The Girl With Glitter in Her Eye
The Bunker
Reviewed – 13th January 2020
★★½
“Some really vital themes are at stake … but the overall framing and direction lets these things down”
We enter the space to ethereal piano playing from Ben Ramsden, who is also the composer of the piece. Dressed in soft blues he echoes the set, designed by Cara Evans: a white chair, white boxes, white coffee cups, white sheet, and blue fringe hanging lightly over a white background. Hanging in the foreground is a beautiful piece, refracting light and so changing colour throughout the show. A good design, although a little distracting considering how little it is interacted with during the show.
Helen (Modupe Salu) is an artist, with one chance to impress an eccentric art director (Naomi Gardener) who wants work that shocks, that reflects her ‘background’, or as Helen translates it, she wants art about trauma. Helen co-runs a cafe with best mate Phil (Anna Mackay), and when Phil shares her own story of trauma with Helen, a story of sexual violence, Helen begs to use Phil’s trauma as the subject of her painting.
There are some really interesting themes in this piece, although perhaps too many at play simultaneously for it to feel cohesive. The way that trauma is exploited in art is discussed, as well as a privileged art world that thrives off this trauma that isn’t theirs. Equally the art world is portrayed as a very inaccessible space, and the barriers to it are clearly displayed. The play talks about sexual violence, and particularly the way it is depicted and discussed, in a really insightful and painful way. Finally it delves into whether you can ever tell someone else’s story, and the repercussions of trying to do so.
The Girl With Glitter in Her Eye is unnecessarily framed by three furies, that the three actors morph in and out of. Unfortunately this device takes us away from the real story of the play, lifts us out of a reality every time we are beginning to care about, and as a spectacle, feels amateurish in the use of vocal sound and movement. It is a distracting choice that doesn’t add anything to the way the story is told. Masha Kevinovna is both writer and director and this is certainly a moment where both writing and direction failed the piece. In general, better pacing in the writing would also have helped lift the moments of comedy earlier on which frequently fail to land. As a whole the show is lacking a sense of through line, a flow that keeps it all together, keeps it all moving.
The actors are much stronger when playing real people. Modupe Salu delivers a particularly strong performance as Helen, conflicted and passionate. Anna Mackay’s Phil is also lovely, simultaneously hard and vulnerable.
Some really vital themes are at stake in The Girl with Glitter in her Eye, but the overall framing and direction let these things down. A commitment to engaging with these themes in a more immediate way might make it stronger.
Reviewed by Amelia Brown
Photography by Victoria Double
The Girl With Glitter in Her Eye
The Bunker until 1st February
Last ten shows reviewed at this venue:
Funeral Flowers | ★★★½ | April 2019
Fuck You Pay Me | ★★★★ | May 2019
The Flies | ★★★ | June 2019
Have I Told You I’m Writing a Play About my Vagina? | ★★★★ | July 2019
Jade City | ★★★ | September 2019
Germ Free Adolescent | ★★★★ | October 2019
We Anchor In Hope | ★★★★ | October 2019
Before I Was A Bear | ★★★★★ | November 2019
I Will Still Be Whole (When You Rip Me In Half) | ★★★★ | November 2019
My White Best Friend And Even More Letters Best Left Unsaid | ★★★★ | November 2019
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