Leftover

Lennie Varvarides, Anastasios Chatzdis and Aoife Stone
Embassy Theatre, Swiss Cottage
(2005)

Production photo

Leftover is a mixed media show that combines video installation, film and performance with elements of drama thrown in.

The experience is determinedly unusual, as the lone viewer quickly realises that he or she is the protagonist.

This is achieved by the simple means of an instruction sheet that leaves one wearing a string of large yellow beads and carrying a red suitcase filled with strange goodies (and feeling self-conscious).

The story that we enter is that of a young woman played by Aoife Stone. She is a London-based "barefooted Cinderella" and we are asked to share her life and problematic loves - almost to become her for a few short minutes.

The event takes place in a reconstructed photo booth and consists of two overlapping loops. The video repeats every nine minutes but the audio is much shorter at four.

Very cleverly, each informs the other at whatever point at which they intersect and eventually the whole acquires a dream-like quality. This results from familiar sounds initially intersecting with new images and then for the more patient, the seen begins to illuminate the heard as well.

With Lennie Varvarides' poetic language, a series of memorable images and a soothing rhythm, Leftover is a pleasurable experience that should have a kind of crossover appeal to fans of art, film and performance theatre. It confirms the creative team as an imaginative trio whose careers will be worth following.

The free installation continues until 26 June in a studio room at the Embassy Theatre.

Reviewer: Philip Fisher

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