REVIEW - Lippy, Young Vic

THREE STARS

EXPERIMENTAL theatre is the name of the game with the Young Vic’s staging of Lippy.

Created by Bush Moukarzel and theatre company Dead Centre the 70 minute show looks at how those people feel who are excluded from society.

It begins with the audience finding themselves at a post show Q&A in which the cheesy and self conscious Interviewer (Bush Moukarzel) interviews actor and Lip Reader (David Heap) who has, through his acting roles, also mastered the art of lip reading.

He runs through a few techniques, answers some questions and tells us that he once helped the police in an investigation into the deaths of four women in Ireland.

Images from film sequences are projected on to the screen behind them which allow him to show off his lip reading skills.

He also shows how difficult it is to be accurate – sometimes with hilarious consequences, but sometimes how potentially dangerous and damaging it can be.

It is all quite jolly and humorous until this point and then suddenly the curtain behind them comes down and we see a litter strewn room with four forensic scientists combing the room.

It is at this point that the whole tone and mood of the piece changes and becomes a lot darker and more intense.

The Lip Reader enters the room and the four scientists take off their uniforms and reveal themselves to be the dead Irish women.

It then slows right down – almost to a slo mo of what happened to the women and how they starved themselves to death.

The Lip Reader remains in the room trying to make sense of it all – as do some members of the audience.

It was a somewhat surreal experience but it was also thought provoking and the acting was subtle, powerful and effective.

Lippy is on at the Young Vic, The Cut, Waterloo until Saturday, March 14. Tickets cost £X. Visit ww,youngvic.org or call the box office on 020 7922 2922.