Review: THE MESSIAH COMPLEX, VAULT Festival

"That which blemishes thought through faith, is blind, untrue, and punishable" reads the fourth rule set by the Complex. After the Great Experiment proved that it's categorically impossible for any god to exist, faith of any kind is banned. Sethian still believes and is therefore being detained and tortured in an attempt to heal him from his ways. The Messiah Complex is a fascinating exploration of dystopian philosophy and intellectual restrictions. Alexander Knott, James Demaine, and Ryan Hutton devise a piece with clearly defined lore and logic. It's a bold provocation of Orwellian stature.

They work their way into an inquiry in the psyche of belief, while government-led limitations move their main character into everything that lies between anti-hero and villain. Anthony Cozens gives an ever-evolving performance, keeping the audience on his side, rooting for him against the injustice of religious persecution, until the nature of his actions is revealed in full. The script keeps an ambiguous stance, never directly condemning nor supporting Sethian's crusade, leaving it up to the viewer to judge. The actor is joined by AK Golding and Sasha Clarke in a show of remarkable production value.

With video design and cinematography by Charles Flint as backing plus original music and sound by James Demaine and Samuel Heron, it's truly impressive as it drifts into an early Ivo van Hove-ian direction here and there. The visuals come together to deliver a cold ambience, while the use of microphones is at times atmospheric, jarring at others.

Cozens looks constantly haunted. He is hollow-eyed and tormented as Clarke administers him a mandated treatment to edit his memories and remove his ability to dream, forcing him to forget Golding's Sophia and her influence on him. He's simply harrowing.

Clarke's work brilliantly inhabits a space between deep fascination with Sethian's devotion and her blind following of the Complex's rulings - which is just another version of the doctrines they condemn so harshly. She shows a genuine interest in his poetic recollections of how they turned places of worship into museums with redacted information or other lyrical descriptions from a past she can't remember and beliefs she never had, while Golding appears as a vision that only Sethian can see. The creative team builds a strong foundation, using dystopian fiction as a sharp social critique.

They introduce a totally feasible totalitarian state in the shackles of extremism. While Sethian's ideology can be read as an allegory for a multitude of issues, the core study of the Complex's hypocrisy coexists with the reality of religious radicalisation and fundamentalism and how they've affected our history. It's a thought-provoking, accomplished production that is sure to kick start a conversation and leave you wanting more.

The Messiah Complex runs at VAULT Festival until 19 March.

Photo credit: Charles Flint Photography

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