The clink­ing of cut­lery and mumbled con­ver­sa­tion greet us as we walk into the theatre. Blue glow­ing lines show the edges of the fishtank. It’s a sparse place but I guess the fish aren’t there to live. Blue Cod (Hweil­ing Ow) is pre­par­ing to be chosen. She is joined unex­pec­tedly by Cray­fish (Bem­jam­in Teh) who is a bit more worldly than she is.
This is an absurd­ist play where noth­ing much hap­pens. Scenes bubble up and resolve into some­thing else as reli­gion, cli­mate change, envir­on­ment­al act­iv­ism, and the eth­ics of food are examined. Occa­sion­ally the extern­al world intrudes – these are the most inter­est­ing parts of the show for me. I par­tic­u­larly like the sec­tion when Blue Cod real­ises just what being chosen will mean. Both act­ors use spec­tac­u­lar cos­tumes (by Sarah Bur­ren) to advant­age. Sparkles and mul­tiple append­ages enhance their phys­ic­al move­ment and provide some fun for the audi­ence.

  • Bubble­lands by Ren­ee Liang dir­ec­ted by Aman­da Grace Leo on at BATS Theatre to 17 Octo­ber 2015