{"id":5099,"date":"2015-10-12T17:27:17","date_gmt":"2015-10-12T16:27:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=5099"},"modified":"2016-02-05T19:11:55","modified_gmt":"2016-02-05T18:11:55","slug":"golem-home-by-emma-rhys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=5099","title":{"rendered":"<em>Golem<\/em>, HOME, reviewed by Emma Rhys"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Golem<\/em><i>, HOME, First Street, Manchester, 7\u201317 October 2015<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Memorable tunes, exquisite performances, and stunning visuals the likes of which I\u2019ve not seen in theatre before. Produced by performance company 1927, whose speciality is combining performance and live music with animation and film, <i>Golem <\/i>is a wonderful spectacle \u2013 entertaining and funny with a subtext of social satire, exploring the ever-closing gap between man and machine, human being and human consumer.<\/p>\n<p>The stage comprised of a large screen for a moving backdrop of stop-frame animation, claymation, illustration, collage and film created by the immensely talented Paul Barritt. In front of the screen sat the impeccable musicians \u2013 drummer Will Close and pianist\/composer Lillian Henley \u2013 both of whom also took the roles of various characters. It is astounding to think that just five people made up the myriad cast, making quick changes and quick dashes throughout with amazing timing and precision. They also managed to close the divide between themselves and the digital backdrop, showing a level of sophistication elevating 1927\u2019s production above other multimedia theatre shows I\u2019ve seen. The actors sat comfortably in an animated living room, popped out of windows, interacted with clay robots and other animated ghouls. The lighting too, was alive onstage, a character dancing in time with the music and sometimes projected onto the actors, such as a spillage of absinthe represented by blue light illuminating the actor\u2019s lap.<\/p>\n<p>Written by Suzanne Andrade, <i>Golem<\/i> tells the story of Robert \u2013 a slightly geeky young man played deliciously by Shamira Taylor \u2013 who acquires a \u2018Golem\u2019 from a merchant in a seedy part of town (the moving cityscape was a constant delight, as was the boogie-woogie music that accompanied Robert\u2019s slouchy walks to work). The Golem is, initially, a human-sized clay robot, though as with our own devices it gets smaller with each new version \u2013 the better to infiltrate Robert\u2019s mind. Somewhat similar to Tony Hart\u2019s Morph, Golem is depicted using claymation.<\/p>\n<p>As a humorous comment on our increasingly digital society, Robert works at the Binary Codes Back-up Unit, where sharpened pencils frantically scribble 0s and 1s \u2013 \u201cbacking up the backup!\u201d is one of many lines that still runs through my head. Robert takes his Golem to work, where he can now relax while the Golem does the menial work. Soon, we see an assembly line of Golems, with constant updates somehow magically occurring (wirelessly) to Robert\u2019s increasing perplexity. Gradually, the Golem starts pointing out adverts to Robert and pushing him to be more successful, despite the fact that \u201cRobert had never been ambitious\u201d, as we\u2019re told in voice-over. The Golem begins manipulating Robert\u2019s decisions, from his clothes and purchases to his career and love-life \u2013 becoming a monster of popular rhetoric \u2013 \u201cSay yes to progress!\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Life speeds up for Robert \u2013 particularly funny is when he pours coffee on his face rather than drinks it \u2013 and he starts running to work, stopping to buy on the way, with the Golem pointing out shops and reciting adverts \u2013 \u201cSay yes to next day delivery\u201d. Robert also begins dating multiple women \u2013 \u201cGo Courting!\u201d \u2013 sacrificing his true love whom the Golem deems too old for him. But despite all this, we see evidence of resistance, such as intermittent visits to the rehearsal room for Robert\u2019s punk-rock band. However, this too is gradually undermined \u2013 \u201cGo Revolutionary Punk Band!\u201d Rebellion commodified and subsumed into consumer society \u2013 the very society it is attempting to change!<\/p>\n<p>The company 1927 takes its name from the year that talkies were introduced, and early-twentieth-century silent film and entertainment clearly influenced the aesthetics of the show, with past cultures superimposed onto the digital age, taking inspiration from Buster Keaton, German expressionism, British pier entertainment and more. I very much hope they will be bringing their two operas in development to HOME! There is only one criticism, and that is that perhaps the show was over-long, trailing ever so slightly to an indefinite ending. But the addictive music and clever humour more than made up for this and I would gladly watch it all over again. Say yes to <i>Golem<\/i>!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Emma Rhys<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Golem, HOME, First Street, Manchester, 7\u201317 October 2015 Memorable tunes, exquisite performances, and stunning visuals the likes of which I\u2019ve not seen in theatre before. Produced by performance company 1927, whose speciality is combining performance and live music with animation and film, Golem is a wonderful spectacle \u2013 entertaining and funny with a subtext of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[283,17],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.2.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Golem, HOME, reviewed by Emma Rhys - The Manchester Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=5099\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Golem, HOME, reviewed by Emma Rhys - The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Golem, HOME, First Street, Manchester, 7\u201317 October 2015 Memorable tunes, exquisite performances, and stunning visuals the likes of which I\u2019ve not seen in theatre before. Produced by performance company 1927, whose speciality is combining performance and live music with animation and film, Golem is a wonderful spectacle \u2013 entertaining and funny with a subtext of [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=5099\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-10-12T16:27:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-02-05T18:11:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"The Manchester Review\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=5099\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=5099\",\"name\":\"Golem, HOME, reviewed by Emma Rhys - The Manchester Review\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-10-12T16:27:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-02-05T18:11:55+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/e6deb0374609919f6e86f6ee1defe8cc\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=5099#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=5099\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=5099#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Golem, HOME, reviewed by Emma Rhys\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/\",\"name\":\"The Manchester Review\",\"description\":\"The Manchester Review\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/e6deb0374609919f6e86f6ee1defe8cc\",\"name\":\"The Manchester Review\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-includes\/images\/blank.gif\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-includes\/images\/blank.gif\",\"caption\":\"The Manchester Review\"},\"description\":\"The Manchester Review was founded in 2008 and is published by the Centre for New Writing at The University of Manchester. We aspire to bring together online, without a paper edition, the best of international writing from well-known, established writers alongside new, relatively unknown poets and prose-writers.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?author=45\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Golem, HOME, reviewed by Emma Rhys - The Manchester Review","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=5099","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Golem, HOME, reviewed by Emma Rhys - The Manchester Review","og_description":"Golem, HOME, First Street, Manchester, 7\u201317 October 2015 Memorable tunes, exquisite performances, and stunning visuals the likes of which I\u2019ve not seen in theatre before. Produced by performance company 1927, whose speciality is combining performance and live music with animation and film, Golem is a wonderful spectacle \u2013 entertaining and funny with a subtext of [&hellip;]","og_url":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=5099","og_site_name":"The Manchester Review","article_published_time":"2015-10-12T16:27:17+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-02-05T18:11:55+00:00","author":"The Manchester Review","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"The Manchester Review","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=5099","url":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=5099","name":"Golem, HOME, reviewed by Emma Rhys - The Manchester Review","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-10-12T16:27:17+00:00","dateModified":"2016-02-05T18:11:55+00:00","author":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/e6deb0374609919f6e86f6ee1defe8cc"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=5099#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=5099"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=5099#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Golem, HOME, reviewed by Emma Rhys"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#website","url":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/","name":"The Manchester Review","description":"The Manchester Review","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/e6deb0374609919f6e86f6ee1defe8cc","name":"The Manchester Review","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-includes\/images\/blank.gif","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-includes\/images\/blank.gif","caption":"The Manchester Review"},"description":"The Manchester Review was founded in 2008 and is published by the Centre for New Writing at The University of Manchester. We aspire to bring together online, without a paper edition, the best of international writing from well-known, established writers alongside new, relatively unknown poets and prose-writers.","url":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?author=45"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2PuXo-1kf","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5099"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5099"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5907,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5099\/revisions\/5907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}