{"id":7532,"date":"2017-05-06T11:32:24","date_gmt":"2017-05-06T10:32:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=7532"},"modified":"2017-05-06T11:32:33","modified_gmt":"2017-05-06T10:32:33","slug":"tank-home-reviewed-by-emma-rhys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=7532","title":{"rendered":"Tank<\/em>, HOME, reviewed by Emma Rhys"},"content":{"rendered":"
Tank<\/em>, Breach Theatre, HOME, May 4 2017.<\/h5>\n

It\u2019s the 1960s. Consciousness is being expanded by LSD and a house is being flooded with water to accommodate a specious romance between a woman named Margaret and a dolphin named Peter. Sex n\u2019 drugs n\u2019 dolphins. <\/p>\n

FADE IN: Dolphin Point Laboratory, St Thomas, Virgin Islands.
\nPsychonaut John Lilly circles the pools, making notes on his clipboard. He\u2019s composing his weekly report on the dolphins\u2019 linguistic progress to be sent to NASA. After completing his rounds, he takes another hit of acid.<\/em>
\n\u2013 So this thing happened. Like, they actually did this experiment. They tried to teach a dolphin to speak English. To speak. English. Like, can you imagine it?<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

So asks Ellice Stevens \u2013 one of the show\u2019s two narrators \u2013 in a thematically garbled modern vernacular of astonishment as she and fellow narrator Craig Hamilton attempt to choreograph, probe and critique a darkly funny, disturbing and thought-provoking re-enactment of the real-life experiences of a doomed dolphin (played by Joe Boylan) and a ditzy dolphinista (played by Sophie Steer). <\/p>\n

CUT TO: Margaret drives along the seafront in a red Cadillac \u2013 no, a white Corvette. She\u2019s blonde and wearing a swimsuit \u2013 no, she\u2019s dark and wearing a T-shirt. The camera pans up her long bare legs \u2013 no, the camera zooms in on her face. She\u2019s wanking off a gigantic dolphin cock because she likes it \u2013 no, she\u2019s mechanically relieving a dolphin because she doesn\u2019t like bruises.<\/em><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

So goes the struggle between the two narrators as they attempt to appropriately visualize and make sense of such an inappropriate scenario. <\/p>\n

\u2013 I want you to speak in English. Think in English. Peter, speak! Speak, Peter!<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

So enunciates Margaret like an overzealous ESL teacher in some remote corner of the globe where even Hollywood has not reached \u2013 namely, because it\u2019s too wet for a TV set. <\/p>\n

Tank<\/em> was produced by the award-winning multimedia performance company Breach Theatre, who create politically engaged, formally exploratory shows that blend drama and documentary; it delivers on all these counts as well as being a treat for the senses. The opening set consists of a simple boardroom set-up, complete with an office water dispenser frequently drawn from (were they planning to immerse us too?) and a projector screen showing previously videos of the actors, adding an additional dimension of representation that rippled over the drama onstage. <\/p>\n

Peter\u2019s transition from pool to house was cleverly depicted with encircling white tape, which effectively evoked the claustrophobic domestic space in which Peter and Margaret engaged in a fraught yet well-meaning mating-swim (between language lessons). The special effects, lighting, sound and costume were innovative and well-realized; the atmosphere in the theatre one of tense excitement throughout, with barely contained screams, squirms and laughter culminating in the entrancing spectacle of Peter on LSD \u2013 a troupe-trip of synchronised-dancing, disco lights and a bobbing rubber dolphin head. As Peter\u2019s and Margaret\u2019s discomfort becomes increasingly apparent, the show masterfully builds to a violent climax to the music of \u2018Nothing\u2019s Gonna Hurt You Baby\u2019, while distorting mics induced startlingly convincing dolphin noises from the actors, all of whom played their roles masterfully \u2013 Sophie Steer and Joe Boylan in particular, with Steer\u2019s comic, sensuous interpretation of Margaret and Joe\u2019s anguished, blow-hole tied embodiment of Peter. <\/p>\n

Tank<\/em> is a sixty-minute trip you will only regret taking if you\u2019re a dolphin drying out in an auditorium rather than copulating in the sea where you belong. <\/p>\n

Tank<\/em> is at HOME<\/a> until May 6.<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tank, Breach Theatre, HOME, May 4 2017. It\u2019s the 1960s. Consciousness is being expanded by LSD and a house is being flooded with water to accommodate a specious romance between a woman named Margaret and a dolphin named Peter. Sex n\u2019 drugs n\u2019 dolphins. FADE IN: Dolphin Point Laboratory, St Thomas, Virgin Islands. Psychonaut John […]<\/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":"\nTank, 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=7532\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tank, HOME, reviewed by Emma Rhys - The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tank, Breach Theatre, HOME, May 4 2017. 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