Review: SONGS FOR THE END OF THE WORLD, The Vaults, February 18 2016

Songs For The End Of The World is a live performance of something between a concept album (such as The Who's Tommy) and a themed album (such as The The's Infected - indeed, some of the numbers would fit on to that work musically as well as lyrically). It's no surprise to hear that the songs are planned to appear in a graphic novel based on the show - it's that kind of multi-media event!

Dom Coyote's excellent band tell the tale of a post-apocalyptic Britain (renamed New Albion) in which even the walled enclave of Ashley Coombe has been blasted away and astronaut Jim Walters - en route to Mars - may be the last human being alive. The work is inspired by Philip K Dick's novel, Dr Bloodmoney, Or How We Got Along After The Bomb, and includes many leitmotifs of the phildickian world - suburban settings, society divided between near savages and those living very orthodox lives, corporate interests destroying mankind and its environment and a lone man broadcasting from space. That PKD's paranoia had not reached his 1980s VALIS levels when he wrote Dr Bloodmoney in 1965 is to be counted a good thing - I think!

For PKD fans like me, any interpretation of his work is welcome, but the show stands alone without the need for such geekism. The music draws on a range of genres from rock 'n' roll to country to swing and is played on a dizzying array of instruments. Though not closely related to musical theatre in its staging (though an impressive costume change feels a rather Brechtian), the singing is clear and foregrounded even when drums and bass are working hard, so we hear the lyrics clearly and can follow the narrative even without the back projections. Dom Coyote is as much a storyteller as he is musician.

Though not as spectacularly innovative as Little Bulb Theatre's Orpheus (which was one of my highlights of last year and with whom this production shares some performers), this show is never less than interesting and intelligent. There's plenty of opportunity for further development, and I look forward to seeing how the show will grow in the future, alas a future that seems to grow closer and closer to PKD's dystopian vision every day.

Songs For The End Of The World is at The Vault Festival until 21 February.