Theatre Shows
Edinburgh Festival 30th July - 25 Aug C Venues (C Soco)
Alex and James can't escape the hilarious Orwellian nightmare that is their company's Staple-Bending Department. Their lives have become surreal, and their every move scrutinised.
They have to escape.
You have to help!
Performed at the Edinburgh Festival's
C Venues (C Soco) Theatre
Videos
The Opening - Excert from the first 10 minutes of the show
The 2 Minute Relationship - Another excert from the show
Reviews
THE SCOTSMAN
Published Date: 08 August 2008
By Sally Stott
SILENCE IN C MINOR
***
C SOCO (VENUE 348)
THIS absurdist comedy set in the nightmare world of Organam, a corporation specialising in advertising and “identity banking”, has some great moments of physical humour.
Writer/performer JP Cooper has a fine sense for surrealism that cuts into even the most mundane of situations. The fact such an outlandish piece has its roots in the company’s shared experiences of run-of-the-mill temping is a testament to this.
Upon entering Organam, we meet James (James Groom) and Alex (Cooper), a couple of workers stuck inside this office dystopia, where everything has a price – even, we discover, our individual selves.
Groom and Cooper are brilliantly agile performers and the director, Honour Bayes, draws every last ounce of humour from the script, which is silly, but charming, , mainly due to the rapport between Groom and Cooper.
While the plot gets a little too wacky towards the end, the cast are clearly having a whale of a time and it’s difficult not to be carried along by this.
http://www.edinburgh-festivals.com/reviews/THEATRE-SILENCE-IN-C-MINOR.4370788.jp
THE STAGE
Silent Collective
C Soco
Alex and James are office drones – staple-benders in fact – in the large faceless corporation Organum. Bequeathed their identities in a colleague’s will, they set about discovering why Keith Flint possessed this information in the first place, and in the process discover some unpleasant secrets about Organum’s activities.
Writer JP Cooper and James Groom play multiple parts in this absurdist adventure. They are an adept and likeable pair, swiftly switching into a succession of quirky characters, from their bumbling heroes to sinister agent Poe and the clown conducting the funeral. The only slightly irksome creation is Cooper’s Cassie, who is little more than a wiggling, high-pitched voice.
With just two tiny chairs on stage, this enjoyable romp sees the pair navigate through a bizarre bureaucracy rife with danger. The pace is quick, the style Python-esque and the performers slick. Honour Bayes’ direction and Cooper’s comic script ensure never a dull moment, while the sound and lighting match the tempo of the piece and facilitate the frequent flights of fancy.
Delighting in theatrical nonsense, Silence in C Minor is pulled off with aplomb.
Review by Maria Hodson
Published online at 10:09 on Monday 11 August 2008