Greedy Scratchers

The Greedy Scratchers team promise to whisk an audience through six million years of human development through the eyes of one family. Quite what the purpose of this epic task is seems unclear before the group commence their time travelling. An hour later, it's still tough to see much point in the endeavour.

The production opens with a long exposition of Neanderthal man. These pre-homo sapiens are signified by script writing such as "ug, ug" and by plenty of animal-like sex. From this point, man's increasing modernity is illustrated through various degrees of pidgin English and by the introduction of the less bestial missionary position. It's a nice way of showing forward human progression, but there's little attempt to understand how or why these changes happened. Discoveries of superstition, ritual or agriculture are unsatisfactorily viewed as fortunate accidents. A healthy dose of pop anthropology helps outline the human effects of these changes, but these sensual and spiritual awakenings seem more like a decrease in stupidity than a Frankenstein-like development of perception. Splashes of humour are provided by putting modern vulgarities into pre-modern mouths. It's the way they tell 'em.

A whistle stop tour of recorded history is no less ineffective at exploring a specific view of human history: "China: fireworks...France: Bonjour." it's hard to see what purpose these shrewd observations serve. That's not to say the script doesn't strive towards an understanding of historical processes. Statements the like of "the present stands on the past," or "tomorrow is a bully" point towards problems of dealing with history simply as a chronology. But the drama does not support any further scrutiny. There's plenty more sex, though.

The saving grace of the production is a subplot of the young girl's inability to reproduce, providing a wonderfully poignant check on the vision of relentless human progression. Throughout, the infertile girl must constantly apologise, repent, pray; she undergoes barbaric Victorian treatments. The twentieth century 'cure' upsets an otherwise simplistic human-historical timeline, showing modern science serving primitive needs. It might have been the main feature, rather than a just a sideshow but, alas, that's history now.