Scarface/Zeitlupe

Much work had gone into the first of two Welsh shows at the Project, Scarface, a homage to Brian de Palma's film starring Al Pacino. The Space Upstairs was split into two: one half consisting of a screen, the other having a camera facing a rostrum before a blue cloth. Projected on to the screen were filmed locations, purporting to be those of de Palma's film. Keyed into them was the energetic live action of performer/choreographer Eddie Ladd on the rostrum. Wearing a gangster's dark three-piece suit, she used both a revolving chair and a hoist to assist her in enacting the plot, which she also narrated, further helped by Tystion's attractive score and a sound track of effects from bird song to the crack of bullets.

Her acting was excellent, while her movement seemed a curious mixture of classic mime, sign language and that of a tictac man. But only the protracted death scene, her body spinning as the bullet struck, before falling over and over, seemed entirely successful. Everything else evoked admiration for the ingenuity and effort rather than the result.

Zeitlupe, on the other hand, evoked little admiration from me. Devised, performed, co-directed and partly composed by Jo Shapland, it seemed old fashioned, laboured and slightly ridiculous. The costume changes for each protracted entrance and props, from the alternating feather and stone of her chanted verse to the bowl of water and final V-shaped display of potted cactus plants, with their winking red lights, overwhelmed the movement, which showed the results of dance-training when the action permitted.