It Felt Like A Kiss - terror and revelations in a Manchester office block

It Felt Like A Kiss –How an insight into US culture, your pack mentality, human suggestibility and blind terror can be a great Birthday present.

It Felt Like a Kiss (IFLAK) was one of the stand out events of the Manchester International Festival. A collaboration between film-maker Adam Curtis (The power of Nightmares), Punchdrunk ( A theatre group specialising in walk-through theatre experiences) and Damon Albarn (the man whose breadth of creativity Noel Gallagher wishes he had ).It's officially over now and was originally slated to be a one off, although now it is rumoured to be travelling to London and Moscow?!? Because the more you know about the performance, the less you get out of it I shall keep this part brief. IFLAK is a similar to a walk-through fairground ride, which will just like Curtis's films shoot ideas past you at a rapid rate. At the centre was a 35 minute showing of Curtis's film, a documentary on late 50s/early 60s America and the power and falsehoods of dreams. The spaces you walk to to get to the film, reflect fragments of the film. These spaces are incredible in detail, innocuous discomfort or blatant fear manipulation. After the film (as you are warned at the beginning) and as you progress through more spaces connected to the film you begin to see the dream become an nightmare. And what was naggingly uncomfortable before becomes a terrifying assault. Your role as spectator changes slowly to participant and you find yourself assaulted with just how suggestible you are and how much you will obey. And after 2 hours of creeping about, with growing paranoia, it's a lot more than you think. IFLAK wants to show you that you are not an individual, that you are the same as everyone else and as you dash gasping and possibly screaming into eventual daylight and see the rest of the audience doing the same, you take the point to heart. Not bad for 'art'.

After most theatre/gig trips you can find yourselves dissecting the performance over a pint, maybe relishing a few choice memories for a couple of days. Post IFLAK most people sit in the pub, gently shaking, convinced the barman isn't real and desperately trying to process the ordeal. You won't forget IFLAK, infact most people will be having 'nam style flashbacks for weeks. I managed to get very alarmed by an empty corner of my bedroom at 3am following the show. With such a resounding impact, I recommend the performance to anyone who relishes a new experience, enjoys having the boundaries between exhibition, play and film blurred and can handle a gentle transition from spectator, to active participant. Go and experience IFLAK, sell your horror movie DVD collection, psychology, self help and history books. You'll get a more intimate understanding of yourself and your fellow man in 2 hours of IFLAK than in any of them.