Review – LevelLess – TheaterGroep WAK

Well, LevelLess is certainly some crazy-ass stuff.

Not that you’d expect anything less from WAK (Toon Kuijpers, Dorus Van Der Meer & Bart Strijbos), the quirky Dutch trio that scooped the Best Theatre Production award last Fringe with Nothing is Really Difficult.

Apparently, due to the mysterious particle accelerator experiments going on underground at the Large Hadron Collider project near Geneva, we can throw what we know about perspective out the window. Left is no longer left, right is not right, and theatre is no longer a coherent narrative with motivations driving action.

LevelLess might come across a little pretentious and self important, but in truth WAK are really just playfully toying with us all once again. Unfortunately, it might not be quite so much fun this time around, with the show repeatedly offering up a series of intriguing situations only to degenerate into base slapstick that feels forced and jarring.

The stage itself is a Large Hadron Collider-esque slanted tunnel from which a variety of odd objects and characters slide down towards the audience. The audience are routinely blinded by various means – including a sinister bleeping robot armed with a bright blue light – permitting the sudden reveal of some bizarre surprises.

The lighting and sound scapes are top notch, and the actors themselves deliver some solid physical comedy.

Unfortunately, LevelLess seems to be trying much too hard to be kooky and nonsensical, but then again, the same could be said of modern particle physics.