Taylor's Dummies

By Robert Iles - 7th Jul 2005

Gecko's "Taylor's Dummies" is a piece of devised physical theatre looking at male desire. Reminiscent of De La Guarda (loved that show) this is high energy performing at its best - exciting, inventive and energetic. That's about all I can say, not because there wasn't a lot going on but because, quite literally, I was unable to see the show. Fourth row back in The Tobacco Factory left me unable to see anything below shoulder level on the performers, a shame as so much of the show is played at he crouch, sat and on the floor .... this wasn't helped by the fact that much of it is played close to the front row, meaning that it was almost completely lost to much of the audience whose heads swayed the whole time like a forest in a storm as they deperately tried to find a gap between the people in front in order to glimpse a bit of the movement. Of course, there is also the flown element of the show, well above head level but by that time so out of context as to be pretty meaningless. Oh, and the standing parts were, for me, often behind a pillar. I have never in my life seen so little of a show I have attended, even from "restricted view" seats.

To quote from their press release "Since our work is visual, the space itself is intrinsic to the performance. So much of what you see and hear has been created specifically for the space you are seeing it in. Hmm. Does the phrase "check the sight lines" not mean anything?

A shame, I normally love this sort of theatre ... but I just can't say I saw it enough to review it.