Liverpool Sound and Vision rating: * * *

Cast: Simon Jones, Chris Boyd, Madeline Hall, Kepla, Nathan Jones.

The Unity has been well established as a community theatre for many years. All varieties of people who want to act, write, direct and produce shows have most likely done so here. So it is with great interest that the Unity are doing something a little different in terms of theatre diversity and what we call theatre.

The Happy Jug is collaboration between multi sensory artist Simon Jones, 3D animator Chris Boyd, sculptor Madeline Hall, musician Kepla and writer Nathan Jones. The premise to this piece is to explore how human drama can be connected to our senses. Images are flashed upon Madeline Hall’s three concrete and plaster sculptures that are the only things that are seen upon the stage. Nathan Jones’s words are set against the soundtrack and they tell the story of a woman who has a brain tumour.

The piece is broken into sections, where the audience hears dialogue between a doctor and the woman about her diagnosis and the operation she will need to remove the tumour, images of various theatre scenes are projected upon the three sculptures and this continues throughout, from her diagnosis to the outcome and images, sound and words are a continual bombardment throughout, shifting and changing as the story progresses.

It arguably takes a little time to adjust to this environment as realising very quickly that this was not going to be a normal theatre experience. However, as the story about this young woman’s plight took hold, the audience’s own senses relax as the images, sound and words wash over the auditorium. This is an audio and visual explosion, one that is most definitely expected in an art gallery. Performance art in a theatre is certainly challenging, however it does showcase talent of various creative artists and brings together a unique way to introduce new technology into theatre.

Janie Phillips