Superposition seeks to solve what are life-long and often unanswered questions for most people.
What makes me, me? What is my place in the universe? – to name just a couple.
Playwright Chanje Kunda explores the laws of attraction and how to satisfy a longing to connect amongst many other philosophical complexities during this show at The Lowry in Salford.
To do this she takes the audience on a journey through quantum physics and a lap dancing club – an unexpected paradox to say the least.
Superposition is a one-woman show which Kunda wrote and now performs single-handedly. Yet, the piece feels somewhat unintimate from the outset, with physics theories and small boxes filling the set.
The playwright begins by introducing us to the world of, or should we say universe, of quantum physics. Telling the audience about the Big Bang, she unfortunately fails to make an initial impact.
Throughout the performance Kunda discusses theories in physics such as the separation of light particles and the splitting of the atom.
She does this undeniably well and for those that never quite understood the subject at school it is the science lesson any pupil might hope to have.
Yet by using physics, it possess the question: does the audience feel any closer to knowing their place in the universe or how to satisfy said longing to connect?
No, not in a convincing way.
When Kunda isn’t busy exploring the warren of quantum physics, she looks at female sexuality by transporting the audience to a lap dancing club and reliving anecdotes of her lessons in ‘erotic dancing’.
Taking issues, which are extremely relatable to women in the 21st century, she tells stories with intense humour and the audience cries with laughter.
There is no doubt that Kunda’s talent lies in comedy.
Despite Kunda both explaining physics and exploring issues of female sexuality extremely well, she fails to fuse both ideas together to create a single performance.
Luckily, Kunda is an extremely likeable performer and the humour within the performance makes it difficult not to enjoy.
She is quite clearly a star in many ways, but unfortunately by the end of Superposition, theatre-goers are left with only the bare essentials – literally as Kunda finishes the performance in her underwear.
