Review: If All Else Fails at Battersea Arts Centre

Battersea Art Centre presents If All Else Fails, the latest touring production by Forced Entertainment. Fronted by Cathy Naden and Seke Chimutengwende, the performance is described as an ‘absurd test that fails to find answers… perplexing and original’. The performance is indeed perplexing and original, though, in my view, this worked to the detriment of its audience.

The piece felt more synonymous with performance art, better suited as part of a wider immersive experience, one where I could dip in and out at will. Instead, I felt trapped in my seat, wanting to escape this relentless cycle of repetition. Forced Entertainment are known for the length of their performances, which sometimes go on for 6 hours. Perhaps I should be grateful this was only 85 minutes.

Initially, I found the performance engaging. I was curious to see how and where it might develop, but it did not. After 10 minutes It became apparent that the anticipated evolution or shift in form was not coming. What I mistook for an elongated introduction turned out to be the entire structure of the performance.

I have never known repetition like this. It was a never-ending badminton match. The same variation of ten or so lines batted back and forth, back and forth, with minimal inflection or emotional change. What is more, the actors barely move from their static positions centre stage. The result was less a theatrical production and more an overdeveloped drama exercise.

The line ‘you are confused people’ resonated with me – perhaps because it perfectly encapsulated my experience. And, at about the 30-minute mark, when the performers started to repeat the phrases ‘You made a mistake’, ’There has been an error’, and ‘This is a test’ I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. I imagined the actors breaking out of this robotic, repetitive delivery to tell us, the audience, that we had indeed passed the ‘test’. The ‘test’ being the opening act. Alas, this did not occur.