REVIEW: Golem, New Wolsey Theatre, Pulse Festival ✭✭✭✭

Golem

Pulse Festival, New Wolsey Theatre

10 June 2017

4 Stars

Very much thought of as the jewel in the crown of this year’s Pulse Festival, 1927’s Golem is a show that has reached legendary status sine it was first staged, and comes to the Wolsey after long national and international tours. Drawing on the myth of The Golem, of a man who fashions a creature out of clay to work for him, the piece examines the relationship between man and machine, until the machines take over.

The star of the show is the animation and projections that create a graphic novel coming to life, very much in the style of Fritz Lang, particularly Metropolis. The genius of the piece is that, despite its style, it is a world very familiar to us as the Golem is updated, each time becoming technologically smaller and more powerful. Human emotions are sublimated to the Golem, as we then live in a happy world controlled by the machines.

The five strong ensemble are flawless, slick and almost machine like, and the interaction between performer and animation is the strongest I have ever seen. Throughout most of the play this is an absolute delight, and the visuals are a feast for the eye. And yet, because the tone and outcome of the tale is set out very early on, I found it overlong, and the coolness and slickness of the stylistic presentation a little distancing. I admired it very much, but didn’t become emotionally involved as a viewer-perhaps that is the clever point of the piece. That said, from a visual narrative point of view, this was a show well worth catching.

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