Rotozaza (UK): Doublethink

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.

\ 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.\ - IRISH TIMES

\unpredictable, venturesome and fascinating\ - the HERALD

www.rotozaza.co.uk

Post-show discussion with the company and the Hungarian guest performers on the 28th of February. Moderator: Erzsébet Sándor (journalist, Hungarian Radio)

Directed by: Ant Hampton Created by: Silvia Mercuriali, Neil Bennun

Actors: Eszter Ónodi - Katona József Theatre Erika Pereszlényi - Pont Műhely Company Tünde Szalontay - Pintér Béla Company András Dömötör - Örkény István Theatre Máté Haumann - Radnóti Theatre, participant of the fabled radioseries 'The Archers' János Kulka, National Theatre

Supported by: Arts Council of England Sponsored by: Republic of Art Supported by: British Council