Fuel’s Ring is more than just a show, it’s an invitation. This exciting project, developed at Warwick Arts Centre as part of the Triggered@Warwick project and incorporating the contributions of Warwick student volunteers, is immerse and evasive all at once, dangling its audience in a double-standard. Under the instructions of our elusive Master of Ceremonies ‘Michael’, we are plunged into a dark abyss that is both familiar and alien as our aural senses are stretched to their limits. Distance becomes undefinable, and we are made to question our senses, our capacity to compensate.
Sat in the blackness with headphones as our only means of reception, we are fed imagery by a composition of voices. Ring plays tricks with its audience, the space seemingly consumed by a fictional world that hangs in our ears. The strength of this piece is to be found in its profoundly personal touch as each audience member builds their own mental picture. We negotiate a fictional world as a collective audience and yet our response is distinctly individual. The aural score is fantastically orchestrated and illusions of movement and proximity are skilfully employed to make us sit and squirm in both fear and glee.
A particular highlight sees each audience member serenaded by a choral rendition of The Carpenters’ Close to You as the image of a mangled body lingers in the empty blackness. This piece has a nightmarish, claustrophobic quality and is not for the faint-hearted, yet it is a nightmare that is of our own creation. As Fuel artfully demonstrates, there is much to be made of the power of suggestion.
Ring is on tonight (Thu 1 Nov) – book your tickets here or call the Box Office on 024 7652 4524.
