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Theatre listings > The Factory. - World Premiere. Writer and Performer - Al Seed - The Arches' Artist in Residence. Full Productions details - Here. Venue - The Arches, Glasgow Argyle Street opposite Central Station under the railway. Dates - 23 - 25 November 2005. This production will tour in 2006. Run Time - 55 mins no Interval. Reviewer - Tom Tàbori. Thrillingly disquieting. Al Seed's stunning performance in The Factory is that of an artist in residence completely at home. The Arches (EdinburghGuide Arches' page) have found themselves one of their own in Al Seed, his clowning, performing, throbbing show is on the progressive wing even of this progressive establishment. The Factory is radically anti-war and suggests The Arches will not stagnate at any level as long as he is about. It's thrillingly disquieting and Seed will keep The Arches going to where cliché and pretence and contentment are broken down. The Factory opens with Al Seed like a puppet-subject of the electronic industrial music around him. His struggle against pressing the red button on his desk is as hilarious as it is sad to see his half-naked form quiver in futile resistance to the military industrial complex, the factory working upon him. The button is pressed, destruction is unleashed. When the smoke clears Seed reappears becoming the god of war, wearing a crown of bullet belt in the half-light. This creation is the second of the Seed's personas, ingeniously configured, like an evil version of Chaplin's Great Dictator, raping the Earth's giant projection on the floor. He consumes and gluts himself on the fallout, licks clean the imaginary sword with which he carves the spoils. The third is a tragic, politician at-the-mic clown. In this guise he turns his attention on the audience, classic interaction made disturbing by becoming intensely embarrassing as he pleads for money, or at least our coats, or then maybe that we steal for him the coat of the person next to us. Until giving painful gasps, with darkness around him falling, he pulls down a dehumanising balaclava, disappearing through space into his war lord role. Magical. The idea behind The Factory is enforced by the quotes on the programme. Herman Melville, Charles Bukowski and Allen Ginsberg are all there to highlight The Factory's man moulded by war into obscenity, "Men who look like frogs, hyenas, men who walk as if melody had never been invented"(Bukowski), made into the sleazy creature that finally flashes the audience a look at his briefcase, full of the red buttons that began Seed's original fall. Perhaps the best new theatre of the year and a great start to Seed's residency. © Tom Tàbori 23 November 2005 - Published on EdinburghGuide.com EdinburghGuide Review of Raw Beef by Hoax Productions at 2004 Edinburgh Fringe with Al Seed and Ivan Marcos. Full Productions details. Writer and Performer - Al Seed - The Arches' Artist in Residence. Directorial Assistant - Aggelika Spetseri. Lighting Design and Stage Manager - Jesse Cogdell. Musical arrangement - Roddy Matheson. Musical adviser - Jenny Laird. Set and Props - Jazz Hutsby. Costume - Kristina Telfer. Music used in order and section they are associated with - 1. Punch-in - The Factory by Roddy Matheson. 2. Big Red Button - Big Red Button by Debbis Jane. 3. "Exterminate the Brutes" - McDonalds by Matthew Herbert. 4. Get 'em Young - Frost Investigation by Chris Clarke / Ganz Graff by Autechre. 5. Debt Consolidation. 6. "Death Wants More Death" - The Pink Room by Angelo Badalamenti / His Immortal Logness by the Orb / Savanna by Abigail Mead. 7. Team Building. 8. "Occasional Hell" - Ruins by Abigail Mead / Occasional Hell by Roddy Matheson / Time Suspended by Abigail Mead. 9 Everything Reduced - Everything Reduced by Abigail Mead. 10. Punch-out - Paintball's Coming Home - Half Man Half Biscuit. Theatre Editor, Thelma Good's e-mail is thelma@edinburghguide.com Although every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the information presented in these pages, no responsibility can be accepted for any errors or omissions. Theatre listings >
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