“a bold and exciting work that holds an important message of self-acceptance”
‘Algorithms’, both written and performed by Sadie Clark and directed by Madelaine Moore, is a one woman show following Brooke, a newly single, bisexual woman as she approaches her thirtieth birthday.
The play covers a variety of events during the weeks nearing Brooke’s birthday. It becomes clear that things are not going the way she wants them to when her girlfriend doesn’t return home from drinks at the local pub. When she does return, Brooke is brutally told that the relationship simply does not work, and she is brokenhearted. As the story goes on, she signs up for the dating website that she works for to meet new people so as to distract both from the breakup and the dreaded party her mother is throwing for her birthday.
There’s an impressive change in Brooke from the beginning of the play to the end, as she comes to terms with herself and begins to accept that she isn’t always the problem in relationships and work environments. An important moment shared between Brooke and her mother at the end of the play sets alight a new aspiration in the young woman – ‘you be you’. Sadie Clark portrays her beautifully, with her emotions being so sincere when Brooke is at her lowest points, giving a realistic view on how many women deal with such events. She has the audience roaring with laughter as she prances and screams, but also has them drawn in and emotional as she dressed herself in a ball gown.
The stage design is perfect for the performance, and every little detail is superb. There was golden boxes that matched the golden shoes Brooke wears throughout the play, and there were balloons in purple, pink and blue, which describe her sexuality to a very fine detail. At the back of the stage is a clothes hanger with a dress bag hanging on it, which hides a beautiful gown until it was time for Brooke to wear it. However, there was very little use of these objects throughout the play, which allowed all attention to be on the actress.
Music was used for comic purposes as Brooke danced across the stage to songs that had lyrics explaining her situation perfectly. Sadie had the audience participating and clapping along with the music as they exited the venue.
‘Algorithms’ is a bold and exciting work that holds an important message of self-acceptance, especially for older women who believe they are not achieving what they should be at their age and emphasises the importance of accepting yourself and others around you in your daily lives.
Reviewed by Sara McPhail
Photography by Ali Wright
Algorithms
Pleasance Courtyard until 26th August as part of Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2019
“by thirty minutes in the audience mood has swelled into bonhomie”
‘You want to call your play something fun, something playful, something catchy’. So opens this exploration of the overlapping worlds of climate science, denial and activism. The questionable ‘fun’ of the title sums up the tensions that David Finnigan’s writing and Nic Connaughton’s direction unpack; tensions between laugh-out-loud comedy and the very real tragedy of our warming planet.
The ninety minute production in the downstairs Pleasance Space starts a little slowly, understandably. Some narrative explication is needed; this play is meta to the max, and even more so on press night when playwright David Finnigan was both represented on stage, by Nathan Coenen, and sitting within the audience. Coenen, as ‘Finig’, addresses us throughout the play, inserting wry asides and giving context to the ideas that led to his writing a play with quite such an inflammatory title (of which more later).
The otherwise all-female cast is uniformly strong, variously turning their hands to physicality, comedy and pathos, but it’s no surprise that the star of the show is highly-regarded comedian Felicity Ward as earnest but chaotic Environment Minister Gwen Malkin. We watch as Finig’s flippant (or was it?) play title starts to convert into a call to action, and the second phase of the play sees a switch into action with Malkin eventually taking down climate terrorists to an absolutely banging soundtrack of nineties dance classics.
The choreography, by movement director Rubyyy Jones, is exceptional; they deserve note for further enhancing and celebrating the energy of this litany of amazing tracks. Jones’ work and great lighting design from Geoff Hense help the play into gear and by thirty minutes in the audience mood has swelled into bonhomie – aided in no small part by a lively shared rendition of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘You Can Go Your Own Way’. On that note, fans of The Mac be warned; there is plenty of fun gently poked at the rockers, who play an unexpectedly central role. It’s not personal, though; few institutions go un-poked, and there are some especially ripe representations of Australian right-wing commentators and their slippery uses of language.
Uses and abuses of language are a recurring theme. Finig questions whether it was right to use the menacing imperative of the title and opens the night by repeating, mantra-like, ‘sometimes you get it wrong, you get it wrong, you get it wrong…’. By the close of the play, the audience are similarly turned around. Is it right or helpful to remain in ardent opposition to people with whom we may, in fact, have more in common than we realise? And can we ever effect change that will halt our not-so-slow march towards extinction, or would the change itself be harder than we can bear? Sometimes we do all, indeed, get it wrong, and we all are where climate change is concerned. But Finnigan certainly got this one right.
