Photo credit, Jennie Caldwell
Director Ioan Hefin’s take on Tempest’s dynamic piece about a group of friends performed at Volcano Theatre in Swansea saw the cast struggling through their salad days painting a reflective portrait of the modern day dilemma; how do you escape when the safest place to go to escape, is inside yourself?
Photo credit, Jennie Caldwell
The stage is dimly lit with little set and mountains of character, ‘R.E.M’ playing softly in the backround giving us the impression that we’re inside the youth’s world, we’re not intruding because we are, already, part of this world aren’t we? If we’re honest. And that idea of honesty plays a massive role in this piece.
Ed (is a man of many words, fighting his own battle with finding a balance between being happy and being high. While his best friend Danny (Danny Muir) fights the same problem in a different battle. He’s in love with Charlotte (Jodie Davis) and also in love with the idea of his band being being a world wide success, but one thing all three of them share is the loss of their friend Tony. The charcters tell us about how bright their lives were before, before their future became the present and their lives became a mess. When they had more to do than just get wasted. We hear their minds in a collection of pacy outbursts. From Charlotte’s ensemble of thoughts we learn that she needs more than this, than what Dan’s giving her, she needs her feelings to be put first. So she’s leaving. Tomorrow. Which leaves Dan even more confused about his own life. But what can he do about it? It’s clear to us after just a few minutes that Dan’s tormented by his own feelings, having to think about Charlotte’s might be a little too much to ask. Then there’s Ed, who’s off to ikea later with his girlfriend to pick up some curtains but just before then tells Dan what he needs to hear, that is band is crap and if he loves Charlotte then he better get a move on.
The piece is beautifully amplified by a band of thoughts, always present and just as slick. Kayley-Leighanne Stead, Jodie Edwards, Coral Halliwell, Claire Temple and Morgan Oehschlager evoke and encourage the action in the piece and add to that sense of unified confusion in an urban jungle. The leaves on the stage resembling their friend Tony’s tree, creates a kind of metaphor for the piece. Anthing that is not supported, encouraged, looked after, acknowledged and cared for is wasted. The almost forgotten leaves are an example of what can be lost when you lose the ability to be hopeful and honest to yourself. A raw and relevant piece from the dominant voice of Kate Tempest, performed with clever conviction and effective wit, ‘Wasted’ is a piece to be remembered.
Stage Manager- Amber Cole Pendrey
Assistant Stage Manager- Julie Braithwaite
All posts by Kiera Sikora
Review Parallel Lines, Dirty Protest by Kiera Sikora
Photo credit Kirsten McTernan Photography & Design
Honesty is severe. We desire it and we require it, we recognise that it is some thing that we always need. But as soon as it’s not what we want, we despise it. We just can’t win, can we?
Dirty Protest bring to Chapter Arts Centre a fantastic 90 minute revamp of their already acclaimed ‘Parallel Lines’ which executes an impulsively precise look at how two colliding worlds affect each other. Playwright Katherine Chandler, through her freshly updated script, allows us to see how a longing for affection affects opposing worlds and the individuals in them in a very witty Welsh manner.
Nothing is hidden. These two worlds are projected right in front of you throughout the whole piece with the cast present on stage, before, during and after their scenes. There’s a clear sense of consistent colliding consciences.
Catherine Paskell’s very slick, precise, physical direction of the piece creates a fighting contrast with the stress, pain and uncertainty that the characters feel throughout. Their movements are thoughtful and are elegantly highlighted by Joe Fletcher’s sharp lighting design and equally supported by Dan Lawrence’s eerie sound scape, together creating a pathway into the minds of the characters and their sole situations.
The stage homes very little set, just a table and few chairs which echoes that idea of loneliness and lack of nurture. But the constant presence of this collision between these two very different lifestyles fills the stage with all that you need to feel their thoughts and experience their dilemmas. The characters’ complexity allows you to empathise with their situations while the careful pace of the piece allows you time to detach yourself from their spoken words, in order for you to see the paranoia that exists beyond the language.
Photo credit Kirsten McTernan Photography & Design
Paskell’s vision lets us explore the baggage that comes with power, class and truth and how we react to uncertainty, isolation and our own versions of normality. The relationship between Jan Anderson as the wayward mother Melissa and Lowri Palfrey as her daughter Steph is one that you can’t help but enjoy and dislike they allow you to laugh and pity them, without asking for either reaction. While Gareth Pierce as Simon and Sara Lloyd-Gregory as Julia are the corrupted and obscurely humorous couple who implore you to recognise the devastation that follows accusations and doubt while also reminding us how important it is to say your P’s and Q’s and park your car considerably.
Throwing away the previous script and starting a fresh two years on with the challenge of it being as real and as relevant as before is a one that would take being beyond brave to do. But, I’ve got to be honest playwright Katherine Chandler and Dirty Protest did it! The play is intense, indulgent and intuitive. It feels familiar and it embodies a social situation at a raw and original level.
Photo credit Kirsten McTernan Photography & Design
So if you enjoy beautifully written Welsh wit and a story that you can believe then you know where to go. It’s honest, it’s funny and it’s inclusive best get going.
Dirty Protest’s first ever tour of ‘Parallel Lines’ continues at Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff until 24th October. They then move onto: Pontardawe Arts Centre on October 28th, Aberystwyth Arts Centre on October 30th Galeri, Caernarfon on October 31st, Soar Centre, Treorchy on 2nd November Ffwrnes, Llanelli on 4th November. And finally, Theatr Hafren, Newtown on November 6th
You’d be crackers to miss it.