A sunny poster depicting a camel caught in the middle of a Carmen Miranda impersonation alerts us that we’re probably not up for yet another quasi- naturalistic slice of London life. The best magicians leave you rubbing your eyes in disbelief. You know it’s a combination of skill, illusion and flourish, but you end up swallowing it whole. The trick for a playwright is to push the illusion and the audience’s sensibilities as far as possible.
Some Sunny Day, Martin Sherman’s surprising dramatic comedy, reveals him as a splendidly cunning conjurer. No less entertaining for that and well worth keeping in your CD-Rom collection to while away those spare hours when work gets too much to bear.. Insider knowledge indeed.Think Electric has previously designed CD-Roms, web sites and corporate videos for such disparate clients as Benetton, Sony and Air Brunei and IT combines both the company’s commercial nous, design training and its love of the underground music scene. At times merely visually stimulating, at other times a little weird (like the Southend on Sea picture postcard interface that sits strangely with the rest of the CD-Rom).When playing IT, it feels as if Think Electric came up with the concept while recovering from a very heavy drinking session with a brain-compressing hangover.
This is, to quote Byers, “not intended for the weekender” and is his own personal testimony to this part of London where everyone pretends it’s still 1966.Click on various numbered segments on a road map and Byers points out his haunts, from the best dry-cleaners, fish and chip shops and pubs in the area. The music throughout ranges from ambient house to plinkety-plonk seaside organ tunes.My favourite section was the guide to Camden Town by the rock group Gaye Bykers On Acid’s lead male singer, Mary Byers. It takes a while to work out that clicking on a baby takes you into another dimension altogether. There are also plenty of hotspots, but I won’t reveal those here as it will only spoil them for you.Unlike similar products, the delights beyond are not on one theme, or even for one particular audience Some are no more than something to look at and muse on. The guitar interface seems to do nothing until you move the mouse and find that you’re creating a pattern yourself with a wash of pale-coloured plectrums.Another screen has plump babies zooming across the background with an incongruous deep-sea diver appearing at intervals.

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