Today should have been a great day. A morning show in Summerhall, a venue that consistently stages innovative work, followed by an afternoon play affectionately looking at a topic I very much relate to. Both Current Location by FellSwoop Theatre and Waitless by Cailin Harrison have some good ideas and individual moments, but individual production elements don’t quite fit together to form a cohesive whole.
Current Location is an adaptation of the Japanese play by Toshiki Okada, set in a coastal village, presumably in England, with a minimalist script and design. It feels quite Scandinavian (which suits the simile I will use shortly). Four women anxiously rehearse for a performance, then another arrives who disrupts the natural chemistry of the group. She is soaked from a sudden downpour from the blue, “bad luck cloud” that recently appeared over the village. Its appearance effects the entire population: animals are behaving strangely and people are no longer talking to each other. Rumours abound of a coming disaster; the women we see are split – some believe them, others don’t. As the play progresses, climate change intensifies as does character conflict. Some believe nature will soon cause the village to disappear, others refuse that it’s a possibility.
The premise and climate change message are certainly interesting, but the execution doesn’t make sufficient impact. There is no set and no stage lights, and the room is too big for this intimate piece. The traverse staging and naturalistic performance style chosen by director Bertrand Lesca causes lines to be completely lost if the performers’ backs are to the audience. Some vital moments were missed completely because they couldn’t be heard. It is a frustrating experience that would work better on film. The classical score that accompanies, whilst beautiful, also doesn’t improve the volume issue. Despite the naturalistic performance, the actors sit in the audience when they are off stage (sometimes), creating an inconsistent style.
The production rather reminded me of Ikea. Minimalist Scandinavian design, looks great on paper, but once constructed it doesn’t hold up very well. Other than the volume, the performances are good and character arguments are satisfying explosions of pent up frustration. Florence (Caitlin Ince) is the leader of the bunch who violently insists on maintaining the staus quo and that the village will be fine, of course. Hannah (Pia Laborde Noguez) is the late arriving disruptor who is quickly dealt with. The other three, Eva (Charlotte Allan), Jayne (Emma Keaveney Roys) and Elisabeth (Roisin Kelly), capture the uncertainly of a world on the brink of disaster. A script of five female roles is certainly commendable but their microcosmic conflicts don’t carry the gravitas of a major world issue. Like a piece of Ikea furniture that’s full of promise in the catalogue, it is disappointingly insubstantial and the component parts don’t quite fit together properly once out of the package and assembled.
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CultureClash’s debut production, Hannah and Hanna by John Retellack, is a perfect fit for company co-founders and actors Cassandra Hercules and Serin Ibrahim. It’s as if Retellack wrote it for them. Written and set in 2001, Hannah and Hanna takes place in Margate as the British government temporarily re-homes thousands of Kosovan refugees in down-at-heel seaside towns, causing predictable social backlash. Hannah is black British, Hanna is from Kosovo. Both are 16, love pop music and navigating life as teenagers. This production is ably directed by Greenwich Theatre artistic director James Haddrell, and well performed, but the sentimental script with a predictable story arc lets down the talent in the production.
The Eulogy of Toby Peach, by Toby Peach, is a eulogy in that it celebrates his life and continued survival after two bouts of cancer that could return at any time. He speaks to us quietly with numbers, statistics and anecdotes from his life with cancer in between episodes of The Cancer Club, of which half of us will eventually become members. “Cancer is you,” he explains, like, “a terrible one-man show where you play all the parts.” At The Cancer Club there are all sorts of complicated cocktails and the constant threat of remission, but Toby is lucky that his girlfriend Kristy is always by his side. The Cancer Club gets a lot of laughs, but it is equally horrifying.
rent tone and has less of an emphasis on narrative, sticking to one constant character who reenacts excerpts from day-to-day life. Some of her monologues are connected, some are isolated. Poppy is in year 11, exams are looming and her friendship group is small and constantly in flux. It’s easy for adults to brush off teenage relationships, but Brute is a reminder of just how horrible kids can be to each other, particularly girls.
So we’ve covered cancer and horrible teenage behaviour. To continue with Serious Issues, Giles Roberts’ Much Further Out Than You Thought presents a lonely veteran who has lost everything. Lance Corporal James Randall lives in a dusty flat and talks to his young son, Danny, about the experiences in Afghanistan that have left him a quivering husk of a man. The set is a simple living room, but the floor is covered in gravel and sand, the desert that James has not been able to leave behind. The first half of the play is an evenly delivered and reflective monologue about his desire to serve, enlistment and more mundane aspects of life with the British army. As it starts to feel on the lengthy side and lacking development, James abruptly relives a pivotal mission supported by powerful lighting design by Elliot Griggs. The audience sees the man he once was, a stark contrast the man he is now.
Who knew a block of yellow foam could be such fun? Bruce is the not very bright, cop-turned-novelist-turned-astronaut, stuck in a time warp, lead character of Bruce. Created and controlled by Tim Watts and Wyatt Nixon-Lloyd, Bruce is a rectangular, Sponge Bob-like head with a white pair of hands. All of the other characters are played by the same head and hands, but Watts and Nixon-Lloyd use an array of voices to effectively distinguish them from each other.
script is some of the best new writing I’ve seen in a long time. The characters are intricately detailed and exquisitely sculpted with enough contrasting goals to create natural dramatic conflict without excess. Using Mark’s girlfriend and Becky’s running club mate as a point of reference in their conversation prevents the play from becoming just about Mark and Becky, placing it in the real world even though we only ever see the two of them. The story’s dramatic arc is textbook, but hugely effective with a satisfying resolution. My only issue is the length – this play simply must be lengthened so the story can be continued. I was so engrossed that the abrupt ending was frustrating.
Camilla Whitehill’s Where Do Little Birds Go? tells the true story of Lisa Prescott, an 18-year-old nightclub hostess kidnapped by the Kray twins in 1966. Re-named Lucy Fuller, Jessica Butcher tells Prescott’s story through this harrowing solo performance. Humour and music are used to break up the horror of Fuller’s imprisonment with an escaped murderer who rapes her for hours on end, but some of the music transitions feel forced. Lucy loves singing; Butcher shares this love with gusto. She also wonderfully and ever so slowly transitions from the bright eyed, bushy tailed girl from Hastings who moved to London with hopes, dreams and £5 in her pocket, to a quietly streetwise, mature young woman.
My last production of the day is Katharine Rose Williams Radojičić’s Love Letters to the Home Office, which receives a one-off table reading at Summerhall. This is one of the most important plays of contemporary British theatre. Not because of innovation or style, but content: it exposes the consequences of the 2012 Home Office legislation that breaches the human rights of an estimated 50,000 families in the UK.
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