Today, computers are taking our jobs. At the turn of the 19th century, it was the power loom doing workers out of a living. “Luddite” might now be synonymous with “backward-looking”, but – as Kandinsky’s new show recognises – the machine-smashing radicals of the 1800s hold lessons for another age of automation.
Co-creators James Yeatman and Lauren Mooney stop short of drawing direct parallels with robot workers or zero-hours contracts. Instead, There Is a Light That Never Goes Out stages historical events in a contemporary idiom, inviting connections without pressing them. Actors dress and talk like inhabitants of the 21st century while the story remains rooted in the carefully researched upheavals of 200 years ago.
On and around the tilted red platform of Naomi Kuyck Cohen and Joshua Gadsby’s striking set, an impressive ensemble weave together the frayed threads of historical record. Ghosts stir in the very walls as the actors playfully re-enact an 1812 riot that took place in the Royal Exchange. Manchester’s radical past is reanimated by the roar of disgruntled crowds in Pete Malkin’s complex and ever-shifting sound design.
This is history as storytelling, filling in the gaps left by first-hand accounts. Kandinsky thrillingly evoke the rebellious hearsay of the time, as tales of the luddites pass from mouth to mouth and actors take turns in the heavy hat and coat of the mythical leader Ned Ludd. The air crackles with defiance.
But much like the luddite movement, the show fizzles out in its understated final moments. Abandoning theatricality, the stark finale shrugs its way off the stage, leaving only a lingering question mark over the virtues of apparent progress.
At the Royal Exchange, Manchester, until 10 August.
