Gosh. I don’t know quite what to make of Joseph Morpurgo’s Hammerhead. It was clearly technically impressive, 100% original, super creative and choc full of ideas. But I’m not sure if it was funny.
There’s a lot going on in Hammerhead. There’s balloons, cake and collectable CDs. There’s planted audience members, video clips and original music. There’s strobes, house lights and spot lights. There’s even Powerpoint and Excel. All of these elements are delivered at breathtaking speed, one after the other, supporting an artistic concept that I’ve not encountered before. It’s intellectually stimulating to the extent that it is verging towards sensory-overload.
There’s also plenty emotion too. You’re invited to laugh, you’re invited to cry. You’re invited to aww and to boo, to clap and to jeer. You’re invited into Morpurgo’s confidence and you’re roundly told off by him. You get to amused, awkward, confused and sad all at the same time. Phew.
I don’t want to give too much away, but here’s one example of the sheer weirdness of the whole affair. Throughout the show we’re reminded that we have to be out by 9 sharp to make room for the upcoming Samuel Beckett DJ gig. Then said gig burst on stage. Lights flash, music pumps, and you’re reminded that if you don’t have a ticket you must leave. That’s it, get up and go. The music’s still going. The lights are going. It’s the next show and you’re not invited. Is it really over? No one really knows. Eventually the audience just kind of shuffle out in dribs and drabs to the techno accompaniment.
I was very impressed by much of what I experienced. I’ve certainly never seen anything quite like it before. I didn’t laugh that much, but then maybe I wasn’t supposed to? Who knows. Perhaps it was pure avant-garde genius and I just didn’t get it. Perhaps it was perfectly suited to The Fringe but didn’t quite work for the salt and pepper crowd.
All in all, though I can’t say I was ever in stitches, I was certainly well entertained. Morpurgo’s Hammerhead didn’t have a dull moment in it and gave us plenty to talk about on the drive home.