Taking the establishment by the throat once more, 'Imitating The Dog' inject a contemporary perspective into Joseph Conrad’s 19th century tale of colonialism in Africa. Challenging the original text’s exploration of racism & imperialism within a modern setting, the company have attempted to establish a conversation which is both worthy and necessary but not exactly ground-breaking conversation in our UKIP-ridden times – which in a theatre environment could be accused of preaching to a usually left-wing choir.
For those who are faint-hearted, be warned- don’t turn up under the misapprehension that you will be viewing an updated adaptation of Conrad’s original work. While the original is a narrated tale of a downriver boat journey through the Congo turned brutal nightmare, this offering is at best a series of A Level theatre pieces attempting to bridge several arguments, which although valid have been poorly presented. Through wordy lengths of quick-fired explanatory-heavy dialogue and unexplained jumps between squabbling actors in the rehearsal room, sections of Coppolla’s Apocolypse Now, and slices of scene’s from the company’s “new and improved” A Heart Of Darkness, the audience gained a glimpse of the working process & exploration of the cast’s individual reactions to the novella.
Performed on a physically simplistic black box style set, with a green screen backdrop, the main action took place between two raised platforms each equipped with a camera rigged up to the three screens hanging down from the stage flies. With these in place the action clipped quickly from one concept to the next but with feeling that the book had just snapped shut on your nose as the audience was suddenly yanked off to the next examination of their devising process.
As an ensemble and technical team, the merging of live acting with onstage cameras was seamless and the quality of screen acting was skilfully done. The character acting was of a high standard and could have supported the entire piece had it been given a chance to develop.
As an accompaniment to school curriculum study of “A Heart Of Darkness” this piece is a useful starting point to explore the damaging effects of outdated classical literature on race and identity. As a work of theatre it was run through with the cast’s personal distaste for the novella, which made for a tough watch- who is the audience supposed to root for when the cast has completely disassociated themselves from the work?
Performing only snippets of scenes from their woke take on an outdated story, the audience saw brief glances of how the tale could be rehabilitated for our times. However, in this age where imperialist literature regularly graces the screens & stages with only token roles for non-white actors, perhaps the lack of resolution is fitting. Perhaps the answer is in the question we must put to our society: in the face of deep-seated prejudice that regularly infiltrates the official systems of equality- where do we go from here?
Whilst no pleasure cruise, prepare to buckle down and get ready to reassess everything you think you know about A Heart Of Darkness, and then some.
Reviewer - Natalie Bowers
on - 20/3/19
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