Ultra Violet is a passionate, screaming protest against sexual repression. It is the haunting, beautiful and erudite tale of Violet, an English woman living in France during World War I, who falls blissfully in love with an American writer, Helen. Their story is told, with sufficient sensitivity and power, to convince even the most hardened homophobe of the right of the individual to love free from censure.
The performance packs such an abundance of factual and narrative information into a short time that one is left reeling with wonder at the writer's skill. Nenagh Watson, (she has worked with Polish genius Tadeusz Kantor and you can tell) interacts in an absurd and unnerving way with a life-size puppet – particularly effective in a heartbreaking dance with an ultraviolet skeleton after the death of her lover. Despite horrors (Nazism, eugenics and mutilation), the story is not without humour. Dorothy Lawrence gives an excellent vocal rendition of an array of characters and Chalona Deike interacts with the audience and her cello to create some of the most exciting and original adult storytelling I have ever seen.
The intermingling of visuals (courtesy of Rachel Field), electronic animation, puppetry, live performance and live music was quite simply brilliant – a rare thing in these days of frequent video projection misuse.