Absence of Separation

Theatre Ellipsis’ Absence of Separation might as well be retitled Absence of Anything Interesting to Say. This misguided shot at Beckettian comedy, which riffs on the absurdity of existence, provides no useful insight, no theatrical or comic originality and certainly no wider commentary on the interconnectedness of human lives.

John is involved in an accident and wakes up in limbo, accompanied by an unknown figure who may be his subconscious, his conscience or just a memory of some bloke he met in the pub one night. John feels that his nine-to-five routine in the city is—surprise, surprise—futile. He experiences no joy, no pain, just a vacant sequence of encounters that drive him to question the meaning of life. “What is a cup? A cup is just a word,” squawks John’s new friend. Such truth!

The rest of the script is overflowing with similar pseudo-intellectual notions, which take detours through materialism, Cartesian dualism, solipsism and a host of other metaphysical theories. Sure, they pose foundational questions about the nature of being but swallowing An Introduction to Ontology and regurgitating its pages makes for pretty flimsy theatre making.

The occasional moment of absurdist humour is well observed, as the two characters spiral further and further into arguments over the mind/body divide. Moments of clowning and physical theatre provide entertaining respite from a desperately wordy script but are sometimes (unironically) pointless. Without doubt, Absence of Separation will leave audiences questioning their purpose in life, but only because they’ve squandered an hour of it watching this show.