Infinite Joy – Southwark Playhouse

Infinite Joy continues at the Southwark Playhouse, London until 14 July 2018.

Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩

Now in its fourth year, the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation Bridge Company premieres two original musicals, Sticky and Infinite Joy, in rep for its Southwark Playhouse residency.

The initiative, formed of recent BRIT school graduates, claims to offer a unique training during which the company members will produce dynamic, socially relevant work in a professional context.

Entering the Playhouse’s ‘Little’ space, we are greeted by sporadic bursts of ambient text and ringtones, a common housekeeping technique to ensure devices are switched off in decent time.

This persists bafflingly every five to ten seconds, perhaps, I think, due to overzealous management, before realising that this is more than just a looping track, this is the sound of tonight’s concept announcing itself. Infinite Joy is musical theatre with a message and it isn’t afraid to batter you over the head with it.

Directed by Simon Kane, the story centres around a group of teenagers on a remote Scottish Island under the care of Mother Earth (Charlotte Bailey), raised without access to technology, instead finding deepest pleasure in ‘the melting of the frost in the morning sun’ and other lip-curling quaintnesses. When a mobile phone washes up on their shore, curious Aurora (Hannah Snell) unlocks a world she could never have dreamed of, the technological world of infinite joy.

And here is when things start getting interesting. The arrival of Siri (a commanding Roseanne Musgrove) welcomes with it a charm and pop-culture lambasting wit that seemed threateningly distant in the first 15 minutes.

Gone (mostly) are the hokey duets and stale ballads, making way for catchy, genre-spanning numbers – ambitiously choreographed by Julia Cave – which channel the energy that had been bursting from the young company since the house
lights went down.

It’s fair to say that there isn’t a weak link in the company and, in rep with Sticky, it would be fascinating to watch the two shows concurrently tosee more from those playing ensemble roles here. That said, all are given their chance to be showcased and seize it with impressive style and verve.

There are moments of genius to be had over the evening but unfortunately they come in peaks and troughs. The biggest problem writer Brendan Cull and composer Robert Scott face is in narratively justifying their iOS inspired revue.

The scenes back on the island clunk along with some truly spotty dialogue voiced by uninspired archetypes. Moments celebrating the natural world come across as corny and drab, making you long to go back to the phone. The irony of being in a theatre at these points is not lost.

Infinite Joy truly succeeds when it isn’t getting bogged down in its own message. Despite making some highly amusing digs at the superficiality of social media and the scourge of pop up ads, its criticisms don’t amount to an awful lot. It tepidly asks the ever persistent question: ‘do we really need these?’ and the conclusive answer once again is a lukewarm ‘yes and no’. Now what?

Alex Chard