Schrodinger

 

Imagine if Nobel laureate Erwin Schrodinger has taken a mind dump on the stage of the Courtyard and you get an idea what this barmy and disturbing work is all about. 

Working in a small black box, the five actors explore Schrodinger’s Cat where the Austrian genius presented a scenario that argued a cat might be perceived as dead or alive depending on an earlier random event. 

Given we are working in the area of quantum physics this was never going to an easy hour as actors repetitively crash through the roof, others are dragged out of hatches on the side of the box, or frantically scribble bizarre messages on the black surfaces.
 

None of it makes much sense which is the intent of the ‘writers’, but as the work moves on we begin to understand how distressed the protagonists are trapped in a seemingly endless cycle of events.    As one bedraggled actor notes: ‘you may think were doing this for the first time, but we’re not, everything is repeated.’

Or is it? 

This work is all about perception and what we think of as reality filtered though the dead – or otherwise – cat.  The claustrophobia of the box adds to our uncertainty and unease as the actors scream, shout and throw water over each other. 

It could all be a bit stoner philosophy but thanks to the intensity of the actors – and a certain deranged internal logic – it works beautifully as we consider if what we think of as reality is actually an illusion.
 

• Schrodinger is on the Courtyard Stage  as part of the Compass Festival of Live Art on Wednesday 23 November and Thursday 24 November.