Review: FRUITS OR, THE DECLINE OF A DISTANT MEMORY, RADA Studios

It's hard to say what FRUITS or, The Decline of a Distant Memory is about. It's certainly not about literal fruit but it is about a decay of some sort. The Collective describe themselves as an "international experimental performance group" on Twitter, and one can clearly see why. The piece is, essentially, a pretentiously brazen and intriguing absurdist play on the decadence of society.

The lack of a strong storyline is substituted with a series of episodes, seemingly disconnected from one another, that portray human existence in what should be its utmost devastation. It's an ambitious project and it's easy to see that a lot of thought has gone into it. From the wasteland-y set to the props, from the juxtaposition of the chapters to the acting, it's impressive. The colossal issue here is that it doesn't immediately make much sense as a whole.

Mimmi Bauer, Patrycia Dynowska, and Michal Szpak write and perform the curious venture, with Theodor Spirindon at the direction. The actors are almost ghosts in the darkness, nearly always enveloped by smoke (lots, lots of it, the fog generator doesn't get a rest in this production) and a discombobulating score by Jack Foran. Its nonsensical nature is uniquely neat and presents a disillusioned view of life that's resounding of the modern societal crisis and feels the aftermath of the overwhelming effects of the world.

The company are bold in their execution, with certain instances looking more like art installations or performance art as opposed to straight theatre. It's excessive and impertinent, vulgar and amusing. They explore identity, social cues, lust, and temperament with bewildering but perplexing methods.

The abuse of visuals is deeply connected to their longing for shock value. This isn't necessarily negative but the balance here is somewhat thrown off by the over the top delivery of their points. Fruits is, however, very cool but it doubtlessly is a smoky project, figuratively and literally. It sends out question after question refusing to answer any of them and burying its core under too many obscure allegories that conceal all meaning.

One feels like this is a show that deserves a review that includes the words "zeitgeist" and "ennui", so here they are in the last paragraph. This is to keep in line with what's recently been defined "European theatre" to accept that impenetrable and rather bonkers type of craft.

FRUITS or, The Decline of a Distant Memory runs at RADA Studios until 10 August as part of Camden Fringe.

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