Tag Archives: Atticist

OUTLYING ISLANDS

★★★★

Jermyn Street Theatre

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OUTLYING ISLANDS

Jermyn Street Theatre

★★★★

OUTLYING ISLANDS cast members

“The subject matter never quite chills our bones, but the context is often unsettling”

The atmosphere hits you like a bracing offshore wind as you descend into the depths of the small basement on Jermyn Street. Anna Lewis’ set: a semi-submerged, semi-derelict stone chapel, creates the mood. Tragic and sepulchral, yet some sort of haven from the cruel elements that sweep the remote Hebridean shoreline outside. Its owner, Kirk, is just as rough-edged. Living alone with Ellen, his niece, they live in quiet captivity until two young, hapless ornithologists burst through the door – literally knocking it off its hinges. The impulsive, emotionally detached Robert, along with the more moral but anxious John have arrived to study the local bird life. It is the eve of World War II, so there is understandably a more sinister motive behind the survey that leaves them stranded on the isle for a month. Less understandable is the fact that the two young men seem somewhat unaware of the pretext. Whereas the isolated, cantankerous Kirk has all the gen. Fully aware that his outlying outcrop is scheduled to be the subject of a biological weapon experiment, he sees the dollar-signs stockpiling in his compensation package.

David Greig’s lyrical play draws you in to this small world. It is claustrophobic but the confines are torn, allowing us to see the wider issues. Little, though, is made of the encroaching anthrax experiment and instead we are watching the social and romantic entanglements as avidly as birdwatchers study our feathered friends’ behaviour. Humans are much more complicated. Greig knows this only too well and the poetry of his language teases out the characters’ serpentine layers with rich dialogue and haunting monologues. The standout performance is Whitney Kehinde’s Ellen. Timid and repressed she swiftly replaces her dour mantle with swathes of lust, as a new-found freedom from her uncle’s tyranny is tragically chanced upon. Kevin McMonagle is wonderfully charismatic as Kirk. Acerbic and unashamedly direct, he tries to keep Ellen like a caged bird but cannot control her mind. The stage lights up every time McMonagle fires his lines with a wry sense of humour and a Chekhovian dramatic irony.

OUTLYING ISLANDS cast member

Bruce Langley and Fred Woodley Evans, as Robert and John respectively, also manage to spin out the humour that runs alongside the poignancy. Deliberate echoes of Laurel and Hardy break the solemnity in a play that is difficult to categorise. The comedy is subtle, like the Mona Lisa smile. It disappears when you look directly at it. The ambiguity is sometimes overdone, though, and confusion starts to set in as the show coasts towards its climax in a tangle of charged eroticism. Despite the shifts in mood, Jessica Lazar’s assured direction evenly paces the action. Clever use of the intimate space sets clear indicators for the interior and exterior scenes, enhanced by David Doyle’s suggestive lighting which evokes the bleakness, and ignites warmth when needed. The subject matter never quite chills our bones, but the context is often unsettling.

Politically and philosophically the play throws up some interesting questions while rooting itself in a story about human relationships. Desire is a complex beast. The male characters are more at sea than Ellen. We wonder whether she is playing the two outsiders or whether her passions are genuine. We are certainly given time to contemplate – the play does stretch itself out. Not every character makes it to the end. But, thanks to the writing and the wonderful performances from the strong quartet of actors, the audience is kept in thrall right up to the closing moments.



OUTLYING ISLANDS

Jermyn Street Theatre

Reviewed on 11th February 2025

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Alex Brenner

 

 


 

 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

THE MAIDS | ★★★ | January 2025
NAPOLEON: UN PETIT PANTOMIME | ★★★★ | November 2024
EURYDICE | ★★ | October 2024
LAUGHING BOY | ★★★ | May 2024
THE LONELY LONDONERS | ★★★★ | March 2024
TWO ROUNDS | ★★★ | February 2024
THE BEAUTIFUL FUTURE IS COMING | ★★★★ | January 2024
OWNERS | ★★★½ | October 2023
INFAMOUS | ★★★★ | September 2023
SPIRAL | ★★ | August 2023

OUTLYING ISLANDS

OUTLYING ISLANDS

OUTLYING ISLANDS

 

BELLRINGERS

★★★★

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

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BELLRINGERS at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe

★★★★

“Paul Adefeya and Luke Rollason command the small space of the Roundabout Theatre without difficulty”

Daisy Hall’s Bellringers is a vividly imagined take on climate change, set somewhere in a possible future for the Cotswolds. A shortlisted play for the Women’s Prize in Playwriting, Bellringers is another coproduction by Atticist and Ellie Keel Productions, the same team that brought the luminous SAP to the Roundabout Theatre in 2022. Director Jessica Lazar is also on board once more, which means the show is in good hands. Despite all the supporting talent, however, and the competence of performers Paul Adeyefa and Luke Rollason, it doesn’t provide much of a journey for its leading characters. Set in a bell tower to the accompaniment of ceaseless rain and a gathering storm, two bellringers debate the world’s fate, and their own.

Bellringers takes place in an apocalyptic future where uncertainty about the world’s climate has driven scientific knowledge to the margins. In the place of radar and reliable weather reports, humans watch their environment for portents. They are keenly aware that they are living on borrowed time, as the sea moves inland and covers once productive land. Two monkish figures, Aspinall and Clement, have been assigned the task of ringing the bells. But it’s never clear whether they are supposed to ring the bells to warn their neighbourhood of an oncoming storm, or use the sound to drive the storm away. The two friends are also aware that ringing the bells could mean instant annihilation. The ceaseless rain has soaked everything, including the bell ropes.

It’s a dramatic situation, and the two friends are sympathetic characters. But there’s only so much one can do to pass the time waiting for a storm to strike the bell tower. Clement, the skeptic, and Aspinall the believer, spend a certain amount of time arguing like medieval philosophers, except that Clement can still remember a world where humans figured out what was going on by using the scientific method. Aspinall prefers the prophecies of his mother’s almanac. Both are afflicted by bad dreams, and an invasion of mushrooms.

Under Jessica Lazar’s assured direction, Paul Adefeya (Aspinall) and Luke Rollason (Clement) command the small space of the Roundabout Theatre without difficulty. Natalie Johnson’s set defines the boundaries with benches and bell ropes. But it’s sound designer Holly Khan and lighting designer David Doyle who create an experience so intense that one is never quite sure whether that is a real storm outside the Roundabout’s tent, or the sound and lighting effects of this talented team. Doyle and Khan use the limitations of the venue to maximum effect. All that Adefeya and Rollason have to do is to take that claustrophobic atmosphere of impending doom and run with it. Nevertheless, the script labours to maintain the suspense, even for seventy minutes. The mushroom theme reminds us that we have visited apocalyptic futures of renegade vegetable life before.

Bellringers offers no solution for our troubled bellringers, or any hope that they can somehow save what’s left of humanity in their village below. Daisy Hall’s vision is a bleak one, despite the wit and humour in the sparring between the two friends. Its visionary quality does offer a respite from overly naturalistic dramas, though. So if you like theatre that stretches the imagination while remaining firmly rooted in contemporary ecological issues, Bellringers is an easy pick at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.


BELLRINGERS at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Roundabout @ Summerhall

Reviewed on 2nd August 2024

by Dominica Plummer

 

Bellringers will be at the Hampstead Theatre from 27th September to 2nd November

 

 

 


Bellringers

Bellringers

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