For a sign of what happens when the avant garde stops taking risks, look no further than this collaboration of European troupes Derevo and Akhe, and Conflux, Scotland's new street arts and circus initiative. Space and how theatre can reimagine it is the only successful element of this piece, which gathers the audience for a bit of video and oil-drum percussion before dispatching us on a series of Blake-ish journeys through the doors of perception to find the self.
Told of a woman who divests herself of all clutter except eight objects (a skull, a rose, a book and an apple among them), we then choose to enter one of several doors bearing names such as Cloudless Blood or Thunderstorm Adam's Apple. Here you are either led on a hunt for an object, or watch a performance that features them. A book becomes a shower-head bathing a woman in sand and light; a red wine stain creeps across a bed; a faun kisses a silver skull. You get the chance to pass through three different doors (so nobody can see the entire cycle in a single visit), emerging back into the central area either enlightened or puzzled.
Perhaps my choices were rubbish, but I fell into the latter category; and puzzlement turned to irritation when we were told the objects are of no consequence; that all that matters is living life in the moment. I could have just stayed home and turned on Oprah to be told that.
Yes, there are some beautiful images – I'd advise taking the gate option – and I don't doubt the integrity of the performers, but the whole thing feels like a hastily assembled mirage. The audience is asked to put a lot in, but gets a load of banalities in return.
