Schrödinger at Contact

Andrew Anderson

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Schrödinger

Contact Theatre, Manchester
24-25 May 2017

Always double check opening hours with the venue before making a special visit.

Schrödinger
© Adrian Philpott
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Some plays perfectly capture the political picture of the time they were created in – plays like Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, for example, which protested the on-going constitutional assaults of Joseph McCarthy and his cronies.

Then there are those plays that paint a landscape that has yet to come, their true power only revealed once the world has caught up with them. Schrödinger, which is on at Contact this May, is just such a play.

First produced 20 years ago, Schrödinger depicts a place where nothing is what it seems, where no one knows who has power and who is a puppet, and where once-strong words have become dust.

Trapdoors form a visual metaphor as the protagonists struggle to tell up from down, in from out and right from wrong. It’s a striking piece of symbolism, and makes for one of the most interesting set designs I’ve seen in a while, where cast members can come in through almost any angle.

Schrödinger is produced by Reckless Sleepers, whose works are always off-kilter – their 2014 show A String Quartet, for example, featured five ladies sawing chairs into pieces while sitting them ­– which makes them the perfect company for this chaotic work.

What's on at Contact Theatre

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