When you talk about 'The Swimmer' will you talk about yourself?, Antoine Fraval, Martin Harris Theatre, Manchester.

A man enters the stage in a pair of trunks. He sets up a microphone and loop pedal and then screws up paper into the mic to mimic footsteps and performs a series of loops of what can only be described as singing noises into the mic. This is scene one of the 1968 Burt Lancaster film The Swimmer. We have become familiar with, and often weary of theatre that seeks to reproduce the movies. Often this type of theatre seeks to recreate the experience for the audience as closely as possible, replacing the lack of close up by embellishing with spectacle. When you talk about the Swimmer will you talk about yourself? is an altogether different type of theatrical interpretation. The type of re-enactment in which the part of 'Ex girlfriend Shirley' is played by a bottle of suntan lotion and the emotional inner turmoil of the main character is represented by spilt Coke. Fraval and Corrieri use the film as a metaphor to explore the idea of home, seeking to draw out not an exact replication but the essence of the film. There are also moments in which Fraval stops to reflect on the meaning of a particular shot, wondering whether it represents an absence of character or lack of presence. The whole performance was precise, meditative and thoughtful and I look forward to finding out what happens after next after Lancaster spills that coke.