Addison Waite Archives - Page 4 of 26

★★★

“two very good performances are somewhat undermined by an overly long script”

Jacob Marx Rice’s Chemistry is revived at the Finborough Theatre this month. Originally produced in New York in 2013, director Alex Howarth brings this modern story of star-crossed lovers across the pond to London.

Steph suffers from chronic depression. She’s very glib about the number of times she’s tried to kill herself. Jamie has always been an incredibly high achiever, working himself to the breaking point. When he finally does break, he’s diagnosed with a rare disorder called unipolar mania. Steph and Jamie meet in a psychiatrist’s waiting room. As their casual dating deepens into real love, Steph tries to throw on the brakes – how can they take care of each other when they struggle to take care of themselves?

Howarth’s set is unusual. A large metal rectangle, suspended waist-high in the air, frames the stage, significantly reducing the Finborough’s already small performance space. Presumably the intention is to manifest the confinement of an ill mind, as the two characters never leave this highly restricted area until the final scenes. Beneath the metal frame, tracing the same rectangle, is a mass of intertwined wires and lightbulbs, which suggests the complexity of the brain – its unfathomable tangles of synapses and neurons. Oddly, and perhaps unnecessarily, the performers use microphones for narration, and set them aside for dialogue.

Caoimhe Farren brings admirable genuineness to the depressive Steph. She’s in turn detached, intense, caustic, and vulnerable. James Mear is appropriately high-strung as the manic Jamie. They play their opposed psychologies off of each other well, and do an impressive job negotiating the tight space. However, two very good performances are somewhat undermined by an overly long script. At ninety minutes, Rice’s play is at least half an hour too long. Lengthy monologues, extraneous scenes, and repeated ideas all point to an urgent need for an editor. It’s a slow play, and the overstuffed script makes it feel slower. It’s a shame, because Rice has written some immensely interesting conversations about mental health, and succeeded in portraying depression with authenticity, insight, and unaffected empathy.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green was huge the year Chemistry was first staged, and it’s clear the play absorbed whatever was in the air at the time. Rice’s script repeatedly drifts into teenage melodrama, which feels a bit maudlin now. It’s unfortunate that Howarth and lighting designer Rachel Sampley have chosen to push the show further into the saccharine rather than pull it back: warm lights glow in the dark while Sufjan Stephens plays as the fated lovers try to savour their time together.

Chemistry provides a fascinating window into two characters’ unique battles with mental health. Even now in 2019, six years after the play was written, mental illnesses are still so misunderstood. It’s a highly relevant, excellently performed piece that’s in need of cutting and trimming.

Reviewed by Addison Waite

Photography by Claire Bilyard

Out of Sorts

Theatre503

Reviewed – 14th October 2019

★★★★

“Samal’s smart, insightful script cares deeply about its characters”

Out of Sorts is the winner of Theatre503’s International Playwriting Award 2018. Written by Danusia Samal, it tells the story of Zara, a young woman caught between two cultures. Raised Muslim in London, when Zara got to university she quickly learned to adapt in order to fit in with her overwhelmingly white classmates. Now living with her best friend and flatmate Alice, Zara is the typical millennial: she parties, she drinks, and she wants more from life than marriage to a Muslim man. On the other hand, when she visits her family, she reverts to the good Muslim daughter, wearing her hijab at dinner and saying the prayers. On the surface it may seem that Zara has it all worked out, and it’s simply a matter of code switching. But the truth is that identity is messy, and the stress of being split in two this way, between two worlds, neither of which fully accept her, has its cost.

Directed by Tanuja Amarasuriya, Out of Sorts is a heartfelt story of identity and belonging. Samal’s smart, insightful script cares deeply about its characters, all of whom are layered and complicated. Samal shows impressive skill in her ability to balance lightness in her writing with the heaviness of her subjects. The play, which confronts racism, privilege, mental health, and eating disorders, is also touching, delightful, and laugh out loud funny. And although the script may allow itself a few too many speeches, the show never feels long.

Myriam Acharki (Layla, Zara’s mother), is particularly deft in her grasp of her character’s sadness and pain, but also her quite sly sense of humour. Nayef Rashed (Hussein, Zara’s father), likewise brings much of the comedy to the play. Oznur Cifci nails the part of Zara’s sharp-witted, ‘hood rat’ little sister Fatima. Nalân Burgess (Zara) gives a good portrayal of someone barely holding things together. Emma Denly (Alice) is spot on as Zara’s well-intended but privileged and condescending flatmate. Claudius Peters (Anthony) is earnest and convincing as Alice’s boyfriend, who is unfortunate enough to get caught in the avalanche of the girls’ collapsing relationship.

The show has one set, which is used to portray both Zara and Alice’s upmarket flat, and Zara’s family’s council estate flat. What may seem like not an ideal choice, made to accommodate Theatre503’s small space, works better than you might think. A change in lighting (Ali Hunter) is surprisingly effective in morphing the atmosphere. The characters from Zara’s two worlds often overlap in the room, which suggests that perhaps Zara isn’t doing as well as she thinks at keeping her two identities apart.

Out of Sorts makes a powerful argument for open and truthful communication, no matter how difficult it may be. All of Zara’s secrets that she keeps from her friends and family, and her attempt to handle her problems alone, result in a huge mess, both literally and figuratively. The play is clever in getting us to re-examine our own perspectives, and remember that what we see of someone’s life is never the full story. Samal is loving, perceptive, and precise in her championing of people from two cultures who feel like they don’t belong to either. It’s important now more than ever to centre stories like Zara’s. Don’t miss this hugely enjoyable, eye-opening show.

Finborough Theatre

Reviewed – 1st November 2019

★★★

“two very good performances are somewhat undermined by an overly long script”

Jacob Marx Rice’s Chemistry is revived at the Finborough Theatre this month. Originally produced in New York in 2013, director Alex Howarth brings this modern story of star-crossed lovers across the pond to London.

Chemistry provides a fascinating window into two characters’ unique battles with mental health. Even now in 2019, six years after the play was written, mental illnesses are still so misunderstood. It’s a highly relevant, excellently performed piece that’s in need of cutting and trimming.

Reviewed by Addison Waite

Photography by Claire Bilyard

Chemistry

Finborough Theatre until 23rd November

Previously reviewed at this venue:

Theatre503

Reviewed – 14th October 2019

★★★★

“Samal’s smart, insightful script cares deeply about its characters”

Reviewed by Addison Waite

Photography by Helen Murray

Out of Sorts

Theatre503 until 2nd November

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue: