Film Club
Riverside Studios, London

Mark Tyson

What's the point of theatre? I've been thinking about this lately, as you do. Of course it is a silly question; as human beings we eat, drink, procreate and go to the theatre.

More interesting is theatre's relationship with other narrative forms. People Show 113 Film Club, inspired by the film Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? and the cult following it has attracted, cleverly attempts to use theatre to examine our relationship with film. Of course, in terms of its ability to shape and reflect the contemporary consciousness, theatre cannot hope to compete with cinema. The rise and promotion of mass popular culture has been irresistible.

Current TV nostalgia shows often focus on the music we listened to and the films and TV we watched. That is, they are about the popular culture that we consumed rather than what we did. I'm not going to get po-faced about this, it would be silly to bemoan the absence of wartime experiences for us to talk about. My point is that popular culture matters and theatre has to deal with this one way or another.

Film Club combines words, video, music and dance. It is visually stimulating and enjoyable as a piece of escapism, but I think it is aiming higher than this. The combination of different media in sometimes incongruous ways reminded me of the work of the TV playwright Dennis Potter, except that Potter usually gave us a kernel of mundane reality to hold on to. Here the opening senario is curious and we have to rely on the programme notes to tell us that the four protagonists have responded to an ad seeking volunteers to 'explore themes and scenes from the cult camp classic horror film Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?'.

Given that we are in the realm of cult movies here, I accept that I may have missed something. But Film Club seems to me more an exploration of the actor's psyche than that of the film buff. Film buffs are nerdy and introspective and wouldn't dream of getting up on a stage. Actors identify with their characters and are driven to portray them. Much as I admire their skill, I have never understood this, but that's show business.

Till 24 January 2004