Devised by: DNA Studio
Director: Dor Frenkel
Reviewer: Lela Tredwell
Providing the surprisingly satisfying experience of watching other people assemble flat-pack furniture, RTFM (Read the F***ing Manual) is a highly engaging piece of interactive theatre that premiered at Edinburgh Fringe in 2024. With strong performances from Helen Harrison and Philip Honeywell, it combines physical theatre, an energetic soundscape and audience participation to explore the themes of loss, resilience and community.
Before you even find your seat, Olivia (Helena Harrison) and David (Philip Honeywell) are to be seen struggling into the theatre space with boxes that will be familiar to those who have purchased flat-packed furniture. The requests for audience assistance start very early and are hard to refuse. Regardless of the health and safety nightmare, audience members step forth to carry and transport items from place to place on the request of our vexed duo.
As distressed as they look initially, we discover David and Olivia are trying to assemble an Ikea wardrobe. Seems simple enough, but they disagree on reading the manual, along with many other points of construction. The conflict escalates fast, but then a much larger scale strife becomes apparent to us through sound and physical theatre. A war is waging around this crumbling couple’s DIY task, and highly energetic sequences take place that mesmerisingly create the feel of mechanised conflict.
Helena Harrison and Philip Honeywell are thankfully far more skilled in physical theatre and engaging with their audience, than their characters are in assembling the fated wardrobe. Olivia and David effectively call on audience members to count screws, move boxes and hide bits of wood. A particularly enjoyable section of the piece involves the couple frantically quizzing individuals on whether 47 nails is the correct number to secure the wardrobe’s back panel. We learn who are the rule followers in the room and who are the risk-taking rebels.
Whether you are Team David or Team Olivia, the assemblage of ‘fast-furniture’, accompanied by the updates from the invasion, raises a lot of reflections on the relationship between consumer culture, conflicts over resources, and what it means to create a home that is no longer a place of safety. When the wardrobe starts to resemble a coffin, we can’t help but feel very affected.
As satisfying as it is to see the wardrobe completed, it is accompanied by a feeling of discontent that we never discovered the particulars of this war. A testimony from a victim does help to flesh out the impact on individuals but the war itself is otherwise kept generalised, which does give us the sense that this could be taking place anywhere that IKEA delivers. The powerful imagery towards the end of the play is diluted by the hammering home of the somewhat self-righteous message about helping others in times of crisis.
Overall, this is a highly thought-provoking, engaging piece of interactive theatre that comes together very well despite the misplaced manual. It involves invigorating physical performances while exploring big themes and providing an entertaining, well constructed show, which is a great deal more robust than the wardrobe.
Reviewed on 10th May
