Marcel Vol. I: Italian Politics as as Work of Art

First things first: this is billed as a Dada-esque surrealist play. And as pledges go, it most certainly can’t be criticised for not doing exactly what it says on the tin.

Short scenes alternate between a dystopian landscape where two women have been left jobless and struggling after the "blackout", and a series of strange interludes loosely based around Silvio Berlusconi’s involvement with an underage Moroccan girl (for which he was convicted but later found not guilty on appeal).

There are moments of great visual delight—who doesn’t love a horse-headed mannequin wrapped in bondage straps?—and vicious satire – the former Italian PM’s head cartooned onto the arse of a woman’s knickers, talking with puppet hands while she bends over. But the scripted sections feel unedited: cipher-thin characters have intellectual discussions about philosophical ideas, and nothing really progresses towards a moment of revelation or climax. In addition, for all the anger that the play seems to harbour towards Berlusconi and what he has done to his country, the delivery does seem awfully reserved. It is as if the team has had some striking ideas, been unsure how to crowbar them together into a meaningful production, but has gone ahead anyway.

What are we supposed to draw from this? The answer may well be, "whatever you want". But it’s not enough. With true surrealism there is always some hook, some magical diamond ingredient that makes the whole thing pop together and work, and in this case it just isn’t there.