fringe theatre

Eclipsed, Gate Theatre

Issues surrounding modern war and conflict are rarely simple. Feminism certainly isn’t, either. Neither are families, romantic relationships, child soldiers, or individual identity. Danai Gurira’s Eclipsed rolls all of these deeply complex themes into a five-character play set in the Liberian civil war, but does so with brilliant writing and a raw, close-up view of characters in a world torn apart.

Eclipsed focuses almost completely on the lives of the four “wives” of the Commanding Officer of one of the rebel factions, living communally and enjoying a life of privilege. Their privilege consists of not being raped by other soldiers, instead only having to go to the C.O. when he summons them from offstage with booming handclaps. The women enjoy looted clothing, and mostly get along. Though all have names, they refer to each other by their rank: number 1, number 2, and so on, with number 1 being in charge. Number 2’s the outcast of the four as a soldier fighting Charles Taylor’s government, but she still periodically returns to the hut bearing gifts and aggravation. Though they all have lost family and hide their real names, these women feel incredibly privileged because they’re alive, and don’t have to be raped by anyone other than the C.O.

The dialogue flows easily, but was deeply uncomfortable to experience from the position of Western privilege. Moments of levity are stepping stones that prevent the audience from drowning in the bleak circumstances that drive the play. I find this level of audience discomfort is rare in theatre, but one that is absolutely vital. Actually, theatre needs more of it – the majority of regular theatregoers are middle class and have no experience of life in a war zone other than watching the news. These audiences need to be shaken, hard, and reminded that whilst we have lots of nice things in our lives, many more people in the world don’t. Particularly women trying to survive in war zones.

This is, without question, a feminist play. My initial instinct is to say it’s radically feminist, but on reflection I believe that thought came from the exotic “otherness” of the production rather than any particular issue. Childbirth, education and reproductive consent are at the forefront, which are pretty mainstream feminist topics. Sisterhood is ever present, with its bonding and conflict. Less common and utterly horrific is Number 2’s belief that being an armed soldier empowers young women and keeps them safe from rape. The downside is that you then have to kill the enemy and give the surviving women and girls to your side’s own soldiers. Sorry, there’s my privilege showing again.

This otherness also contributes to the excellence of the overall production; I have never seen a play so simultaneously brutal and brilliant. The production values are flawless in that the production needs no alteration or development. It’s raw, in-yer-face, and will linger with you and your privileged guilt for a long time. All five performances are a masterclass in acting. The design is strikingly simple with an inclusive audience arrangement. There are belly laughs. There are moments you feel like your guts are being slowly tugged from your body and your eyes are held open. With all the terror Eclipsed lays bare, it should be a legal requirement for everyone living a comfortable life away from war to see this play. The world would be a better place.

Intention: ☆☆☆☆☆

Outcome: ☆☆☆☆☆

Star Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

The Play’s The Thing UK is an independent theatre criticism website maintained voluntarily. Whilst donations are never expected, they are hugely appreciated and will enable more time to be spent reviewing theatre productions of all sizes. Click here to make a donation with PalPal.

Don Q, Greenwich Theatre

Production shot 4 croppedI really struggled to come up with a suitably erudite introduction to this review of Flintlock Theatre’s Don Q. Not because it’s hard to summarize – quite the opposite. The structure works, the message and plot are clear and the performances are excellent in this suitable-for-all-ages appropriation of Cervantes’ Don Quixote. I am chalking my difficulties up to this being such an enchanting and moving play that words aren’t quite capturing that “warm and fuzzy but actually quite sad” feeling I had the entire time. Everything I tried to write came across as cold and clinical. It’s a rare occasion that I go to theatre and nearly forget to take notes because what I am seeing on stage grips me by the proverbials that as a woman, I don’t even have. Seeing Don Q evoked the joy and wonderment I had on my first experience of theatre as a small child.

It’s not a simple show, though. Four actors take on numerous levels of characterization. Like Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a group of unrelated characters bookend the play. In this case hapless librarians, frustrated by the council’s efforts to close them down, highlight the importance of storytelling by relating the tale of Norman Vaughan to us. Norman, as we soon find out, is probably their most infamous patron. Norman’s nameless nephew thinks Norman, now 81 years old, has gone mad. You see, Norman loves to read and reenact the stories he reads with his younger friend Sam and anyone else he cajoles into joining him. It is immediately and painfully clear that Norman is completely lucid; he just has a joyful passion for stories and acting them out. The younger generation are so busy being adults that they have forgotten the pleasure of playacting and the power of an absorbing tale. So not only are the audience reminded of the importance of reading and allowing ourselves to be absorbed in a good book, we are also more subtly admonished for not taking the time to listen to our elders and treat them like human beings. So what if Norman (or any other elderly person) loves what he does? As long as no one gets hurt, we are told to leave well enough alone.

Norman’s nephew, having had enough of Norman’s mishaps and convinced he has gone mad, puts him in a nursing home to be looked after properly. He strictly forbids Norman from having access to any books. Sam, on one of his visits, smuggles in a copy of Don Quixote into the nursing home. A comedy chase results in their escape and an adventure imitating a selection of escapades from the original novel. Sam is a begrudging Sancho Panza, a pair of scooters augmented with push brooms and spoons are their trusty steeds and other people they encounter on the way play other characters (some more willingly than others). Their madcap journey is full of whimsy, spontaneity and emotional turmoil but with a potentially tearful ending for the more sentimental of audience members.

Director Robin Colyer skillfully employs physical theatre sequences to add variation and an atmosphere of a touring troupe of players. This is clearly a well-rehearsed, established production; not a breath was out of time. Objects and costume pieces are used liberally and often comically, in a style reminding me of the West End’s 39 Steps. The set and costumes are simple and rustic, but versatile and thought through. Nothing is excessive, nor sparse; the production design is just right.

The performances unite a fantastic script with heaps of audience interaction, and the great design to create a beautifully polished little show. Some call and response would have made more people feel included, as well as giving costume and lines to those in all parts of the auditorium rather than only those sat in the front row. Actors Jeremy Barlow, Francesca Binefa, Kate Colebrook and Samuel Davies are versatile multi-rollers with outstanding chemistry as an ensemble. Whilst I considered that having an older man play the role of Norman would have brought more to the story, the role is incredibly physically demanding and would be difficult to play at a more advanced age.

Don Q is only at Greenwich Theatre for a brief time, but then continues its national tour. This Oxford-based company is worth seeing no matter what your age, where you are or what you do. They use physical theatre, Brecht, storytelling and meta theatre but in an unobtrusive, charming way to create this lovely, warm, gem of a play.

Intention: ☆☆☆☆☆

Outcome: ☆☆☆☆

Star Rating: ☆☆☆☆ 1/2

The Play’s The Thing UK is an independent theatre criticism website maintained voluntarily. Whilst donations are never expected, they are hugely appreciated and will enable more time to be spent reviewing theatre productions of all sizes. Click here to make a donation with PalPal.

La Merda, everything theatre

“After reading the press release and previous star ratings for La Merda, I was very much looking forward to an edgy, raw and arty performance with a strong message that would stay with me for several days…My experience, however, was quite the opposite.

“…dim spotlights illuminated a naked woman (Silvia Gallerano) sitting on a tall platform, quietly singing something Italian into a microphone…she launched into a monologue. It began by telling us we all needed courage, then connected the idea to her father’s courage to commit suicide by throwing himself in front of a train…

“Gallerano’s character then moved onto body image: her unusually large thighs, and her teenage experience with a “beauty parlour” that had tried to reduce them. Whilst I believe body image is an issue that needs to be addressed, every teenager has insecurities about their looks, and theatre has dealt with this before, so the topic is not new, or particularly edgy…

“Gallerano’s character…didn’t develop into anything particularly interesting, or personalised. We never learned much about her other than she was an actress, her dad died when she was thirteen, and she had a slightly unconventional upbringing. I struggled to care about the woman and her issues because her issues weren’t unique. She was just like everyone else…Originally written in Italian for Italian audiences, there was a slight undercurrent of national identity, but unfortunately I missed more of this because I am not Italian…I wondered…why was she still naked?

“The piece was delivered exclusively in three long monologues…Towards the end of each section, she shouted down the microphone, which was physically uncomfortable, but I remained emotionally unmoved. Vague themes were mentioned…but my questions remained: Why was I watching this? What does the writer want us to take away? Why is she naked?”

Read the entire review here.

King Lear, The Rose Playhouse

KING LEAR Poster JPEG April 2015Last summer, I left The Malachites’ Shoreditch rooftop A Midsummer Night’s Dream lukewarm. I hoped their current production of King Lear, currently running at The Rose Playhouse after a transfer from Peckham Asylum, would be a more unified, consistent production. Fortunately, these hopes were not just met, but exceeded. With an outstanding cast headlined by John McEnery, original Early Music accompaniment and a full utilization of the unique performance space at The Rose, it far surpassed my expectations and proved to be an exemplary showcase of the potential at The Rose and of fringe Shakespeare.

Due to the vastness of the theatre, its large pool of water and only a relatively small section of the space able to be used, design and staging are particularly crucial in order to make productions here feel polished and professional. Trying to ignore the size and feel of the space simply does not work and diminishes the historical importance of the venue. Director Benjamin Blyth embraces these characteristics. He clothes his performers in neutral blacks, whites, grays and browns. Even the Fool was blandly dressed. The costumes were generally contemporary winter dress with a Russian or Eastern European look. Furs, capes, leathers, scarves and multiple layers abound but the odd piece of costume was jarringly and frivolously classical, such as Oswald’s cloak. The drab colours and mostly angular lines match the concrete expanse that stretches out from the stage. Though the play is set in cold weather, the obvious winter wear also highlighted a man’s struggle through the winter of his life, and made Poor Tom’s near-nudity all the more ghastly. A simple throne and wooden chairs were the sole set pieces; stark white lighting emphasized the grim realities of Lear’s treatment by his family and decent into madness. Some direct address was used, but the audience felt sufficiently included due to the small playing area. The pool of water preserving the Rose’s foundations doubled as a lake or seaside and Poor Tom’s hovel was a fort of black drapes in a rear corner. The musicians were dark silhouettes to the side of the pool. Most of the action took place on the tiny wooden platform stage, but the rest of the site was not ignored. Blyth set Lear’s world at the edges of sanity, existence and human decency and suited the production’s look and feel to the venue with great skill and intuition.

There was not a poor performance in the company and due to this being a transfer, the ensemble and their chemistry came with ease and depth. There were some unique and refreshing character choices, such as Cordelia (Emma Kirrage) played as mature and practical in the beginning rather than innocent and naïve, as she is often portrayed. David Vaughan Knight gives us a stern, militaristic Kent and shows a wide performance range through his character’s disguise and devotion to Lear. William De Coverly shows similar ability in his portrayal of Edmund, skillfully manipulating Gloucester and Edgar through status, movement and voice. Samuel Clifford’s Fool is extremely intelligent with moments of deadpan and quiet sarcasm, drawing more attention to Lear’s mental collapse. I could listen to Anatole Gadsby (France and doctor) read a shopping list in his mesmerizing speaking voice; he will make a great Hamlet with his intensity and watchability if he hasn’t already played the role. Claire Dyson and Orla Jackson are deliciously evil as Goneril and Regan. Finally, John McEnery as Lear brings over half a century of Shakespearian expertise, fully committing to this sensitive, fragile old man who falls victim to the cruelty of the changing world around him.

Though this is an excellent production, it is not flawless. Dr Deborah Pritchard and Danielle Larose composed the original music for the production. Atmospheric and haunting, it was beautifully written and well-used in moments of high tension, but could have been used more often. It was unobtrusive enough that the entire play could have been underscored with carefully chosen moments of silence instead of the other way around. Stage combat sequences can be longer, with Edmund and Edgar’s fight lengthened to show the inherent conflict between the two characters. The scenes were quick and transitions energetic, though some of the energy dropped in the intimacy and quiet of the final scene between Lear and Cordelia. Though it was intimate and moving, the small scale of it did not quite carry through the venue.

These issues are minor, however. The high level of talent and creativity in such an intimate and unique venue is extraordinary, and certainly worth catching whilst tickets are still available.

Intention: ☆☆☆☆☆

Outcome: ☆☆☆

Star Rating: ☆☆☆☆

The Play’s The Thing UK is an independent theatre criticism website maintained voluntarily. Whilst donations are never expected, they are hugely appreciated and will enable more time to be spent reviewing theatre productions of all sizes. Click here to make a donation with PalPal.

The Beautiful Game, everything theatre

“As someone who is not a huge Andrew Lloyd Webber fan and has a dislike of football, I did not have high expectations for this production. I was, delightfully, proven wrong for the most part. Creative direction, fantastically tight ensemble work, endearing characters and some beautiful ballads were some of the highlights of the show…

“Lotte Wakeham uses the intimate Union Theatre space brilliantly. Traverse staging creates both a joyful football pitch and the dangerous streets of 1970s Belfast. During the football matches, the characters watching the game stand behind the audience so we are part of the experience…A few benches are versatile set pieces; they become church pews, locker room benches and a coffin.

“Niamh Perry leads the young but skilled ensemble as the charming, feisty Mary who falls in love with 18-year-old footballer John, played by a skillful Ben Kerr…Joanna O’Hare is the other shining star... Here, the audience sees the root of the conflict: both sides have unwavering belief that Ireland is theirs…

“…The second half starts with John and Mary’s wedding, but the plot deteriorates from this point. Suddenly, the characters have aged and are going their different ways. Whilst this is a sad fact of growing up, it is the undoing of a musical that relies too heavily on the misadventures and celebrations of youth…The story abruptly ends with a short, quiet number, with little resolution…

“Overall, this show is certainly worth seeing for the novelty factor of its rarity and the excellent performances by a cast with impressive credits…”

Intention: ☆☆☆☆

Outcome: ☆☆

Star Rating: ☆☆☆

Originally posted here on everything theatre.

Heresy, for everything theatre

An austere, dimly lit set of arches and benches captures the heat and lethargy of a time in Spain when smoke fills the air with the Spanish Inquisition at its peak…The whole of the first act provides the audience with character exposition, but nothing progresses until much later in the play. Although playwright Tilo Ulbrecht expresses himself beautifully through the language, this part of the play could be drastically trimmed in order to focus more on the latter acts, rather than the prologue-like first…

“From Act II, set five years later, the story begins to progress. The action is set in the house of Don Felipe (Nick Simons), a very old blind man. He is a Cathar, a branch of Catholicism deemed heretical by the medieval church. He hides in plain sight as the audience learns that his dear friend and former student Don Carlos is the new Inspector General of the Inquisition…

“The performances are largely good, with excellent work from Macavie and Simons. It is incredibly refreshing to see a cast of older actors in fringe theatre rather than 20-somethings playing at being old. Maya is also a force of calm strength that is lovely to watch. Saracen is good as the conflicted Inspector but his moments of anger are difficult to find convincing. Gaoler Bernard O’Sullivan provides some light relief and good contrast to the heavy content of his scenes…

“The characters are well developed and Ulbricht skillfully uses language to create atmosphere, but the plot is somewhat neglected. The play as a whole certainly has potential, but needs re-structuring. The story is a great idea and it gives a very personal humanity to a period of history associated with the devastating capabilities of the Spanish Inquisition…

Intention: ☆☆☆☆

Outcome: ☆☆

Star Rating: ☆☆☆

Read the entire everything theatre review here.

Significant Other; Object of Affection, Tristan Bates Theatre

FullSizeRenderWhat do you get when you give ten playwrights, ten directors and twenty actors ten days to make some theatre? (This isn’t a Maths question.) You’ll have The Pensive Federation’s annual collection of ten, ten-minute plays, Significant Other. Inspired by modern relationships, The Pensive Federation celebrates the ups and downs of our human connections with this event. This year, each writer was given an object that had to be included in the scene and serves as the short plays’ titles. On the whole, they were funny, touching and well performed, especially considering the playwright had only five days to write the script and the director and actors had five days to rehearse them. One of the scenes was even a musical, with songs and choreography.

The relationships presented run the gamut from flatmates, sisters, straight couples, mates to co-workers. Whilst most of the plays dealt with romantic relationships, others confront familial complexities and troublesome colleagues. As it’s an issue commonly ignored in an industry that favours youth, Panties commands attention for being the sole play focusing on older characters. Here, a couple try to find the love and excitement in their relationship again now that their children are grown. All provided objects were completely random; some writers worked them into the plot more effectively than others did. My particular favourite was a life-sized cardboard cut-out of Harrison Ford, absurdly fought over by a couple who both fancied him.

As for the scripts, some are certainly stronger than others. None of them are poor and some had potential to be brilliant. Of note, Blu-Ray (by Anna Forsyth), Shirt (by Joseph Lidster and composed by Griffinn Candey), Ring (by Leah Cowan) and Life-size Cardboard Cut-out (by Breman Rajkumar) have the most potential and can certainly stand up to further development. Direction is simple but effective in all plays, with minimal set used and a focus on characters and their relationships. Of the performances, though all are consistent, Catherine Nix-Collins and Jeremy Donovan particularly shone as best friends and flatmates in Blu-Ray, with Jeremy’s character about to move in with his boyfriend and Catherine’s coming to terms with him leaving. Anthony Couzens in Cash evoked pity with his washed up underground ticket seller who fancies his much younger colleague.

Singling out one of the plays as a favourite, or “best,” is impossible. Stylistically, most are initially grounded in reality with subject matter that the audience can relate to, even if on a basic level. Rather than being complete plays, most were snapshots of a larger issue and well-rounded characters. This really is an event that appeals to everyone: gay, straight, young, old, people with children, people who work, people who have friends and people who have families. The default was comedy rather than drama, with some excellent execution of comic timing and sensibility. Performances could become quite heightened, but the emotions matched. Despite the comedic bent, there was plenty of poignancy across the board as well. Including a focus on an object draws attention to the attachment we have to material goods, particularly when we associate them with someone we love, or hate, or otherwise feel strongly about. The only play where this idea could be more fully realised is Oil Can (by Giles Fernando) but the tension created between two former schoolmates is commendable.

This is an enjoyable evening in The Actors’ Centre Tristan Bates Theatre. Plenty of comedy and writing that couldn’t be fresher help ease the predictability of the format in an evening that could do with being a couple of plays shorter. The Pensive Federation clearly have a great instinct for discovering and showcasing new talent and will should develop some these micro-plays further.

Intention: ☆☆

Outcome: ☆☆☆☆

Star Rating: ☆☆☆

The Play’s The Thing UK is an independent theatre criticism website maintained voluntarily. Whilst donations are never expected, they are hugely appreciated and will enable more time to be spent reviewing theatre productions of all sizes. Click here to make a donation with PalPal.

Fucking Outside the Box, for everything theatre

“Frankie is a 17-year-old college student and former champion competitive ballroom dancer…She wants to fuck outside the box…

“The play is set in the present, as Frankie (Jessica Burgess) is home alone and waiting to find out if Michael is going to come and take advantage of her parents’ absence…As she waits for a text, we hear all about her last encounter with him. She’s obsessed with rape fantasy role play…

“Her confidence soon starts to deteriorate and we can see that she is really only 17 without much experience, in life or sex. As she tells us stories from her past, we learn about her mother, her ballroom dancing and the consequences of social media. Her naivety is sweet and funny, but someone who doesn’t have much patience for young people’s poor choices would probably just find her annoying…

“The VAULT Festival, in the tunnels under Waterloo Station, is an experience in and of itself. The space for Fucking Outside the Box is in a small but professionally equipped studio…The venue is achingly cool, so much so that as a 30-something, I felt like a stodgy old fart completely out of place. Fortunately, the play was very good and I had a great interest in the topics addressed…

Intention: ☆☆☆☆

Outcome: ☆☆

Star Rating: ☆☆☆

Read the entire review here on everything theatre.

Missing, Battersea Arts Centre

Lily is an ordinary newlywed with a good job, but something isn’t right. She’s reserved, doesn’t join it at parties or nights out and goes through life disconnected, as if it were a treadmill. With the aid of a mysterious doctor-type figure, Lily relives past memories and important life events. A collage of dance, movement, light and sound, Missing bombards audiences with one character’s family history and rediscovery of her repressed self.

The predominant element of this production is movement. Some sequences have a strong dance influence, others are more abstract, capturing relationship dynamics between two people. Still others are violently fitful as Lily wrestles with parts of herself she would rather forget. Coloured backlighting creates faceless, silhouetted dancers who form the world around Lily. Her movements, in contrast, are usually restrained or awkward, including the duet with her new husband in their marital home as they navigate space with the newfound addition of the other. Memories of her mother, a sensual nightclub dancer, further emphasize how uncomfortable Lily is in her own skin. A particularly striking scene shows Lily at work with her glowing laptop, coffee cup and other daily items that just won’t sit still as she tries to work. They tentatively settle, then fly around the room, always just out of reach. In Lily’s life, everything moves confidently around her and she struggles to keep up. The audience empathizes because like Lily, we all experience moments in life where we feel disconnected from everything around us, as if we live in a grotesque dream world.

Lily decides to see some sort of doctor, a psychologist, perhaps. In a more literal interpretation of the counseling process, he removes a glowing light from her, placing it in a cardboard box. On a further visit, the doctor creates a storyboard of images from Lily’s past and presents them to her without judgement. These events provoke extended memory sequences from Lily’s childhood, with toddler Lily as a bunraku-style puppet. All of her memories take place in glowing frames, with performers behind. The effect created is one is one of large-scale Polaroid photographs that move across the stage. The lighting skillfully conceals the performers holding the frames and the space around them so the frames and their contents appear to float in the darkness. It is a powerful nostalgic effect, akin to watching fragments of one’s own retro ghosts on 1980s VHS home movies.

Two treadmills add a flowing quality to the set and choreography; the performers quickly slide them about to rearrange the stage space and direction of movement through space. Lily is at times caught up in this flow and cannot get off, other times she observes the pace of those around her whilst she herself is not travelling. This is one of the most unique features of the production and one that thoroughly enhances the visual and metaphorical production elements.

Sound is constant or near enough so, either cheerful and musical or a high, droning tone. Dialogue is not an important feature; often the sound drowns out the speakers so that the audience can hear speech but not discern what is being said. Several languages are used: German, Spanish, English and others. None of them is predominant, but the language is not the focus of this piece and it is easy to discern what is happening from the movement. The speech often adds another layer to the soundscape, enhancing the universality of Lily’s inner turmoil.

Missing is a feast of the senses and I struggle to find fault with any visual aspect of the production, though I would have liked to get to know the characters in more detail. The episodic, dreamlike structure leaves the story open to interpretation and to personally connect with several themes and issues presented.

I went with the year 10 GCSE Drama students at the school where I teach part time. Most of the students go to the theatre regularly but none of them had seen anything like Gecko’s Missing before. Each of them had their own interpretation of the production, further proof that Gecko’s work speaks to each of us on a deeply personal level.

The Play’s The Thing UK is an independent theatre criticism website maintained voluntarily. Whilst donations are never expected, they are hugely appreciated and will enable more time to be spent reviewing theatre productions of all sizes. Click here to make a donation with PalPal.

Lardo, Old Red Lion Theatre

Deep in working class Scotland where you’re a celebrity if Poundland invites you to open their newest store and Buckfast is the drink of choice, bullied Lardo desperately wants a regular spot on The Depot’s “Tartan Wrestling Madness” bill. He has aspired towards this since he was a kid, wanting to live up to his dad who died in the ring. Lardo is also a youtuber, a call centre worker and not coping well with his girlfriend Kelly’s revelation of her pregnancy. Event promoter and producer Gavin Stairs takes a shine to the supposedly fearless, pudgy Lardo and gives him a chance but Stairs is not the sort of person to give anything away for free.

Daniel Buckley plays Lardo as a wide-eyed, immature escapist with pathos and enthusiasm, like a well intentioned but hapless pantomime hero. Nick Karimi’s Stairs is a fitting villain, a failed wrestler refusing to let go of his past glories and grudges. Pushing the limits of health and safety regulations and the boundaries of inspector Cassie (Rebecca Pownall), Stairs wants to bring real violence into the ring. There is an undercurrent of danger in him, foreshadowing a violent end. Zoe Hunter plays Mary (who moonlights as hard as nails Whiplash), a single mother trying to get by and do the right thing. Wrestling director Henry Devas’ choreography captures the theatricality of pro wrestling, which all of the performers embraced eagerly and executed skilfully.

During the wrestling matches in the ring that takes up most of the pub theatre stage, the characters interact directly with the audience and encourage them to cheer, shout and root for their favourite. Part pantomime and part live sporting event, the fights blend these forms of theatre, pulling the audience into a meta-theatricality where actors play characters who play more exaggerated characters in the ring. Just as Lardo, Mary and Stairs transform into a heightened Lardo, Whiplash and Heartbreaker to escape the misery of daily life in their weekly wrestling nights, the audience are pulled out of their reality as people watching a play and become spectators of a wrestling match in Scotland. It is rather like living inside their heads, seeing the otherwise-guarded fantasies instead displayed under the bright lights of a dingy wrestling club. The audience also sees some of the wrestlers’ rehearsals. Like rehearsals for a play, these scenes come across as intimate moments that are a privilege to witness.

This is writer Mike Stone’s first full length play and it is an excellent start. Lardo uses an array of theatrical and cultural influences to expose the inner life of the characters, but more depth would not go amiss in the characters’ real lives and relationships. A couple of jumps forward in time created ambiguity and suspense but additional clarity would be welcome and would not have to reveal the missing action. The characters’ need to escape is one we all can relate to, so the audience willingly plays pretend with the characters.

This is a wonderfully fun play, with genuine belly laughs as well as moments of exposed, raw pain that have the ability to slide the audience along a spectrum of feelings. There is certainly scope to develop these characters more and the play would work well in a larger theatre, where the ring is a separate set element rather than the set itself. This production gives insight into an often-troubled world desperate for a distraction and temporary escape, even if it means risking life and limb to do so.

Intention: ☆☆☆☆☆

Outcome: ☆☆☆

Star Rating: ☆☆☆☆

The Play’s The Thing UK is an independent theatre criticism website maintained voluntarily. Whilst donations are never expected, they are hugely appreciated and will enable more time to be spent reviewing theatre productions of all sizes. Click here to make a donation with PalPal.