The Inferno review, The Bussey Building

Any new production company aiming for the stars is to be applauded. To reach the stars, however, you need to build a rocket that can deliver your team safely. Velvet Loop's decision to stage Dante's Inferno as an interactive experience should, in theory, work very well - it was done brilliantly with Faust (which is the same sort of territory) a few years back.

Hellish 

The Inferno is a journey through hell via those laid low by the deadly sins. That's as much as those of us who have not read the poem by Dante, know. So it is that on turning up at the glorious Bussey Building, one is met with visions of hell on earth - rowing lovers in the stairwell, a ranting man, and an oddly friendly couple in the bar, and then there's a bloke in a white suit who may be the devil or may  be Christ. Who knows? And therein lies the rub: if you're employing 24 actors across three floors of a building, how about structuring your work so the audience gets a story, rather than a series of emotionally loud but meaningless scenes?

The writers - Chris Leaney and Matt D Smith - have substituted dramatic behaviour for drama. People being angry with themselves, or with each other, is deeply unmoving when you have no idea who they are and, what's more, are given no reason to care. Basically, hell is full of a lot of angry men who've knowingly or unknowingly killed people. And it's full of jealous men, and lusting men, and gluttonous men and greedy men and violent men and... Who cares?

In conclusion: For a production this ambitious, the structure has to be water tight and the framing fresh, surprising and inclusive. It needs more chiefs clearing a narrative and visual path, and fewer performing Indians: there is no consistency in diction, conviction or delivery. The ambition here is fantastic, but ambition is only a starting point.

References
Bussey Building, Tickets

Bussey Building, 133 Rye Lane, London SE15 4ST       Run ends 27 July