*Invisible Thread’s Plucked is a haunting tale of lost love and grief, with just a sprinkling of fairy tale references, set to a soundtrack of broken music box nursery rhymes. It begins gently with a young couple falling in love, starting a family, but the loss of their children tears the couple apart.
Finding herself alone the leading lady shuts herself in a tower, deep in the woods, where no man can ever hurt her again. Here she begins moulding herself into a cross between Rapunzel and Miss Haversham taking her ‘revenge’ on the parade of vain, arrogant men who presume to pursue her, luring them in by playing on their vanities. As the darkness consumes her and all she can see is the ugliness in the world she becomes ugly herself, transforming in to the black raven the moon warned her about. Ultimately she pulls herself back from the brink but by this time she is old and the best of her life is behind her, wasted.
It is a bittersweet ending to a tragic tale full of heart and pathos. Invisible Thread have conjured up everything you would expect from a Faulty Optic show. It is the invention, the characterisation and mixing of mediums that lift the work above the average. Lightness of touch stops the show from becoming maudlin. Brief but much needed comic relief comes in the disturbing shape of a horny Big Bad Wolf and his oversized appendage. Live and pre-recorded animations, paint and water on glass, are used to great effect to offer a mystical warning to the leading lady while the soundtrack by long time collaborator Charles Webber is the perfect accompaniment.
If I can find any flaws in Plucked, they are few. The vague suggestions that the main characters were in fact white birds when their facial features were very human seemed unnecessary, a metaphor too far. Also, the odd occasions where human voices were used to characterise, most notably the crying first-born child, jarred. While we are always aware of the humans onstage, such is their craft that they never detract from the action so in using their own voices, on those few occasions, for me that thin veil of illusion was broken. As I said, this is a small personal gripe in an otherwise gem of a show.
All in all a magical treat for grown-ups of all ages.
*Invisible Thread is a new company set up by Liz Walker formally of Faulty Optic.
Plucked is on at Square Chapel, Halifax, on Friday 2 December. Tickets are available online at www.squarechapel.co.uk or by calling 01422 349422