Amélie meets a telenovela in a seance at a magician's table.
Catalan artist Xavier Bobés has come up with an odd little show, telling a life's story in a dark and intimate table seated setting. Things Easily Forgotten is a walk down a certain memory lane, drawing from Spanish — Catalan — near history, and particularly objects of old that have seen a fair share of life.
There's music for the ears, things to hold and plenty to see — a full sensory experience. The story is larded thick with nostalgia. Just about amusing light table magic peppers the OK interesting, if rather quickly formulaic presentation. For a fleeting moment, the shows almost touches some of the magic of Amélie.
Bobés holds reasonably good pace, but the show doesn't find its legs at any point. There's enough things moving around that the 75 minutes doesn't feel long, but I wasn't particularly riveted at any point. An emphatic meh. Like watching someone's holiday photo album about a trip to an OK interesting destination. And you don't really know this person.
Things spends much of its duration in a state of gentle anticipation, but no real dramatic tension build up, and there certainly is no release by resolution. The story is pieced together, but doesn't form that cohesive a whole. Audience interaction adds essentially nothing. Bobés is charming enough, but also keeps a magician's distance.
I'm sure the objects have more to say to guests with a better grip on the required reading, but for a casual theatre goer this is a bit of a hard sell as a premium experience. For fans of someone else's nostalgia and quaint object storytelling in an intimate setting.