Image credit: Georgiana Ghetiu
Written and Conceived by Ali Matthews
The Aldridge Studio, The Lowry
Dreamy, disquieting and dystopian are some of the words that come to mind watching this striking and playful production. Creator Ali Matthews and her fellow performer Tom Halls open the doors to their playroom and it is a dark and unsettling place. There are moments where they create an uncomfortable voyeurism seemingly a couple with a predilection for quirky game playing…other times it is like watching Hanzel and Gretal going feral in a bleak forest where a fox masquerading as Granny would be a veritable walk in the park!
This darkly funny eco horror blends hypnotic and poetic story telling with B-Movie zombies, plastic baby dolls gleefully spored out like jizz, decaying animals and soothsaying crows. Clever and wonderfully weird Matthews looks at cycles of fertility, birth, death and decay by literally immersing herself in the ground and becoming one with the kingdom of the mushroom. This production is literally oozing concepts and ideas and in many ways feels like a serious of improvised theatre games where Matthews and Hall are egging each other on to new creative extremes. The results are utterly bonkers at times but the two performers are so slyly charming and engaging it is impossible not to be won over by this freakish new world unfolding on stage.
Image credit: Georgiana Ghetiu
This third world of the Fungi is imagined by set designer Ruta Irbite using what seems like acres of crumpled dark brown tarpaulin and stark trees seemingly formed from a merging of bare branches and human and animal bone. There is magic in this set as the performers forage and root in the ground and props keep appearing like rabbits from a magicians hat. Baby dolls, crows, lengths of intestine like gauze, pigs heads all emerge from this primordial earth and even the performers seem swallowed up at times.
Strange and otherworldly yet accessible our world collides with this third kingdom as the intrepid pair explore the forming of lichen, the intoxicating stench of truffles and the slow decay delighting the oyster mushroom while referencing Zombies, Linda Blair and disposable nappies. Both central performances are perfectly pitched with Matthews at times bewitching and enchanting then childishly demanding. Halls is delightfully quirky and clearly relishing this darkly playful role. There is genuine charisma between them which makes the scenes where they are literally as ‘one’ work very effectively.
Mushrooms may indeed hold the key to our future survival as they are so highly adaptable. We are continually learning more about their secret world and this production is certainly a loving homage to the magic of Mushrooms and may possibly have been inspired by the ingestion of a few of the more magic ones!!
Live Art Alive 