Theatre review: Cow | Deer

Katie Mitchell has been noticing that Foley art is a thing that exists, and building shows around it, on and off for years now. To be honest I probably wouldn't have booked Cow Vertical Bar Deer, which Mitchell co-creates with Nina Segal and Melanie Wilson, if it hadn't been a co-production with the National Theatre of Greece and I'd not felt like being supportive. In the end it's not quite my cup of tea but didn't feel like a waste of my time either. The show is entirely wordless, with the cast of four responding to Wilson's pre-recorded soundtrack of animal and machine noises by using Foley techniques to create the rest of the sounds heard by the titular animals: A heavily pregnant cow in a field, and in a nearby wood a deer, whose levels of fecundity the informational postcard we're given at the start doesn't disclose.

Pandora Colin, Tom Espiner, Tatenda Matsvai and Ruth Sullivan stand at dimly-lit tables covered in grass, hay and water tanks with microphones focused on them; they manipulate the seemingly random items to create a rural soundscape, and generally look pretty pissed off about it, although that might just be concentration.

So we hear the deer's hooves crunching through mud and grass, and suspicious cracking noises that might be a danger creeping up on him and stepping on a twig. Being told in advance the cow was pregnant prepares us for lots of squelching and plopping noises, largely involving fruit and veg, although the cow taking a big piss requires them to empty a hot water bottle. They bang pak choi about, seem particularly fond of the sound of tearing mint leaves (which has a handy olfactory side-effect) and at one point they're fisting a melon, man.

The fact that the postcard telling us about how the theatrical experiment works also includes a couple of clues to the narrative suggests the creatives are not entirely confident in the ability of sounds alone to tell the story - certain major events do come across clearly but there are long repetitive patches of countryside sounds that quickly get dull. The fact that we're also encouraged to close our eyes if we want to could be insurance, suggesting that if the audience fall asleep that's what they wanted all along, actually. Or it could just be that whatever Mitchell's lauded skills as a director, finding the light switch has never been one of them. At times boring and/or baffling, Cow | Deer does also have moments that conjure up beauty, and make you feel quite pleased with yourself for being able to follow a few bits of what's going on.

Cow | Deer by Katie Mitchell, Nina Segal and Melanie Wilson is booking until the 11th of October at the Royal Court's Jerwood Theatre Upstairs (returns and day seats only.)

Running time: 1 hour straight through.

Photo credit: Camilla Greenwell.