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Amorata, a Bristol-based vocal theatrical group, have created iCU, an eclectic fusion of songs and drama to illustrate how seven characters touch each other's lives and misconstrue each other's meanings.
This devised piece, which the cast has worked on for more than a year, is an exploration of perception and impression.
The concept was hit upon by director Séamus Synge, who noticed how differently two people can see the same thing when he visited various art galleries.
Applying the same issue to people, he began questioning his perception of those he met, wondering if he was seeing the true person, or merely an incomplete impression.
The culmination of these musings is iCU. The characters, who meet in an art gallery, undergo a journey of discovery as they get to know each other, and express this through what is essentially a montage of dramatic scenes interspersed with musical interludes.
The company hand-picked music from a melting pot of different styles, including a 17th-century madrigal, the Champagne Chorus from Die Fledermaus, a bit of Elvis, The Beatles, Tasmin Archer's Sleeping Satellite and even Mairzy Dotes and Dozy Dotes.
Amorata have a wealth of musical experience behind them, much of it professional, and this showed in a highly polished and accomplished production.
The singing, particularly that of Ethel-Jane Cormack and Susan Weaver, was of the highest quality, and numbers such as Ride On and I Will Remember You were very touching, while Nowhere Man was hilarious.
This abridged version of iCU is a brave exploration of some difficult themes, but with a running time of only 75 minutes tends to identify and label them without fully exploring them.
The full version, which will run closer to two hours, has a very promising work to build on.
Amorata are taking iCU to the Edinburgh Fringe from August 13 - 18, and will no doubt inspire and entertain.
Rating: 4/5
Dominic Harris
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