Long Cloud Youth Theatre Sum­mer School have worked with A Slightly Isol­ated Dog to invest­ig­ate then recre­ate a night out. The show is fren­et­ic with lots of short scenes from a typ­ic­al night out. There’s a lot of drink­ing, some dan­cing. There are some ongo­ing stor­ies but most of the action and interest is in recog­nising the scen­ari­os being played. Almost everything that I’ve seen hap­pen dur­ing a night out (or a night in at someone else’s place) is shown. The act­ors get to show off their music­al skills as well with some singing and oth­ers play­ing instru­ments.

It has one of the most magic­al sets I’ve seen. Designed by Oliv­er Morse, it fea­tures beer boxes, beer bottles, crates, old couches, and old TVs. Light­ing for the action is some­times provided only by the desk lamps that are scattered around the stage (light­ing design by Jason Long­staff.) The TVs are used to show some of the inter­view ques­tions the act­ors used in their research. (Sound and AV by Matt Eller.) Micro­phones amp­li­fy con­ver­sa­tions and dir­ect atten­tion to where the action is. The per­form­ance area is all over the place. On the stage, up on the steps where the seats are, in the bar, out­side the theatre. The audi­ence is seated around the edges of the space. (I think the best place to sit would be up on stage. Wherever you sit you’ll prob­ably miss see­ing some of the action.)

I liked it. It felt like a night out should – every scream­ing, singing, dan­cing, swear­ing, shout­ing, mel­an­chol­ic second of it. It’s loud and a bit inco­her­ent. (What was par­tic­u­larly inter­est­ing for me was what the work did not do and that was judge the actions of the char­ac­ters. Instead it was a reflec­tion of what hap­pens. It made me con­sider my own response to things that hap­pen and the actions of oth­er people. Walk­ing down the street after the show had nev­er felt so per­form­at­ive before.) Nice work.

  • Per­fectly Wasted by Long Cloud Youth Theatre Sum­mer School, on at Down­stage to 16 Feb­ru­ary 2013.