Magic‹ and ›Out of Order‹, which have together consolidated the ensemble’s reputation for producing compelling, intimate and highly political work from unexpected materials whilst maintaining a commitment to exploring new performance and theatrical forms that both challenge and connect deeply with audiences.
