War of the Worlds is a visually thrilling portrait of desolation

Founded more than 25 years ago by its three co-artistic directors (Pete Brooks, Andrew Quick and Simon Wainwright), Imitating the Dog theatre company treats the stage as a crucible in which live action, live filming, set models, cardboard cutouts and projections are fused into visually astonishing performance, simultaneously delivered on stage and surrounding screens (here, also, aurally impressive – James Hamilton, composer and co-sound designer with Rory Howson).

Audiences watch as the means of production are deployed overtly by (in this instance) four actors, three of whom are also camera-operators and prop-manipulators, to create the fiction (often based around well-known works, with past shows including takes on Dracula, Heart of Darkness, Frankenstein). In the words of the programme: “The cinematic is not just the representation of an image but also a staging of how the image is constructed.” This is more than an exercise in technical virtuosity; it is also a dramaturgical statement.

In this much-altered version of HG Wells’s 1898 novel, War of the Worlds, the nameless, injured, vulnerable “hero” (Gareth Cassidy, stinkingly intense) wanders a desolate 1960s London, trying to return home to his wife as Martians on giant tripods flash lethal rays in the distance. His (very slow) progress is charted and shaped by the tech operators who also morph into crazy, gothic-noir characters, threatening, challenging, accusing.

The “hero” appears simultaneously manipulated yet agent of his actions. He only has to declare himself thirsty for a blank, cardboard cutout bottle to be thrust into his outstretched hand; this, filmed and projected on to a screen combining live and recorded images, appears real and logoed, as he raises it to his lips and drinks.

Gradually, newsreel flashbacks to 1960s fascist rallies intercut the images of devastation. His wife, among others, accuses him of hatred. His initial vulnerability was only circumstantial; we realise he carries responsibility for other desolations.

Overall, this is conceptually intriguing and presentationally thrilling, but be prepared for a dramatic momentum weighed down by the complexity of the construct.

War of the Worlds, Cast, Doncaster, is touring until 2 May

Photograph by Ed Waring