Review: Chris Goode & Company present ‘Weaklings’ at Warwick Arts Centre

Since 2005, American poet and performance artist Dennis Cooper has been cultivating a blog. Through image-heavy posts and a dedication to interaction with his followers, the blog is home to an engaged community of artists and fans. ‘Weaklings’, written and directed by Chris Goode, is loosely based on this blog’s timeline and the experiences of its followers.

A multimedia performance with exquisite technical design, ‘Weaklings’ sees characters connected to each other via a cult icon’s blog. As the play begins, the cube initially housing the performers is opened on both sides. We see much of the action physically and emotionally distanced from us behind this hazy screen, partially obstructed by reflections of light or film.

The writer sits above, always at her laptop, making contact with the audience via video link. There should be a sense of a community, given their shared interests, but it quickly becomes established that instead there’s a scrambling, desperate need to be noticed by their idol.

A young man posts a photo of his cut wrists, others contribute lines of tormented poetry. The line between fiction and reality is blurred; the audience is unable to trust the written word or the physical action onstage as the world beyond the blog. The cast, featuring Christopher Brett Bailey and Karen Christopher, give enigmatic performances, directed with pin-point accuracy.

Whilst ‘Weaklings’ is visually impressive, structurally the show faces problems. This is a dark, brooding performance and, with few changes in pace or tone, it’s about half an hour too long. It was commented to me by a fellow audience member that the show feels like it’s “wallowing in horrible things”. Nevertheless, the writing has a wonderful black humour peppered throughout which adds a spark to the piece.

Overall. Weaklings is grotesque and deeply disturbing, though also beautiful. It just doesn’t really feel like it’s moving, in both senses of the word.

Weaklings is playing at Warwick Arts Centre until 8th October, for more information visit the Warwick Arts Centre website. Fierce Festival is running until 11th October in venues across Birmingham.