Two completely unrehearsed 'guest' performers [different every night] follow instructions from a recorded voice, with a divider between them. They can't see each other; the audience see both sides, and their differences.

The fascination of this minimal setup is twisted mischievously when two scripted characters emerge who, within a fiction of their own, pass concealed instructions to the two guests via whispers, scribbled notes etc. Through increasing virtuoso and sleight of hand, the guests seemingly gain control; it becomes difficult to know where the commands are coming from or indeed, where the power lies.


This highly unusual process reveals an analogy of inner life: two people depicted as four, each with a rehearsed and unrehearsed side to their 'selves', whose attempts to understand and communicate draw them towards a magnificent and hilarious chaos… DOUBLETHINK is an epic story-experiment about freedom, the farce of self-knowledge and the times we prefer being told what to do.

above, Sarah Potter at the ARCHES, Glasgow, April 2005

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"a fascinating exercise in psychological puppetry...
a superb deconstruction of notions of relationship...
a triumph of technological and conceptual prowess,
in the guise of bare-bones avant-gardism."

the IRISH TIMES, october '04 * * * * * five stars

REVIEWS OF DOUBLETHINK HERE

CREATED BY SILVIA MERCURIALI, ANT HAMPTON AND NEIL BENNUN

DIRECTED BY ANT HAMPTON

UPCOMING DATES HERE

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The development of Doublethink was funded by the Arts Council of England

[22 shows at Aurora Nova, Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2005 - full list of guest performers here]

 

 

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