Humanity Hallows Issue 6 Out Now
Pick up your copy on campus or read online
By Salman Shaffi
Manchester’s HOME recently staged a performance of the Fringe First Award winning play Tank.
Set in the 1960s, Tank is inspired by the notorious Dolphin House experiments when, during the cold war space race, NASA began to fund research into communication with dolphins. As part of the experiment, Margaret Howe Lovatt volunteered to spend 24 hours a day in isolation with a dolphin named Peter. The research was far from conventional, with attempts to teach Peter English, dealing with his sexual urges and experiments with LSD just part of Margaret’s role.
Based on these bizarre real events, Tank is satirical and absurdly brilliant, with Breach Theatre demonstrating the absurdity of what will be done in the name of science and politics. Experiencing misogyny in a male dominated environment, Margaret attempts to communicate with Peter, her hilarious repetitions of “Helloooo” and “Ball” showing the superficiality of the experiment.
Fragmentation furthers the sense of hilarity in the performance while also carrying tension. A video screen above the stage adds to the fragmented nature of the stories told below, while a video of Peter stares at the audience in a loop, overlooking the on-stage hilarity. A mixture of comedy and unease continues as the performers discuss if a description of Margaret’s legs, or describing her as a cowboy, is important to the exploitation of intelligent life on earth: misuse of scientific research on animals and agricultural industry cloaked in the hilarity of masturbation jokes.
Tank also feeds into a sense of psychological horror as the dolphins are presented through human actors, who move in and out of being either human or animal. Therefore, when pain and frustration are enacted, we hear the sounds of Peter’s distress processed through an incredible sound design which provides a strange dolphin like voice.
Ultimately, it is not only the captivity of dolphins at the heart of Tank but constraints around humans, who move from the front of the stage to the tank for water throughout the play, and whose offices are transformed into a tank.
For more information about upcoming events at HOME, visit www.homemcr.org
In each print issue, aAh! Magazine interrogates one word which runs as a theme throughout our published submissions. This time, we’re changing things up as we introduce aAh! The FRESHERS Issue and launch our Featured Artist brief ‘NEON CITY’. This special mini issue of aAh! will feature a guide to all Manchester has to offer….
Photography: Georgina Hurdsfield Sam Fender headlines Castlefield Bowl for Manchester’s Sounds of the City, straight off the back of performing a peak-time slot on Glastonbury Festival’s famous Pyramid Stage, Fender brings his electrifying set back for Manchester fans.
Autumn isn’t here just yet! You’ve still got time before the hustle and bustle of real life comes at you as August gives us one more month of summertime fun with a sports championship, one of the world’s oldest music festivals and ending with the main event, Manchester Pride. Be sure to make the most of these last days of summer and get out there.
It’s not long now until the hordes of people will be descending on the Lake District’s much-loved festival ground, Lowther Deer Park. After two years of consecutively being cancelled its set to take place from Thursday 28 July to Monday 1 August.
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