Longwave

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In a faraway shack partitioned from the civilised world by a stark, glacial landscape, one long wave radio keeps two scientists anchored in a quaint reality defined solely by the few things that surround them in their humble everyday. As if to extend the boundaries of their small world, the pair systematically squeeze their environs for all its worth, concocting whimsical experiments out of the sundry apparatus they have brought with them.

The play begins as they return in their foreboding anti-radiation suits to the comfort of their cabin with a round, anonymous object. They summarily commence a full-on investigation into the nature of this artefact, examining its aerodynamic properties and electrical conductivity before moving on to psychoanalysing it with a Rorschach test. The indifferent relic remains tacit, but the boffins are nonetheless pleased with the progress they are making and go on to celebrate their success with a champagne glass of chlorinated water.

Longwave is a comedy of gestures in the vein of Charlie Chaplin’s silent films with quirky humanistic elements borrowed from the universe of Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Without exchanging a word the two capricious characters connect in mind and work together to sate their shared curiosity of life. Above all else they are humans confronted by a baffling world full of unknowns who refuse to be tied down by the dogma of logic, and who express no surprise even when it is revealed that one of their cans of ration contains no grub but instead a dulcet moo sound.

For a large part of the play, what we get is a series of ludic sketches soundtracked by the diegetic radio, but at some point in the second half curiosity segues into a solemn longing for home and for normality. By the time the final segment comes, Longwave has become something very different to what it was in the beginning. Something with a hypnotic quality that gently invokes the kind of emotions normally reserved for reminiscences of childhood.

Unassumingly exuberant, Longwave is a rough-cut gem that incites wonder without twinkling opulently. Tune in and marvel.