Kaleidescop

Smock Alley Banquet Hall

KALEJDOSKOP IS a “performance exhibition” for the over-eights that harnesses the joy and wonder of sensory experience. The audience are split into teams before entering the performance space, which is a labyrinth of endless surprises.

Crawling through a dimly lit tunnel with soft textured walls, we arrive in a central atrium that is like something from Alice in Wonderland.The angles of the black and white tiles are all askew, while funhouse mirrors that distort our reflections conceal doors that lead to even more mysterious spaces: a tiny tent constructed from water-beds that shift and shake with our every movement; a furry cave decorated with primitive wall paintings; a shrunken version of the atrium, where the doors are even smaller and there are a thousand keys. (Claustrophobics take note.) We retrace our steps but never end up in the same place twice. It is thrilling, mind-bending fun.

Before we enter, we are encouraged to leave our voices at the door and to engage with the world through our other senses.

Danish company Carte Blanche encourages this immersion by stimulating us at every turn with different smells and textures, and by providing alternative perspectives on the most ordinary things: the way a kaleidoscope creates endless variations of a mundane view. In one room, our hands become patterns, then cave art. In another, shadows veil illusions. In yet another – and a particular favourite with our team – water and food colouring become fascinating mutations of our imagination.

On this viewing, the team of Danish performers – costumed in frothy creations by Tanja Bovin – failed to get the audience to remain silent throughout, but only because we found it difficult to contain our squeals of delight.

At the end, the only complaint was that the teams did not get to visit every room, which is, of course, the sort of backward compliment that Lewis Carroll would delight in.

Run completed