Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

(I Am) Nobody's Lunch, Assembly Rooms <!-- none onestar twostar threestar fourstar fivestar -->

Lynne Walker
Friday 11 August 2006 00:00 BST
Comments

(I am) Nobody's Lunch is a plotless cabaret cum docu-drama, a jumble of investigative journalism with songs, put together by the director Steven Cosson.

It's based on vox-pop interviews conducted by the young New York-based company The Civilians, and, judging by the eccentric characters they enact and the bizarre answers elicited, they seem to have found some pretty weird interviewees - including an extraterrestrial, who explains that his race is farming humanity to feed on its fear.

The material is spun together into a sometimes funny, more often baffling show about information culture. It would take more than an hour to untangle the web of obfuscation spun by almost every opinion-forming group in America, it seems. But with references to curbs on civil liberties in our post-September 11 world and the hearsay that forms public and political opinion, these breezy singer-actors keep it topical.

Original musical numbers, including a Weill-esque "Song of Progressive Disenchantment", punctuate the cross-talk, which ranges over torture, the possibility that the rescue of Private Jessica Lynch was staged, and the suggestion that George Bush is actually a slimy lizard. This surreal show starts encouragingly but never adds up to breakfast, far less lunch.

To 28 August, except 14 (0131-226 2428)

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in