Forced Entertainment nailed it with the ZOOM performance End Meeting for All. Kristy Stott, theatre editor writes: We’ve all become more familiar with Zoom during the lockdown…and whether you love or hate the video conferencing platform, End Meeting For All is probably the most entertaining Zoom call you will have during the pandemic. The grid of screens lends itself perfectly to this perceptive and comically unsettling performance. Brilliantly reflective of current times, the performers are plagued by technical difficulties and artistic misunderstandings.

Excavating comic chaos from complete isolation despair – Claire Marshall, Cathy Naden, Terry O’Connor, Robin Arthur, Richard Lowdon and Tim Etchells – are stuck in a world where the lockdown appears to have been going on for a very very very very long time. Cue bad wigs, skeletons, fake tears, frozen screens, smeared make-up, interruptions by dogs…and lots of gin.

Forced Entertainment have been at the forefront of new developments in theatre and performance for 35 years, and are renowned internationally for pushing the boundaries of contemporary theatre, this project sees the company turn their eye for collage, fragmented narrative and innovation towards video. Multi-layered improvisation, gradual repetitions and breakdowns all provide a reflection on the strange state of lockdown, and the wider anxieties that have surfaced during the pandemic.

Bringing absurd wit and brilliant humour, despite each performers’ infinite state of isolation, End Meeting For All is compelling viewing. If only all Zoom meetings were this entertaining…