“Forced Entertainment’s Signal to Noise is a perfectly baffling wash of delightful creative absurdity“
Celebrating their 40th anniversary, Forced Entertainment’s Signal to Noise at Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth hall is a provocative, perplexing, funny, absurd piece of performance that challenges its audience in the same breath that it makes them laugh, cultivating an experience that feels somehow communal, even if we have no idea what is going on.
Robin Arthur, Richard Lowdon, Claire Marshall, Cathy Naden, Terry O’Connor, and Seke Chimutengwende fill the stage with almost non-stop movement. Racks of clothes line the edge of the performance space, the performers flitting to and fro, constantly changing outfits, including an impressive set of hilariously unfortunate wigs. There are a variety of props and set pieces, suggesting a living space; indoor plants, tables, a ladder, seats, an armchair or two. Other surprising items seem to pop out of thin air, such as buckets and bottles of wine. The performers never speak themselves. Instead, they lip sync pre-recorded audio performed by AI-generated voices. The borderline-insipid, almost-human quality of the audio conjures up an uncanny valley-like experience for the viewer, watching these actual humans who somehow sound not quite human perform fragmented speech with mysterious gleaming smiles on their faces. The text occasionally makes sense, but mostly features repeated snippets of conversations, lulling and dragging onwards. Voices overlap, two characters lip sync one voice simultaneously, characters break off and continue within their own little world. The production conjures up the feeling of a dinner party turned on its head.
Performers interact with the dexterity of actors who have indeed worked together for the past few decades. There was an unspoken understanding and collaborative essense between the performers, and they weaved between each other with unbelievable swiftness, creating moments of exquisite alliance. Despite the shared dialogue and lack of linear narrative push, each performer had their own distinct persona. They each seemed to be telling their own story while also conveying a larger message. What exactly that message is remains up to the viewer.
Each viewer might take something entirely different away from this show. It can be inferred that Signal to Noise centres on how we communicate. How we truly speak with one another is often with fragmented, meaningless, regurgitated ideas. How often do we truly sit down and speak openly, honestly, and authentically to our peers? What happens when communication breakdowns spiral into a mesh of dilapidated ideas? Signal to Noise may not provide the answer, but Forced Entertainment’s London season will most certainly provide an unlimited set of existential questions to add to your own world of reflection.