The Melancholy of the Tourist – Brighton Festival

This unexpectedly magical show last night was also the UK premiere for this Spanish/Mexican theatre company Oligor y Microscopía – a hispanic duo with a fascination for expressing theatre through documentary objects. This was a quirky and intimate exploration of human engagement with the world told in innovative yet reassuring ways.

Creating a serene, inquisitive and enticing atmosphere, the audience was invited to explore bittersweet memories and feelings around people and places.

Lights, cine film, spoken word, and mechanical artistry all combining to reveal heartfelt, exquisite and sometimes heartbreaking stories of the human condition.

Using a technique the founders and creators call ‘theatre of documentary objects’, this inventive Spanish/Mexican company combine light and shadow, paper and tin, slide projectors, pulleys and a raft of handmade and analogue mechanica to ask questions about what lies in our imaginations and what is in reality.

It was the perfect kind of melancholy  – tristesse. We sat entranced watching small portions of far-flung lives appear in increasingly unexpected ways.

Taking place at the newly opened Anita’s Room inside Brighton Dome, The Melancholy of the Tourist is a de-construction of the moments using found objects that form lost and imaginary landscapes.

It’s too special to explore in depth here but this is highly recommended show. I’m glad I saw it.

Do go and see it before it leaves Brighton after 26th May!

Booking