“The opening night of Gordon Anderson’s ATC production at the ICA was bedevilled by technical problems, which meant that the entire lighting design had to be jettisoned. Even so, it looked ravishing.
Becs Andrews’s 2003 Linbury Biennial prize-winning set consists of a platform covered in black rubber, into which circular holes are cut. To a thumping electro soundtrack , fluoro-clad denizens of clubland gather to dance, and share drugs and fragmented conversations. White balloons rise through holes in the floor, pulsing to the music. Then the cast peel back the rubber floor to reveal a white surface and plug each of the holes with a brightly coloured circle of foam. A couple, dressed in white, step up to the platform to perform a choreographed representation of a one-night stand. Pigment from the foam discs smears over their body and clothes. What we are looking at, we realize is a giant paintbox, and the couple are creating a living artwork in which a potentially sordid encounter becomes beautiful.
This is a reflexive work, without named characters or plot, in which the actors themselves discuss what the play might be about. At its centre is an artist figure, part tortured soul, part clown, whose latest work is a hugh model of a Kinder Surprise chocolate egg – which could mean anything or absolutely nothing” Sam Marlowe