A clever but confusing concept is brought to life at Summerhall’s 4D Cinema this Fringe.
Sold as a production that blurs actual and virtual realities, Mamoru Iriguchi’s 4D Cinema certainly makes you question the world we live in from the outset. The audience walk in to be greeted with the man himself, wearing only boxers and preparing to put a projector screen over his head.
He begins a very stilted first half by becoming possessed by the ghost of German-American actress Marlene Dietrich. Using audience participation and segments including a ‘How To’ in Egg Nog Making, he awkwardly works his way through the old starlet’s life story. You can’t help but get the feeling that all of this ridiculousness has to be leading somewhere.
Unknowingly, the whole first half has been recorded and the second act is yet another retelling of Dietrich’s life but this time somewhat bleaker. Using a video of the show we have just witnessed played backwards, Iriguchi uses subtitles to play out a very different, darker life for the once famous Hollywood star.
The piece certainly begins to question where beginnings and endings start and begin and the subjective nature that film has created in its evolution. Yet the deeper into the piece you go, the more lost its meaning seems to get in translation.
Iriguchi evidently loves his work and that certainly comes across in the fifty-minute performance but if you are searching for a fun-filled hour of technical wizardry this is not the show for you.