Walk into West Yorkshire Playhouse before June 5 and you'll find it hard to decide whether you're at a play, a club or even a pop concert. It's been transformed into The Chameleon, a pulsating nightspot complete with huge video screens and hip-hop band and all for an innovative production of Q's internet novel.
Mingling with gyrating dancers and cast members who appear to be part of the crowd, the audience becomes part of the show. Stranger still, characters exist both onstage and on video screen, with dialogue taking place between the two. A real bar (mine's a Budweiser) completes the effect of truly interactive theatre.
The plot is simple. A serial killer is stalking paedophiles using the internet and, suspected of involvement, Clarkie (played by writer Q) must cruise cyberspace to clear his name. In doing this, he unwittingly becomes a potential victim; his race against the clock and the killer's knife takes place against a labyrinthine backdrop, taking in everything from the underworld of east London to the NYPD.
All manner of undercurrents emerge sex, drugs, religion, ethics but with so much going on, the production lacks pace and its middle section is flabby and confusing. More disappointingly for a play dealing with a powerful subject, Deadmeat doesn't disturb as much as it should do.
One superbly chilling moment a video screen shows a teddy bear wearing an I Love You T-shirt while another is spattered with blood hints at a potential not entirely tapped. Much of this changes with a compulsive final half hour which zips along with some gigantic Web images, aching suspense and two unexpected plot twists. Pick of a vibrant cast is Nina Sosanya, erotically imposing as the carnally duplicitous lawyer Melanie. Undoubtedly brave and experimental, Deadmeat just needs some judicious editing.
