Wondermart

19/07/2010

Theatre goes off its trolley @ Tesco Extra, Cardiff

Wondermart
Tesco Extra
Cardiff
3/5

Described by creators Rotozaza as a playful swipe at supermarket culture and consumerism, this piece of site-specific theatre blurs the lines between what it means to be performer or audience and where a piece of drama can happen, while toying with thoughts of fiction and real life.

You might have noticed the venue? Yup, it's Tesco. Not your average theatre space, you'll agree and that’s not all that’s unusual about this show: reviewer is soon to turn actor, and the audience will be the supermarket shoppers who will hopefully remain oblivious to the fact that I am performing to a script. Scary, confusing, exciting? Most definitely. I have downloaded a free MP3 from the Wales Millennium Centre's website, loaded it onto my player and am now stood looking up at the outside of the megastore. Time to press play.

Jaunty get-going music greets my ears then a friendly female voice says to take a trolley, walk inside and leave my worries in the cloakroom of concerns. I suppress a giggle, and not for the last time this afternoon. It feels strangely liberating to be here for reasons other than feeding the family. Flowers and fresh produce are often placed by the door so as to welcome you into a Garden of Eden, offers my guide.

Then come a series of fun missions ranging from trailing someone but staying unnoticed, while hearing a fantasy biography of how, while they shop, their dog is licking clean plates on the drainer at home, to acting out theories on how best to steal while appearing shifty for the benefit of the security cameras.

We place food items next to each ear and hear them say “Choose me, choose me!” as I wonder what must the other shoppers be thinking by now? But the favourite event of the day is being summoned to the freezer aisle where one slow foot in front of the other sounds like a footfall made on fresh snow. I open a freezer door at the moment instructed and I can hear an Arctic blast blowing from within. Another giggly delight.

The half hour tours ends with a farewell walk out into the car park. I'm left feeling slightly baffled but excited by the low-level espionage and the unseasonal weather experience, but mostly by having lived a short graphic but very secret life courtesy of an inspired theatrical team.

Jane Oriel

Wondermart is available to download free from www.wmc.org.uk until August 1. It’s part of Wales Millennium Centre’s Blysh Festival