After their brace of Joycean Fringe Firsts, Balloonatics take on Alfred Döblin's 1929 novel. Paul O'Hanrahan successfully lays an Ariadne's thread through the novel's narrative labyrinth, only occasionally relying on the audience to make connections that are left implicit. His staging is an object example in studio-theatre production: the five actors give refreshingly unexaggerated performances, and can adeptly switch characters even in mid-sentence. Intelligent and skilful.
Written for The Independent.
Copyright © Ian Shuttleworth; all rights reserved.
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