The Masque of the Red Death, Battersea Arts Centre, London

Un-expected.

Un-coordinated.

Un-ending

No, not my annual foray into the local gym, but the jewel of a performance  currently running at the BAC.

On arrival, we were ushered in via the back door and a bulbous nosed mask was thrust into our hands. Once I had overcome my innate, teeth clenching resistance to ‘join in’, I found the mask a rather freeing proposition. The voyeurs in us all seemed to kick in.

What lay ahead in the next three hours was a journey of one’s own creation. There was no route, no instruction, no divine path. An unending labyrinth of spaces were entered and exited with only your own mind producing the tricks of fear/expectation that often never materialised.

You could linger or run, hunt or wander, stare or recoil.

I found rooms littered with eye-catching oddities, banshees beseeching their own curses, bedrooms entertaining enamoured siblings and stages fanfaring ebullient artistes! And all this before the watershed.

I won’t explain the detail or the finale (if there is one).

Needless to say, the show is sold out. E-bay only.

10 December 2007, posted by Beatrice Vears