The Regretrospective

It bodes well, the space is set up as a performance installation, with a half-horse, half human creature lounging on an armchair in a rubbish strewn TV room. Muslin curtains framing the front of the stage that serve to create a sense of the audience not being present in this situation, one is a voyeur of the ensuing events in the privacy of Aster’s own home.

The trip hop soundtrack is incredible – the likes of DJ Shadow and Massive Attack create an atmosphere of mystique and serve to keep the audience engaged, if not enthralled. Luckily this engagement is enough to ensure the audience lasts the distance, because the flamenco itself is contrived and repetitive.

Ned, the half horse, half human (in fact a human with a horse’s head and black clothing), performs flamenco sporadically to seduce a large stuffed tiger that looks on, adoringly? Ready to pounce? The tiger is more interesting in the film vignettes projected onto the curtains and back wall; said vignettes made of stop-motion filming. This is where the sense of seduction is created, the live performance merely a bit of a dance round the space.

There is definitely a sense of this work remainly firmly in progress, and yet there is satisfaction and excitement that such a work can find a place at the Fringe.