Autoreverse is a chilled, solo performance, performed at BAC, played by Florencia Cordeu, directed by Omar Elerian. Florencia Cordeu speaks of her tradition, love & culture. Through her range of sound by Omar Elerian & Cassette tapes you get a clear, strong imagery of her family’s compelling history & strength of her family’s individual character as she reminisces on her family’s home from Chile, as she now resides in London.

Autoreverse embarks on epic adventurous timezones, making full use of her generational memories from tapes that’ll she’ll forever hold & cherish. The nature of this play holds strong, traditional values affiliated with her parents retaining of them holding on to its values. Her use of space whilst listening to her recordings in her room in London takes us back in time deeply. A time when her family fled Argentina’s dictatorship, hence the rising of audio letters to stay in touch with their loved ones.

Autoreverse infuses the meaning of family bonds from childhood, experiences through a moving and uplifting audio-visual. Chains that can’t be broken, acknowledgement of identity, legacy, adaption to a new country, environment, stability & individuality interlinked with warmth, hope & prosperity.

The ‘Haystack’, held at Hampstead Theatre is an awakening & enticing production; featuring the following cast members- Lucy Black (Denise), Oliver Johnstone (Neil), Rona Morison (Cora), Enyi Okoronkwo (Zef) & Sarah Woodward (Hannah). Written by Al Blyth & directed by Roxana Silbert.

Haystack is a detailed eclipse of artificial intelligence, surveillance, encrypted coding & eroding delusions. This production addresses the unknown world of undercover spies with two computer whizzes who’re of the same kind inclined to insights into outside proximities, high security & space infinity.

This play offers an in-depth realisation on safeguarding, the rise of national security machinery, protection of electronic intrusion as well as explorative strategies of how we can live freely through the advances of technology. Every speck of detail outlines perceptions that influence each characters mind, body & soul! 

This production is a hot dish, serving a variety of spices containing elements of truth, infused with evil forces hidden underground. A channel of divergent communication, conversions, traumatic effects, overwhelming regrets, mysterious deaths, unimaginable regrets; teams dealing with manageable projects until head-line stories get taken out of context. Intertwined with folded lies, portrayals & scandals, unsatisfying stunts pulled by discrete agents of technical intelligence, suspicious terrorism, infliction & love struck addiction.

A strong theme in Haystack is infatuation; exploiting the underestimated power of physical attraction, dopamine, endorphins & mental interaction. When Neil & Rona get to close for comfort chemistry soon increases into fateful attraction, triggered from Neil’s world of hacking. Feelings soon expand to overprotection & harmonious friendships eventually gate-crashing. Agility serving its purpose when suicidal thoughts & non-comprehendible media coverage; reveals to us a deeper understanding of how political control can be demonising. Haystack tells a strong tale of survival, the fittest for survival, hidden bugged devices, invasion of privacy, universal statements & manifestations of fugitive, fabricated disguised appearances. 

The logistics throughout Haystack touch on several dimensional powers of technology alongside phone hacks, identity tracks the cause behind secrecy, relationship distancing, uncertainty, institutionalised profit making, deliberate deaths, irrational thinking, heartache & pain as we’re exposed to unfettered access to not only the world’s data but also its infinite power!

 
Haystack is very thought provoking! Captivating the audience with additional touches such as video performances, seductive light glitches, cursor changes with different fonts & styled writing imagery. The beginning allies tightly with the ending. In this production you can expect previews of screen blasting lives of cascade database queries, network maps, spreadsheets, email accounts & phone logs piling up at a dizzying speed. As the speed of ‘Haystack’ is extremely rapid if you’re to blink for just a second please ensure you’re able to catch everything before it reaches the climax! 

The Future is a mental stimulating play produced by Little Bulb Theatre and Farnham Maltings. An unpredictable play from the start as the show begins as a Ted Talk, midway forming the group into an in-house rock band followed by patterns of a group of four scientists getting into discussions about the future that awaits for humanity.

The Future is a play that hinders on the state of high intelligence; focusing on the dimensions of technology,  human existence, effects of our minds and ability to face the strength of an unexplainable compacted artificial intelligence world. This play was primarily inspired by the philosophical thinkers, re-discovering the elements of human minds through dark comedy.

During this production we’re gathered by four extremely inquisitive futurologists,  examining aftermath, re-enactment of ancestral fate within the Garden of Eden, role-played out as written in the book of Genesis. A truly, deeply awakening play with a combination of rock opera, hitting various riffs, harmonies and scales. An extremely talented cast with the ability to put on various accents and accelerate in mastering implications for the journey of what is yet to come for human-kind. 

(4 / 5)

A truly deep and enlightening one women show; performed and written by Apphia Campbell. Apphia Campbell sets her stories against a powerful soundtrack of original music, traditional gospel and blues. Strongly showcasing the reciprocating effects and struggle the black community embodied in the name of civil rights. During this show the audience were continuously taken through a series of events, time travelling to the period of 1970s witnessing traumatic experiences from the Black Panther Assata Shakur.

Fast forwarding to the 20th century, a time fused with the Ferguson riots, chaos and injustice that had taken place during the midsts of a college enrolment. 

This show expressively role-plays the corruption of America’s injustice system; focusing on the irrational criminalised infrastructure through political activism; whilst focusing on the parameters of acknowledging the power her skin beholds to now become her voice. To balance out this play Apphia’s passionate singing, humour and characterisation techniques as well as her use of the entire stage was thoroughly enjoyable.

This captivating play brought a fusion of vitality to display. The more you watched her, storytelling the sequence of what black empowerment meant to her, the more you  got a sense of black history and how much more there is cover in its entirety.  

(5 / 5)

Yvette is a unique and emotionally compelling autobiography; written and performed by the multi-disciplinary artist Urielle Klein-Mekongo. The entire production embarks on an emotional journey themed around insecurity, naivety, peer-pressure, infatuation and toxicity. Toxicity that exists within friendship groups; a strict and cultural household and during hormonal imbalances when going through puberty, battling mental constraints of self-worth and self-love.

This play reminisces on the competitive, bitchy and immature nature of challenging secondary school life. In this play we witness Yvette stuck in an era of betrayal even from her best friend, being the centre of hot gossip, attracting inevitable confrontation, loss of confidence after facing rejection from a close, male companion and not being stereotypically desirable enough to hang out with the popular girls either. As a determined student; we see she ambitiously aimed to avoid fights, leave school with good grades and do her parents proud but somehow ending up with the complete reverse; facing suspension after a fight she didn’t provoke, seeing nothing but disappointment on her mothers face to then get criticised for being too influenced by the western worlds ways; losing a sense of her identity and culture. This show travelled minds through the highs and lows of raw and unapologetic truths, unleashing harsh realities as the audience entered in to Urielle’s world.

Yvette for me was about self-expression. By featuring live looping to reinforce her truth through music accelerated our connectivity to Urielle even moreso. Her incredible talent sophisticatedly radiated as we saw an abundance of her singing and spoken word. The loop pedal in her performance truly brought a different experience to her play. Urielle’s rhythmic sentiment chanted a majestic and energetic sensation, making you want to vibe with her on stage. This incredibly upbeat and vibrant show was well balanced in spite of being an equally emotionally abstract and fugitive autobiography.

The layout of the set was an interior design of a compact apartment almost, the mis-en-scene and vitality of the show was simplistic and significantly strong. Urielle’s consequential storyline involved humorous and enjoyable multi-roleplaying throughout. Her level of creativity showed most efficiently during the scene of her re-enacting her interaction with an acquaintance simultaneously; having half of her body facing the audience whilst smartly clothing her right arm in a jacket that gently and subtly caressed the left part of her face to reflect the intimate moment that was manifesting between them both. This scene had an incredibly suspenseful nature making the believability of this scene intense to watch. Every abstract scene in Yvette achieved a suspenseful and self-wakening substance to take away from in hindsight.

Yvette speaks on the underlying issues of ethnic minorities not looking exotic enough or fitting in to society’s perceptions of beauty standards. This production also reflects on the importance of practicing, acknowledging and embracing a sufficient form of self-love during womanhood. As well as how imperative it is to overcome your past and focuses on the present as what doesn’t kill you, only makes you stronger.

A truly heart felt, rhythmic, fundamental, self-healing and women empowering play that ended with the talented actress, singer and songwriter singing her song ‘You Are’. This song is a declaration of being a survivor and not a victim and owning your scars, ending with the words living, breathing, feeling, winning! An inspirational play that speaks volumes into what it means to not give up without a good fight and crown yourself with victory and let no one destroy your destiny. The song Urielle wrote entitled ‘You Are’ is no doubt powerful enough to help women of all ages who feel execration towards themselves learn to accept, transform and become open to appreciating themselves wholly through this remarkably beautiful song.