Absent, theatre review: Mystery of the sketchy duchess

Despite an intriguing starting point, of the socialite Duchess of Argyll’s years-long stay at a London hotel, thin-pickings work for barely half an hour, says Fiona Mountford
Thin pickings: Absent fails to engage as a promenade performance
Jim Stephenson
Fiona Mountford3 September 2015

Oh dear. That title proves prophetic in more ways than one. Or, perhaps, in recent years, Punchdrunk has upped the stakes so far when it comes to site-responsive promenade theatre that it has left all others, including director Tristan Sharps and his dreamthinkspeak company, far behind.

Absent certainly has an intriguing starting point, that of the socialite Duchess of Argyll’s years-long stay at a London hotel in the Seventies. Here the idea has been respun with a dreamy twist: a young Margaret checks into a hotel in the Fifties and, for reasons that remain entirely unexplored, stays until a mysterious exit — plus a hotel rebranding — in 2015.

There’s less wandering space than we’re used to; principally it’s a series of budget hotel-style rooms, housing film projections of Margaret in her elusive youthful prime. As the unpaid bills — and empty whisky bottles — mount up, Margaret is shunted around the hotel, but she’s such an ephemerally sketched character that we hardly care about her dwindling fortunes. I took my time, but stayed in this thin-pickings work for barely half an hour.

Until October 25 (020 7968 6808, absentshoreditch.com)

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