Inspired by Theodore Zeldin's book An Intimate History of Humanity and playing at BAC as part of the Burst Festival, Jake Oldershaw's little show is a delightful nugget of theatrical waywardness and invention. I say tiny because each performance lasts less than 10 minutes and is performed exclusively for an audience of one. It is like being serenaded by your own personal troubadour or experiencing an intensely intimate cabaret. All the attention is embarrassing and pleasurable.
On arrival, you are offered a menu and you make your selection from six theatrical dishes with titles such as How Music and Humour Changed Love, The Mayor of Strasbourg's Passions or The Frontiers of Despair. A waiter takes your order and you are ushered into the performance space. Each of the six shows is different in theme and style; each a complete mini saga.
For What It Is to Be Looked At I found myself in a candle-lit restaurant where the cheesy resident crooner, disconcerted by the lack of audience, is having a career crisis. To Be King (Was Once My Dream), was part fairytale and part wistful lament in which I became the love object of a poor fisherman who felt that he had wasted his life. It was like being immersed in a warm blue sea.
It is a bit of a lucky dip, but one of the intriguing things about it is that everyone's experience will be different depending on how they react, and that the intimacy of the event - how often do you get to touch an actor during a show? - makes you feel as if you own the performance.
The ideal thing would to be to do it more than once, or go with friends, each choose a different show, and then swap notes. It's free, but book your slot in advance.
· Until May 14. Box office: 020-7223 2223.
