Category Archives: Theatre

Marina Abramovic, Southbank Centre, By Hannah Goslin

 out of 5 stars (5 / 5)

A once in a lifetime opportunity – Marina Abramovic has been an idol of mine from a young age when performance art was being introduced to me as a performer. A strong female taking the performance world by storm, to listen to this woman talk about her life, work and future only a few yards away was nothing less than extraordinary.

A simple set up on a Q&A, Abramovic is at all times in control. Known for moving interviewers in the direction she wishes to go, this simple Q&A soon becomes a little less simple, flustering the interviewer as she opens up to interesting, moving or hilarious stories on a tangent.

Growing up with not such a wonderful childhood, from the age of 14 when she put on her first performance, she says she believed even then she was too old to put on performance work as greats such as Mozart had done so at a much younger age. She takes her pain, her love, her anger and releases it in her performance art, challenging boundaries and the society of the time.

An honest woman, there is nothing she does not offer on the plate to us. From such inspiring and emotionally full work, I expected a serious yet dedicated woman. And she is, but mostly, she is funny. She has an addictive and wonderful personality that makes your ribs hurt and a can do, but also care free attitude that is inspiring and envious of.

An interesting point made by Abramovic, is that she does not believe she is a feminist. Questions from the audience about femisim, one from an art student from South Korea where woman are taking their sexual abuse and turning it into art is offered to Abramovic to comment on. And she does not hide behind a lie – she has experienced pain, euphoria, many emotions that you can see in her work but she admits she has never been abused, nor has she had any patriarchal/misogynist comments or influence and admits that this way she cannot comment. A lucky lady, we think of performers of having some tormented soul, but this woman has not, she is purely clever, creative and a genius.

Marina Abramovic has released a memoir on her life, and it is my belief that this is worth a good read for all performers, male or female to explore and gain insight into one of the greatest performance artists in our world.

Review Snout Sherman Theatre by Helen Joy

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 out of 5 stars (3 / 5)
 

This is a tricky one. The write up says that this is a play which examines ethical farm practices and may put you off your pie.  This is not quite what we get. It is not ‘Fun’ but it is ‘Food, Drink and Drama’. Or did I miss something?

I take three friends with me –we are all women, all farmers and two of us keep pigs. We discuss the play we have seen and the pie we have eaten a lot. In fact, we talk about it over chips later on Penarth Pier and again in the week. It has made us think. But perhaps not in the way Playwright Kelly Jones would like us to.

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Cast members  Sally Reid, Michele Gallagher and Clare Cage

Photographic credit Kirsten McTernan

It is a play about 3 little pigs, 3 women acting as pigs and as women. They are in a trailer heading for the slaughter house. Their actions and conversations are an odd mixture of supposed pig talk and young women chatter. They grunt occasionally. One is a cross carrying faithful type who misses her sister, one is a punky type who misses her lover and the other is a party going good time girl. A bit stereotypical. They work out that they are not going to a show but to the abattoir and so forth.

Now here’s a problem. Facts. Anyone who knows anything about pigs, knows that they don’t carry hairbrushes or wear crosses. They also don’t get electric shocks for bad behaviour when they squeal in a trailer. They might wander into a shed to watch a farmer, er, enjoy himself but we are pretty sure that we don’t know anyone who finds pigs that attractive.

When they talk about life, death and the lack of control over their lives, something resonates with me. Do they contemplate the meaning of life? Do we, as owners, play God?

Pigs are fun to be around precisely because they are calculating, funny and usually, miles ahead of their keepers. But we keep them also because they can be eaten. The speech at the end, before they trot out to their doom, is tediously predictable and aimed at converting the audience to vegetarianism, I think. My colleagues are not impressed and feel that this last scene spoils an otherwise interesting and thought-provoking play.

Then we have the after-show discussion. Lots of people have stayed behind for this and we are keen to debate the ideas raised in the performance.

But there is a surprise. Jones take an unexpected stance. She tells us about tattooed pigs and cruelty. She then explains that the play is actually about feminism; she uses the pigs to slaughter as metaphor for seeing women as meat, as bodies to be cut up into pieces, as porn, as without control. Oh. I see now. This makes sense of scenes previously lost to me.

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We discuss life and end of life, self-determinism, women’s rights, farming practices and eating meat. The audience is enthusiastic and picks up a particular thread with zeal: why have a play about killing animals and then give us a meat pie? Where does that meat come from, asks another. But it’s about women, not pigs, really.

We get it.

It makes even more sense when Jones explains to me that she had taken a 1hr40min play and made it into a 40min production. Sometimes, we need to rewrite not just slash and edit or we lose the meaning of a piece.  The playwright cannot attend every production to explain. The metaphor is clever, her idea is sound and with tweaking, would make an outstanding work.

I looked up the use of tattooed pigs for handbags – can’t be true, we said, but it was: art as an excuse for profit. Deeply shocking. I can see where she is coming from and Jones definitely is on to something here.

Enjoyed:         10th November, 2016 at The Sherman Theatre, Cardiff

Playwright:    Kelly Jones

Director:         Kenny Miller

Actors:

Coco Clare Cage

Lacey Michele Gallagher

Viv Sally Reid

http://www.shermantheatre.co.uk/performance/theatre/a-play-a-pie-and-a-pint-november-16/

 
 
 

Review London Stories Made by Migrants, Battersea Arts Centre, By Hannah Goslin

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 out of 5 stars (5 / 5)

Battersea Arts Centre has been transformed.

Walking into the beautiful lobby, the grand staircase has been covered by a black curtain and we are handed coloured wrist bands. The ceiling has lightbulbs shabby chic-illy hanging down, mostly colourless, apart from 4 with different colours. My wrist band is blue with the London district of ‘Merton’ written on it. Lots of audience members, I have not seen such a large crowd at the BAC in all the time I have been visiting.

We are soon informed that we will be split into groups, travelling around to meet different migrants in difference spaces around the entire building. Some spaces have never been open to audience members before, and this performance piece not only sees us travelling in representation of the migrants, but also a sneak peek into the restoration work of a building that once as a town hall, was open and inviting to all persons.

With the 4 groups, there are altogether around 24 migrant tales – in theory each time you come, you will hear different stories. The stories range from the heart warming, to the painful and disturbing to overall happiness. Each room we entered would have a different theme – some made into comfortable bedrooms that, if BAC are renting, I would not mind being in! To a kitchen,and some of individuals with only a simple lighting in large rooms. The experiences of each person hit some resonance with the audience, and it was a privilege and pleasure to meet each individual. Some were open and welcoming and some still closed off, depending on the experience. And this was okay, and it was brave for such individuals to offer to tell their stories.

Coming away from this, there was a sense of community. The openness and welcoming nature our country has for these people who have travelled to live here is abundant in their tales of acceptance and their gratitude. A sense of pride and elation came to me as I heard this, and also thanks to such wonderful people to join our community. It gave us a sense of unity with these complete strangers and thankfulness for our own, less traumatic lives.

REVIEW: ‘SNOUT’ SHERMAN THEATRE BY GEMMA TREHARNE-FOOSE

 out of 5 stars (4 / 5)

This was my second time to attend a ‘Play, Pie and a Pint’ at the Sherman Theatre, Cardiff and once again it did not disappoint. This low-cost evening is a great option for those looking for bite-size and accessible nights at the theatre. Perhaps in anticipation of the subject material in the play, there was a vegetarian pie option. Thankfully, no pork pies were on the menu!

Snout is the latest new product from Sherman Theatre and Oran Mor’s partnership and is a new script from the writer Kelly Jones: winner of the BBC Wales Drama Award in 2014.

Those with a penchant for pork – beware! Snout is a play that does not beat around the bush when it comes to broaching the subject of animal welfare. The central three characters are pigs – Coco, Lacey and Viv , skilfully represented by Claire Cage, Michele Gallagher and Sally Reid.

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We are led through their backstories from within a cramped, dirty lorry and as the tension and claustrophobia sets in, it slowly becomes clear that Viv is keeping a secret that even she doesn’t want to face. Far from a day out ‘at the fete’ there is a far worse fate awaiting them at the other end of the journey.  As the panic and the fear becomes palpable – there is scrapping and squealing via a tense soundtrack courtesy of Andy Cowan, squabbling and bickering between Coco and Lacey and desperate praying and bargaining from Viv. There is something horrible brewing for these three little pigs.

Director Kenny Miller could so easily have played up the ‘pig’ image: via masks, curly tails or cutesy ears. But the three characters clothes and regular appearance only serve to humanise them and make the audience acknowledge what is about to happen to them.

‘How would they feel if it was them – their children?’ one of the characters says. We realise how pigs and pork are so firmly embedded our popular culture, our vernacular and our food choices: greedy pig, pig ugly, pig ignorant, bringing home the bacon, looking ‘porky’.

There are some really grim passages where Viv describes how her sister Annie was taken away, how the meat is butchered, prepared, consumed and sometimes even sexualised and fetishised. As an audience member, I felt almost complicit in the suffering of Viv, Coco and Lacey and the theatre space and sheer proximity to the cramped box feels claustrophobic for you too.

There are tender moments played out following Lacey’s electric shock after a panicked escape attempt. I could not take my eyes off Sally Reid (who plays Coco), whose spiky and awkward demeanour is softened as we progress in the play.

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The play shines a light on the sheer hypocrisy and selfishness of meat consumption and meat for fashion purposes and for me certainly, threw up a few questions. Why do I care so much about whether my chicken is free range, but not my pork? Why do I crinkle my nose at the thought of eating veal, but not suckling pig? Why is tripe revolting to me but not belly pork? I know that pigs are intelligent animals, so why have I never thought about whether they know what’s awaiting them at the end of their trips to the slaughterhouse. Do I really care about animals if I have this knowledge and do not act upon it?

I had my reservations about whether or not the play would be preachy or overtly anti-meat eating, but it was to character-led for that. What Kelly Jones’ script does manage to do well is to make you question yourself, to step outside your frame of reference and pre-conceived thoughts.  I can’t tell you if Coco, Lacey and Viv made it….but I can tell you that my enthusiasm for ‘meat free’ Mondays has tripled since seeing the play. And I will lay off the bacon for a while, I think…

Type of show: Theatre
Title: Snout (A play, Pie and a Pint)
Venue: The Sherman Theatre, Cardiff
Dates: 8-12 Nov
Author: Kelly Jones
Director: Kenny Miller

Ross Kirkland / Chris Reilly: Lighting Designer
Andy Cowan: Sound Designer
Jonathan Scott: Designer
Gemma Patchett: Assistant Designer
Claire Cage: Coco
Michele Gallagher: Lacey
Sally Reid: Viv

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Review George’s Marvellous Medicine, The New Theatre, Cardiff by Sarah Debnam

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 out of 5 stars (4 / 5)

This year marks the 100th Birthday of the literary legend Roald Dahl but I’m sure you knew that already? If you live anywhere near Cardiff you would have seen the spectacular celebrations across the City Centre from National Theatre Wales and if not there would have been something nearby to mark the event no doubt. And since we are huge Roald Dahl fans in our house it was nice to get the chance to see George’s Marvellous Medicine in the New Theatre in Cardiff recently.

We arrived just in time to find our seat in the packed out theatre and settled into the seats. The music started and we were introduced to George’s family, as anyone who has read the book will know, it is a lively and interesting family, and George of course is the main character played by Ed Thorpe.

I quickly realised how much fun this show was going to be, and the audience were happily cheering along and getting involved from the beginning. Even the adults were laughing at the jokes, and the Mother-In-Law quips.

Preparations for George’s Grandma’s arrival began and the whole stage came to life, this was something I noticed throughout the whole show, when anything was happening the whole scene lit up, or the focus was brought firmly to one area, this really helped the smaller audience members concentrate on what was going on, as we know their attention span is naturally short, so the Birmingham Stage Company really did cater for this in my opinion.

So of course we meet George’s pretty awful Grandma, and she is as miserable as described in the original story, she is rude, bad tempered and demanding, and we instantly disliked her, as intended, well played Deborah Vale. Poor George has a miserable time of it when he is responsible for the care of his Gran, and he starts making up stories in his mind, except for this is the theatre and the scene comes comes to life with him.

The story continues and George comes up with his wonderful idea to make a new medicine for his Grandmother to make her nice…

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I really appreciated the fact they used actual creams and other special ingredients rather than just pretending and I think it added something special for the children watching. I can only imagine the clean up operation after each show though. Of course this only made things more real when the inevitable happens and Grandma drinks her medicine and BOOM! She grows and grows….. I know my girls were mesmerised by the incredible growing Grandma and even I was sat wondering how they managed it.

I don’t think there was anything I could fault from this production, the acting was spot on, the scenery and props were amazing and the music and lighting cleverly used. Even the special Pigs and Chickens that were used in the story were impressive. Many things could have been missed or ignored but weren’t and the attention to detail was brilliant. As everything Roald Dahl seems to be, brilliant!

I would certainly watch another show from the Birmingham Stage Company, and can only applaud everyone involved in George’s Marvellous Medicine.

An Interview with Rebecca Jade Hammond, Artistic Director of Chippy Lane Productions

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Photographic Credit Kirsten McTernan

Our project coordinator recently spoke to Rebecca Jade Hammond Artistic Director of Chippy Lane Productions

Hi Rebecca, great to meet you, your company Chippy Lane productions has the mission statement of;

“Our primary mission is to promote Welsh writing and Welsh talent to audiences beyond Wales. We aim to achieve this by producing work across both the live and recorded arts.”

I wonder if you can tell me how you work towards achieving these aims?

“We do this in a number of ways;

  1. By consistently keeping abreast of published Welsh playwrights work and progression.
  2. Encouraging new writing and work from emerging Welsh playwrights.
  3. Social Media/events/building communities of like minded Welsh and Welsh-loving people beyond Wales.
  4. Expanding our events to include rehearsed readings, socials, scratch nights, fundraising evenings as well as performances.”

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Following on from those objectives then your company has recently produced a new scratch night to showcase Welsh writing called “Chippy & Scratch” at The London Welsh Centre and “An Evening of Welsh Playwrights” for The Bloomsbury Literary Festival. Phew you must be busy! It sounds like you might be interested in commissioning playwrights and creatives yourself as part of your companies development. Is this something you would like to see happen?

“Yes, and it is one of the main reasons for setting up a twice annual “Chippy & Scratch Night” to seek out new and emerging, fresh Welsh writers who want to progress and take the next steps in bringing their work to the stage. From our most recent event I am currently in talks with potential writers to try and match one of them to a project for 2018, which will be our next project and inspired by the text The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams.”

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Your first production to be staged in Wales is “Love Steals Us From Loneliness” by Gary Owen at Chapter Arts Centre in December. Why did you choose this particular play?

“When I set up the company I wanted to create a buzz and to begin my producing portfolio with a real bang. There was no question that I had to begin with the most important and successful playwright to come out of Wales – Gary Owen. The love for his writing is so exciting and he is making a tremendous noise on the London theatre scene with the success of Iphigenia in Splott . His writing is real, raw and has that rarity with most contemporary work to flick from comedic to tragic like the flip of a coin. Love Steals, is by far my favourite piece of his and when I read it for the first time five years ago – I always said “If I ever pluck up the courage to have my own company, I need this to be the first!”

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Love Steals Us from Loneliness was first staged by NTW/Sherman Cymru in Hobo’s nightclub in Bridgend Town Centre in 2010. Do you think this play still resonates for today’s audiences?

“Absolutely. I think it’s pretty timeless to be honest. The themes will always be resonant and even though in someways it is aimed at a younger demographic it can still reach further. After all everyone has or will experience, love, loss, grief, and heart ache. Some will battle with sexuality and others will venture down the wrong path or maybe overcome the tragedies in their lives to be successful, happy and content, able to exist and move forward.”

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Rebecca you also champion Equality and Diversity in the Arts across the UK. As an activist and committee member for charity Act For Change. How did you become aware of the work of Act For Change and can you give us more information on your work in this area?

“Firstly it affects/has affected me as a female in the arts where women are poorly represented across the board and also as a regional working class Welsh actor. On a wider level it has affected many of my friends and work colleagues who are BAME and working in the industry and it needs to change. The UK is not majority white and English and it hasn’t been for a very long time. AFC was set up in response to an ITV advert run in 2014 “Where Drama Lives” the advert failed to represent any BAME actors and brought together a collective of people across the arts to revolt and campaign for a wider awareness and change to progress diversity and equality across the arts in the UK. Our arts should reflect the society in which we live in – which is diverse and I for one can’t understand why this isn’t currently reflecting across the live and recorded arts. We have a wealth of talent in the UK and opportunity should be available for all who want it. My most recent work for AFC which includes helping with their events and social media was putting into action a fair casting process for Love Steals. I spent four months ploughing through Twitter, Facebook, the internet, spotlight and drama schools to find BAME actors who were authentic Welsh. I’m not going to lie it proved difficult as Wales – doesn’t seem to have many and this is a major concern.”

Are you aware of any barriers to equality and diversity for either Welsh or Wales based artists?

“I went to showcases and performances in and out of Wales to build up a portfolio of actors who were Welsh. Of the 180 that I currently have in my portfolio 35% are BAME and 25% are over the age of 35. Whilst I worked really hard to raise these figures – it isn’t good enough and it’s not from lack of research or trying. I tried to find a fair amount of actors who represented that bracket to go into the casting process, but sadly there wasn’t enough and I’m concerned that it comes from education predominantly.

We need schools to be studying / performing / spreading awareness of stories of BAME communities and we need to take young people to watch these stories being performed. For example The Mountaintop at The Other Room, Cardiff – A teenager of colour might have seen Alexandria Riley’s performance and gone away thinking  “Wow – She’s amazing and she looks like me. That story was about a part of my culture, I want to be like her.” Children want to see themselves in the characters in theatre as well as television and film. Give them that, then that seed will grow from a passion to a hobby and then to a potential career giving progression and more diversity in Wales.”

If you were able to fund an area of the arts in Wales what would this be and why?

I would give the funding to primary schools and secondary schools to finance their theatre trips. We need to capture the next generation of creatives at a young age and show them worlds that can only belong on stage and captivate them. Culture them and nurture them to realise the beauty and possibilities of different types of Theatre. By giving them free tickets to the theatre they will experience a different type of education and in light of the wealth of work swelling in and out of Wales at the moment, perhaps they will see a reflection of what they could do or who they could be in those productions.”

And finally what personally excites you about the arts in Wales? Is there a production you have experienced recently that you would like to share with our readers?

“The arts in Wales are changing. It’s not the place I left in 2004, there is wealth and excitement for Theatre that is new, diverse and vibrant. The Other Room, The Sherman Theatre and NTW to name a few are taking enormous leaps producing  great work  and  reaching new audiences and then take this work beyond Wales to engage with other parts of the UK – this is wonderful news.

As for a production I  think I would choose the The Weir at The Sherman Theatre. Mostly because it was giving voice to Irish culture and Irish life and that is what I want Chippy Lane to do beyond Wales. Bring a bit of Welsh culture beyond Wales. As an Artistic Director I want to hear as many stories from all around the world as I can and the wonder of Theatre allows you to do that rather beautifully.”

Thanks for your time Rebecca

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Invite to Kali Theatre Collaborators Tea Party, Sat 12th Nov.

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Kali Theatre Collaborators Tea Party 12.30-2.30pm
Saturday 12 November, Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff.
BSL Supported event

This will be a networking event bringing local practitioners, producers and promoters together for a relaxed afternoon of tea, cake and conversations sharing ideas and opportunities for creating/commissioning new theatre work.

The Collaborator Tea Party will be facilitated by Kali’s Artistic Director Janet Steel inspired by the incredibly successful collaboration between Arts Alive, Black Country Touring and Kali that created My Big Fat Cowpat Wedding. At the Tea Party you can hear all about how we developed My Big Fat Cowpat Wedding into the popular, high quality, sell out show it has become and discover how you can do the same.
It will be an opportunity for Rural Touring schemes, promoters and rural venues interested in commissioning new work for rural touring to informally meet individual practitioners, producers and theatre companies to share ideas and discuss ways of collaborating in an informal and inspiring way. Kali wants to encourage and inspire more collaborative working to create new work specifically for local and national rural and small scale touring.
For more information and to RSVP please contact:
Jonna Nummela, Outreach Project Coordinator
Kali Theatre jonna@kalitheatre.co.uk +44 7879539936
http://www.kalitheatre.co.uk/whats-on/Collaborator%20Tea%20Parties.html

Launch of Creative Citizens Cymru

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Launch of Creative Citizens Cymru
10-12pm, Saturday 12 November, Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff.
BSL Supported event
A morning of creative conversation to share your thoughts on ways to support the development of Creative Citizens acting as critics, ambassadors, volunteers, advocates, promoters, workshop leaders and more! A morning of relaxed presentations and conversation.
Please  RSVP as places are limited
Guy O’Donnell
Director Get the Chance
odonnell.guy@gmail.com
getthechance.wales/

Review, Key Change, Open Clasp, Battersea Arts Centre, By Hannah Goslin

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 out of 5 stars (5 / 5)

Key Change

Open Clasp

Battersea Arts Centre

Open Clasp, an all-women’s theatre company are doing and achieving wonderful things in the world of community theatre. Key change is a production based upon previous work with real women in prison – the aim to originally put on a piece of theatre to their peers, Open Clasp has now transferred it to the public with the use of actors.

Highlighting domestic abuse, drug addiction and the mediocre and difficult life sustained by women in prison, this clever company draws upon physical theatre along the use of staging, music and lighting to create violent scenes, verbatim stories and incidences with the ‘inmates’ role swapping to give power to the stories and breaking the forth wall and comical writing to cleverly cut the tension and emotional and powerful scenes.

The performers are excellent – ranging in ages, each one is physically able to move around the space and evidently enjoying doing so. They are also very clever to change their bodies, movement, voices and facial expressions to create different characters – some we hate, some we love. This is done in a way that when we hear the stories of each inmate, we forget when they showed us the wife beater or the times when violence in prison is rife.

Some of it is comical by breaking the fourth wall – we see times where the performers make it obvious that we are in a performance and play upon this for our amusement, but still never breaking character. There’s foul language and slightly rude insinuations but again these either helped with the comedy or pushed the boundaries of these true and horrifying stories.

Key Change is a beautiful piece of work. Open Clasp have given us the right balance in true life stories and issues with a hint of comic relief that is respectful and a truly wonderful piece of theatre. It challenges our stereotypes and beliefs of women ‘criminals’ and gives a sympathetic and realisation to the innocent and self-protecting reasons some of them have been incarcerated.

http://www.openclasp.org.uk/our_work/detail/Key-Change/83

Review Blackbird The Other Room by Kiera Sikora

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All photographic credits Kirsten McTernan

 out of 5 stars (4 / 5)

Set in an office break room, as unclean as their past, ‘Blackbird’ begins with Ray (Christian Patterson) and Una (Sophie Melville) on opposite sides of the small and intricate room, both wanting to speak whilst both unsure of what to say or where they can look.

With a firstly faltering light and some seriously uncertain small talk, a head-to-head confrontation begins between the two. They tell us of their past, how Una and Ray shared an illicit relationship which began and ended when Una was 12, and Ray 40, and how they both ended up here in Ray’s new life’s occupancy, after Una saw a photograph of him in a magazine. She tracked him down. And the past in put in front of them, staring at them in the flesh.

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What’s both horrendous and horribly beautiful about this play is how David Harrower has us question who the hell the victim is here. You see, Ray is not a monster- at least there was no sign of one at The Other Room for me. But his actions are undoubtedly monstrous. To abuse, a word prized from his own mouth by Una, a 12-year-old which has harmed her both emotionally and physically is evil. And there are more than a million of different kinds of evil in this world but I saw not just one on that stage, I indefinitely saw a few more. You see it seems that it is the cruelty of feelings that conjured up these horrendous events and emotional sky scrapers. Ray tells us that it was his genuine, non-tactical and uncontrollable desire to speak to Una. That ‘speaking’ lead to what they ultimately became. He would purposely look for ways and reasons to talk to Una not because he thought profusely about what she looked like naked but because he was emotionally attracted to her understanding of human feelings. Ray is likeable. Disturbingly likeable. You may well sit in the audience and see how he could be a very nice man to have a very nice chat with. He believes that Una ‘understood love’.

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But, for Una, it is that understanding of human feelings that could’ve been one of the ways in which she felt that she could and did love Ray. And it could’ve also been the reason why she thought he loved her too. From the beginning of the play we see that she is a girl who feels things on a deep and sensual level. That quality in a person is usually something that when discovered by somebody else can be a quality that helps them thrive together. But we can see here how that quality is what made her bleed for Ray. Una is delicate, a shadow of her youth who, though beautiful, is internally beaten. Seeing her at 27 with her heart pouring out of her mouth allowed us to see her as a 12-year-old. And seeing both her Ray (now 55) in the same room meant that what was put in front of us was two people who share a time that was both forbidden, but almost admittedly for both exclusively sometimes savoured.

This play is in very many senses difficult, wonderfully so under the direction of Rupert Hands who’s delicate and detailed direction compliments the script and its disorientating duologue of wretched honesty. It’s bright, bold and dissimilar design by Ruth Hall, with lighting designed by Alia Stephen and sound designed by Sam Jones commend the intricate space at The Other Room.

Christian Patterson and Sophie Melville are a credit to Harrower’s words making you throw your moral compass in a ditch and leave you wondering to the bar with no way of seeing what’s right and what’s honest.

Blackbird runs at The Other Room at Porter’s until Friday November 4th.

Prepare to be left in a concrete conflict of emotions.

http://www.otherroomtheatre.com/en/whats-on/seasons/autumnwinter-at-the-other-room/blackbird/