Jack Studio Theatre – until 19 October 2024
Reviewed by Claire Roderick
5*****
So It Goes Theatre just had to produce Slaughterhouse-Five at some point – and their treatment is as bold and affecting as ever.
Eric Simonson’s intelligent and witty adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s groundbreaking novel is just 90 minutes long, portraying the fragmented timelines of Billy Pilgrim’s lives as he jumps back and forth at such pace that the fatalistic worldview (universe-view?) of the Tralfamadorians becomes completely understandable as events have happened, will happen, are happening – and there’s’ nothing we can do to change that. Billy Pilgrim’s survival of the Dresden bombing, with the Allied prisoners of war surviving inside the slaughterhouse as the city burned around them, his survival of an air crash, his abduction and incarceration in the Tralformadorian zoo are all shown with a vibrant intensity and dry humour.
Director Douglas Baker’s striking video design marks the year Billy is experiencing and creates a remarkably clear sense of place – from veteran hospital to cheerfully cartoonish aliens and spacecraft that Kilgore Trout would adore. Calum Perrin and Benji Tranter’s sound and Laurel Marks’s lighting design are perfectly judged to compliment the horrors or absurdity of the action onstage. The fantastic cast (Sofia Engstrand, Alex Crook, Ben Howarth and Ethan Reid) multirole expertly, with just a minor change of costume and body language enough to make it clear which character they are portraying in each scene. Some minor characters are projections, mere faceless sketches as they observe or interact with Billy and vanish from his life. The Tralformadore throwaway refrain of “so it goes,” equalising every death, is represented visually to devastating effect as Billy and his fellow POWs are “corpse mining.”
The production’s intricately considered and executed design and staging is remarkable – a truly memorable show.