Invisible Bonfires

Lowry
Wednesday 27th February–Saturday 1st March

Forkbeard Fantasy’s newest production, Invisible Bonfires, takes a fresh look at the issue of global warming, with the aim of educating children about the many different arguments surrounding the hot topic. This initial promise goes sadly unfulfilled and most aspects of the production leave a lot to be desired. It is an entirely painful performance with little discernible plot or message, despite its pretence as educational.

The cast members' unfortunate attempts at humour, which each time failed to miss the mark, punctuated strange show reels that were sometimes vaguely focussed on climate change but often seemed to be a way to fill the time. As a multi media theatre,  Invisible Bonfires uses fifteen projectors and a band. Nevertheless, no amount of lighting effects could hide the bad acting. The live band, the Lotus Pedals, have apparently somewhere lost their artistic integrity on the way and are happy to waste their talent.

The acting might have been just about forgivable if their had been any sort of coherent educational message behind it, especially since the topic of global warming would seem to hold many possibilities for doing so. Unfortunately, any attempt at a serious message is lost in ridiculous scenarios and random appearances of a horse. It is unclear if the cast are aiming to attack global warming or promote globalisation. It seems strange that in a production aimed at children the amount of is swearing deemed appropriate. The only redeeming feature of the entire production was the provision of 3D glasses, which although making no difference to the performance, were a good distraction from its failings.

1/10