Fourth Monkey's Genesis and Revelation: Ascension Part 2

2016 has been a year of tragedy and horror. The perfect time, you’d think, for a play to comment on society. Voices of Donald Trump and headlines from around the world guide us into the theatre as Fourth Monkey begin the second part of their Revelation story, raising hopes that Part 1 was simply leading us to an explosion of modern resonance and aching relevance. This hope shatters as the hint at modernity is quickly dropped. Part 2 is just as incomprehensible and inconsequential as Part 1.

We trundle along to the second coming of Christ, but we never feel a sense of build up or climax. The enormous cast creep and crawl around the stage attempting to keep us entertained as we get lost and tangled in the plot. The visuals are undoubtedly stunning, though the low lighting levels don’t help audiences stay awake at the midnight show. The large group scenes of physical theatre are far more entertaining in Part 1, and the direction of this final instalment does not do enough to redeem the jumbled mess of a script.

The skin wound set is cleverly used in a comic scene of media moguls, but the stabs at current events are stretched and the scene doesn’t fit within the rest of the production. The long stage feels full of wasted potential.

Ascension Parts 1 and 2 are an ambitious attempt at using modern practices to retell an old story, but they aren’t accessible, digestible or particularly memorable.