All Photo Credits Kirsten McTernan
A cold and windy night was the perfect setting for The Other Room’s newest co-production ‘An Orange in the Subway’. Performed outside in Mackenzie Park, in collaboration with The Wallich. The show really brought in all the senses as the audience sat on the ground, watching the actors as they deftly performed Owen Thomas’ story.
The performances were incredibly impressive. Mica Williams’ Cassie was our focus and hardly had a moment to breath in a very intense hour of performance. The desperation, confusion and loneliness of the character shone, and Williams’ physicality added to the creation of the world we joined. François Pandolfo’s multi-rolling, added layers to the story and the different characters he can create are always impressive. Ranging from the recognisable to the absurd, we glimpsed the breadth of those that form Cassie’s world of Cardiff- a particular highlight was the very drunk girl we could all recognise. Osian Lloyd’s performance was a stand out for me, I was so impressed with the nuance and differences between the characters portrayed. The Bankers’ opening lines immediately drew us in and the shifting between worlds and characters throughout kept you engaged and part of it.
This was hugely helped by the setting, and kudos needs to go to Katy Morison’s lighting and Tic Ashfields sound. Both made you aware what you were seeing was a performance, but heightened the action and created the world of angels as well as embracing the natural world and darker nights we are heading into.
Whilst there were so many positives, the show has made me question my expectations around art for arts sakes and the responsibilities of showing a topic such as homelessness. If the show wasn’t in collaboration with The Wallich, I would be tempted to find some of the characters as closer to stereotypes rather than full humanity. Owen Thomas’ verse was hard to immediately grasp, moving us from feeling the show was made from a point of truth.
The strongest moment of the play I felt was Cassie sharing with the statue of Nye Bev that she’d tried the support out there, but all the rules and curfews were too much. This was a great insight into the complex struggles that exist between the help that is out there and the people most in need, as well as the power of autonomy. I expected to see more about what help does exist and the next steps for the characters, but then that might have felt kitsch and shoved in, when for so many people there might not be a happy ending.
Leaving, I struggled to decide what the outcome of the piece was. Now, not all theatre needs a call to action or an objective I know, but especially when it was so based in rough sleeping not just in subject but in setting, I was expecting to leave and feel something. Some sort of next step or understanding of the struggles people face and an idea of what may help.