Infinity Pool: A Modern Retelling of Madame Bovary

Although billed as a Modern Retelling of Madame Bovary, Infinity Pool carries only a vague similarity to Gustave Flaubert's classic novel. For one thing, its central character is far more likeable, contemplating only a single extramarital affair and yearning to escape a life of grey, corporate mediocrity. Perhaps most significantly, Bea Roberts' vision of central character Emma doesn't die, but rather is allowed something close to a happy ending. Anyone approaching the show expecting a faithful take on the text is likely to be disappointed, perhaps even confused.

Just as the novel is said to have pioneered what we now think of as modern realist narration, form plays a significant, equally innovative role in this adaptation. Here the audience consumes the same media and entertainment as Emma, a character whom we never see or hear. We experience the world through her eyes and find it to be indistinguishable from our own in places. The pacifying drone of an unobserved television is the soundtrack to the character's unsatisfactory home life, while we learn about her relationships through text and email exchanges projected onto a screen. Roberts is a talented writer, and these missives crackle with pathos and misanthropic humour, making a compulsive read out of what would have been a chore in less capable hands.

Emma's confused state of mind is presented with clarity, as are the mundane situations in which she finds herself. Through a busy and thoroughly DIY approach to storytelling, the performer lays bare restless human emotion and the expectations cruelly foisted upon us all.