We Can Time Travel
Shoreditch Town Hall
Reviewed – 26th April 2018
★★★
“supernaturally quirky and rather quite endearing”
Humankind’s fascination with the notion of time travel has been endless. Particularly through literature and film, have we explored the idea of being able to revisit the past, or taken a look at what our future has in store for us. Whether it is with a flux capacitor, time holes, or mind control, there have been many different theories on how we could voyage through the years. However, one conclusion most time travelling adventures have in common, is that meddling with your past, present or future can never bring the satisfaction you are looking for. If anything, it brings more problems than it’s worth. So Dom Coyote also finds out in his current solo piece, We Can Time Travel. He has discovered the key to travelling through time, yet he will find that being back in the present is the best place to be. Combining storytelling with the atmosphere of an intimate gig, this multi-faceted show is supernaturally quirky and rather quite endearing.
Dom knows how to time travel, and he wants to take you with him, and prove that his makeshift time machine works. But first, he must explain how and where it all began. Since childhood, Dom received various recordings from his grandfather. Whilst listening back to them on his old Casio tape deck, Dom notices an odd sound. A sound, that is like a mysterious voice. Through his own detective work and the help of H.G. Well’s 1895 novel The Time Machine, Dom finds out the importance of this voice and consequently the way to move through time. Revisiting the moment his grandfather mysteriously died, as well as an unpleasant encounter with Dom’s elderly self in the future (rendering him into wanting to change his ways within the present) makes this tale, at times, feel like a sci-fi retelling of A Christmas Carol. When an issue with getting back home occurs, Dom begins to realise and value the importance of making the most of the present.
With analogue synthesisers, keyboards, looping machines, cassette players and microphones taking up most of the dingy basement performance space, this futuristic, musical paraphernalia, with all its knobs and dials, create the appearance of Dom’s DIY time machine. Coyote has composed the accompanying music and soundscape to his dystopian world and it works rather well. It is too unique and technology-driven to be put under the ‘musical’ category, which is why it lies closer to being like a gig with accompanying storytelling. Coyote’s gravelly, impassioned, singer-songwriter vocals are haunting to listen to, adding to the abstract dimensions in which the story roams. The music does seem the strongest part of the production, however, there are certainly some inventive moments where both the storytelling and lighting design (created by Chris Swain) shine.
Reviewed by Phoebe Cole
We Can Time Travel
Shoreditch Town Hall until 5th May
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