DRAWING on Gustav Meyrink’s expressionist novel Der Golem of a century ago, this production by the 1927 company is ostensibly a narrative about a disaffected office worker who, to spice up his dreary life, buys himself a clay man “who can only obey.”

But, in this version, it’s transformed into a vision of the world that corporate, profit-driven technology is creating.

A visually arresting theatre piece, scripted and directed by Suzanne Andrade, it strikingly blends live performance and animation to tell the story of the nerdy and kind-hearted Robert Robertson, brilliantly played by Shamira Turner.

Working in an office of misfits writing out binary code “in case the power goes out,” Robertson develops a crush on office mate Joy — the head of stationery who dresses like a pencil — and plays “keytar” in his sister’s basement-dwelling, revolutionary punk band Annie and the Underdogs. 

Robert’s love of gadgets leads him to purchase Golem, an animated clay man who’s “here to help.” At first Golem’s useful — shopping, working and “protecting.”

But “upgrades” and exposure to advertising turn Golem’s aid into something sinister.

As he insists on helping Robertson become a “modern man,” how hollow and branded that idea is becomes ever clearer. Robertson’s relationships are shattered — friends become “competition” and Joy (Rose Robinson) “frumpy.”

Robert’s bandmates protest this change — and his new passion for Bono — to no effect.

The technology helping Robertson “keep up” in the modern world is actually creating a new fragmented reality which drags him in. The final image is of Robertson alone, frozen against a plain bright backdrop and dressed identically to his branded, corporate Golem. 

Gone is the texture, depth and vitality of the world at the play’s beginning — no striking animation, no song, no physicality. Instead, there’s a lifeless, corporate body.

The play’s single idea, that profit-driven technology will suck the life from us and our communities, is simple enough. 

But the resultant sense of loss shown in this excellent theatrical parable is what horrifies.

Runs until May 22, box office: trafalgar-studios.co.uk

Review by Katherine M Graham