DELUGE
Soho Theatre
★★★★
“incredibly beautifully written with effortless alternation between comedy and horror”
“Oh, can we just start over?” Gabriela Flarys asks the audience as she pretends to forget her lines. The line is of course deliberate and is referring to something else – the recent ending of her relationship. Gabriela is lost and is looking for a way through. She is in pain and is struggling to keep a lid on the thoughts that will not stop flowing as she tries to work out why her relationship is over.
Deluge is an apt title to this marvellous solo performance. Emotions, thoughts, and passion pour out of Gabriela in this intense 60-minute retelling of ‘the end’, as she calls it throughout. The performance is frenetic as she jumps from one stage of grief to the next. There are many individual plot lines which present themselves as loose ends initially. The consistent reference to her former partner’s affection for jam and a two week holiday to Australia to try and save the relationship are just two. However, Gabriela brings together all of these threads alongside the experiences of over forty other people in a recount of grief that hits all the senses.
The script is incredibly beautifully written with effortless alternation between comedy and horror. The comedy brings us the triviality of the world jam championship and a recital of an alphabetical list of fruit. The horror brings us the reality of the feeling of interminable hopelessness that most of us will have experienced at some point.
The set is simple but makes excellent use of props with visual metaphors adding to the story. Gabriela starts the play stuck in a ladder, unable to get through it or go anywhere without it, like the emotions that she is experiencing. When she does free herself from it, she still finds herself stuck. The literal reason being due to the stacks of jam jars in her house, the emotional reason far deeper. Andrea Maciel’s direction of the plot is spellbinding, and the lighting (Madison Maycock) was entrancing, always amplifying the mood of the scene. Credit should also be given for costume design (Anouk Van Der). Flarys wears a white dress covered with red marks, but this could easily be a bloodied straitjacket.
The ending of the play feels slightly rushed and does not take the audience on the same journey that the rest of the show does. Gabriela’s conversations with her piano are an unnecessary addition, as she does a fantastic job of steering the plot by herself without needing to clumsily introduce an additional character.
However, that should not take away from a breathtaking performance from start to finish. Flarys and Maciel will struggle to match the level of drama and excitement in their next works, but I look forward to watching it.
DELUGE
Soho Theatre
Reviewed on 18th February 2025
by Luke Goscomb
Photography by Julia Testas
Recently reviewed at this venue:
ROB AUTON: THE EYES OPEN AND SHUT SHOW | ★★★½ | February 2025
DEMI ADEJUYIGBE IS GOING TO DO ONE (1) BACKFLIP | ★★★★★ | January 2025
MAKE ME LOOK FIT ON THE POSTER | ★★★★ | January 2025
SANTI & NAZ | ★★★★ | January 2025
BALL & BOE – FOR FOURTEEN NIGHTS ONLY | ★★★★ | December 2024
GINGER JOHNSON BLOWS OFF! | ★★★ | September 2024
COLIN HOULT: COLIN | ★★★★ | September 2024
VITAMIN D | ★★★★ | September 2024
THE DAO OF UNREPRESENTATIVE BRITISH CHINESE EXPERIENCE | ★★★★ | June 2024
BABY DINOSAUR | ★★★ | June 2024
JAZZ EMU | ★★★★★ | June 2024
BLIZZARD | ★★★★ | May 2024
