Extropia/A Day In Dig Nation

Source: The List (Issue 581)
Date: 1 August 2007
Written by: Steve Cramer

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Technological vs. natural

The idea of multimedia incorporated into theatre has become a pretty common notion these days. Too often this means placing a video monitor on stage to tick the ‘contemporary’ box. Magic Carpet Theatre Company want to push the boundaries further. In the five-hander Extropia we see an abstract version of the current world, where conformity and a want of colour in life is evident, until one man begins to hear music and artistic vision is inspired. In A Day in Dig Nation, we encounter a man pulled into a virtual world, where, in his own mind, he becomes an atomised kind of hero.

‘A lot of the time I see multimedia shows, and they don’t really illustrate why they’re using all this stuff. This is a show where it’s really part of the story,’ says artistic director Adam Koplan of Dig Nation. But each show is linked by a common theme of the disintegration of our natural way of life. ‘In the natural world everything grows some kind of system. Part of that for humans is the idea of things done collectively.

Now, although you’ll often see people working collectively, characteristically in a big tower, the common goal isn’t necessarily important to the people that are working towards it. Their goal is kind of self-serving and individualistic. We’re out to address that’.

Extropia, Pleasance Dome, 556 6550, 4–27 Aug (not 14), 5.20pm, £9–£10 (£7.50–£8.50). Previews until 3 Aug, £5; A Day in Dig Nation, Pleasance, 556 6550, 4–27 Aug, 2.20pm, £9–£10 (£7.50–£8.50). Previews until 3 Aug, £5.

More: Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Fringe (Edinburgh Festivals), Previews (Theatre)

Last updated: 25 Jul 2008 17:14 BST