Hideki Noda's wacky futuristic fantasy −320°F at Sadler's Wells opens with God observing the Tower of Babel, a skyscraper creeping to the heavens. This irreverent satirical drama covers the age of dinosaurs, Cleopatra's frozen eggs, and biotech, involving time travel, diseased angels, and bone conduction. The protagonist Help (Sadawo Abe) connects present-day bones with fossilised ones through vibration.
Plot and Characters
The Pied Piper of Hamelin (Koji Ohkura), Mephisto (Suzu Hirose), and Faust (Isao Hashizume) appear. Noda performs as a researcher in gene science. The story, partly inspired by the 2016 Sagamihara care home mass killings, explores ethics of eradicating disease and creating the 'ultimate' human. Help, who is D/deaf, takes a Back to the Future-style trip to connect with bones that form mankind's inheritance.
Highlights and Performances
The plot swings between dreams, fantasies, lab mouse experiments, excavations, and debates. The satire is adrenalised, with highlights including a set piece with dancing bananas. Shigehiro Ide's choreography and physical theatre when the ensemble becomes fossilised dinosaur bones gleam. Yukio Horio's set design uses billowing sheets and video technology for time-switching illusions, with striking costumes by Kodue Hibino.
Critique
According to the review, the satire and whimsy become over-baked into earnestness over two hours without an interval, clashing with earlier anarchic comedy. Yet audiences leave feeling they've entered Noda's zany Tardis, with the motif of a phonebox. −320°F runs at Sadler's Wells, London, until 11 July.
