Review: Japan's answer to the Blue Man Group - Siro-A
03/10/2014
If you cross the Blue Man Group with Japanese pop culture, electro music and video then you'll have an idea of what Siro-A's show is all about.
The six performers are dressed in white rather than blue but over the course of 60 minutes spin through a number of 'acts' which involve video projections, light, cameras, performance and dance. It's very clever and slightly difficult to describe.
Sometimes the performers are shadows against a backdrop on which images are projected, sometimes they hold square screens on which images are projected and sometime they have images projected onto their white suits. It is skillfully done and timed with great precision so that they can interact with the images, move with them, catch them, throw them etc. All the time you are thinking: are the following the images or the images following them?
There's a bit of audience participation too involving filmed vocalisations which are quickly cut into a music number. And if you volunteer to have your photo taken before the show starts then you will be seeing yourself up on the big scheme, again expertly edited into a rather quirky video.
Siro-A is as much about skilled performance as it is about technology skills. If you like the Blue Man Group you'll like this. Buy a ticket if you want to see something different, something that can be funny and the beats toe-tapping.
It runs at the Leicester Square Theatre until 11 Jan.