Live Performance Review: Ganesh Versus The Third Reich produced by Back To Back Theatre (Edinburgh International Festival (E.I.F.) 2014), Sunday 10.08.2014 14:30 Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh

The basic premise of this performance that Ganesh goes to Germany during the time of the Third Reich to reclaim the Swastika from its corruption by the Nazi's. I was expecting something interesting to be done around this idea...

Sadly there was a convoluted presentation where the audience were shown the actors doing their performances and also showed the actors as actors doing 'prep' for the production. Regrettably this device appears to have not been used in any creative manner. I suspect this may have been an attempt to be 'post-modern-archly-ironic'. These labels tend to only get applied to a performance when there is a clear attempt to do something with this sort of 'deconstructionist' approach. Sadly when a production, like this one, appears to be very muddled as to what it is doing, it tends to only get very negative labels attached.  

The actor playing the director of the group (also the only one involved who did not appear to have a mild learning disability) was at times speaking directly to the audience and in a very un-subtle way was telling the audience what they should be thinking of the show and it's purpose. That same character goes on to bully another participant. I did wonder whether this was a very cack-handed way of trying to draw parallels with the Nazi's. I can't see any other rationale, though if this is the reasoning, clearly I was not impressed by the heavy handed nature of this element. Clearly someone who is a fascist may well bully, though I feel it is impossible to say that someone who bullies is a fascist; this is too great a jump. 

Sadly the whole production felt am-dram in the worst possible way; there was one actor who on more than one occasion appeared to forget his lines only to be loudly prompted to be able to continue. There was crass jokes that trivialized elements of Jewish history; which resulted in me trying to chew my fist off. The entire performance felt stilted, staid & staged, there was no flow. This was not like seeing a local community panto where you accept small blips in the rustic charm of people putting on a performance with a sense of fun. This was people out of their depth, trying to tackle a subject which deserved a more creative and sensitive approach.  

I waited until the end just in case I was to slam this and then people were to say 'ah but you did not get to the twist at the end'. I was hoping there was going to be a twist to hopefully make me feel silly for having got my dander up. Sadly not, it was just an angering, bordering on the offensive waste of my time. - I suspect those involved feel there is a purpose to all this (I bet they would struggle to spell it out). It is not even good enough to be able to be controversial. 

This is quite seriously one of the worst live performances I have ever seen, professional or otherwise. I don't want to start doing negative scores, although I feel this does warrant it. 

Rating: 00/00.

The one good thing about the performance was the supertitles. The performance was done in English, German & Sanskrit. This is the first time I have seen Supertitles well positioned so I did not have to take my eye of what was happening to see the text. A further shame, when considering the rest of the comments I have felt to be necessary.