Bryony Lavery Archives - thespyinthestalls.com

★★★

“Melly Still’s direction is artful, feeling at times more like dance”

Sputnik Sweetheart is a mournful and thoughtful production which explores philosophical questions of identity, desire and purpose.

In Tokyo in 1999 Sumire (Millicent Wong), a young precocious writer, rings her best friend, K (Naruto Komatsu), from a phone box every night, she doesn’t sleep. Their friendship, coloured by his desire for her, sees them questioning the meaning and purpose of their lives. When Sumire falls for an older woman, she moulds herself into a completely new person, and the play questions how far she will go to pursue this newfound love. Told through K’s eyes the production plays with narrative voice, and the way his emotions cloud his perceptions.

There are real gems in Bryony Lavery’s adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s novel. Melly Still’s direction is artful, feeling at times more like dance. The stage is surrounded by three screens, onto which line drawing animation is projected, like a graphic novel, beautifully designed by video designer Sonoko Obuchi. This use of multimedia works well, often serving to lighten the more serious live performance. A motif of a cucumber representing an erection flashes up repeatedly, eliciting a solid and regular laugh from the audience. The merging of the forms is one of the most effective parts of this production, it feels fresh and bold, and creates layers within the performance, which allow the surrealism of the plot to flourish.

“This is an ambitious play, and parts do shine”

Lavery’s writing is stylised and lyrical. It is very beautiful, but feels more like the prose it is adapted from. The dialogue is stilted and never quite comes to life. However, part of this may be in the performance, as Natsumi Kuroda, who plays Sumire’s love interest Miu, shines as she brings the words to life. Kuroda is hilarious, and at times a little sinister, Miu’s imposing vision of how Sumire’s life should look feels deeply controlling. However, the most powerful moment in the piece is her monologue, performed from atop a revolving cube, and this is where Kuroda’s talent truly takes flight. The play is watched over by the mostly silent figure of Yuyu Rau, who sits sketching as the plot takes place. While this does play with narrative voices, and the concept of the viewer, it does not quite work.

Shizuka Hariu’s design is minimalist, but evocative. A cube, with one wall as a two-way mirror, acts as phone box, Ferris wheel, and portal into another realm. Phone cords wrap around the characters as their romantic entanglements complicate. Malcolm Rippeth’s lighting design also assists in the boundary-less nature of this production.

This is an ambitious play, and parts do shine, but there is a confused strain to it, which prevents it from ever really taking off. It also veers quite suddenly into the surreal, changing the rules, in a way which is part whimsically charming and part convoluted.

15 Heroines – The Labyrinth

Online from Jermyn Street Theatre

Reviewed – 8th November 2020

★★★★

“an exciting and ambitious one-take show that provides a voice to an important range of mythological women”

The past is full of forgotten women. Women who did not have the means to tell their story; women who were not seen as important enough to warrant any attention; and women who were dead before anyone even thought to care. At the turn of millennium, the ancient Roman poet Ovid sought to rectify this by producing a series of epistolary poems written from the perspective of the heroines of ancient mythology in address to the heroic lovers who had wronged them.

15 Heroines, directed by Adjoa Andoh, Tom Littler and Cat Robey, dramatises the lives of these aggrieved women through a sequence of powerful monologues taking direct inspiration from Ovid’s work. The Labyrinth, one of three sets of five in the series, links together Ariadne, Phaedra, Phyllis, Hypsipyle and Medea through their respective entanglements with the Greek heroes Theseus and Jason.

The play begins with a set of title cards explaining the ancient nature of the forthcoming stories and the context of Ovid’s work. ‘String’ by Bryony Lavery is the first episode, in which a pyjama-clad Ariadne (Patsy Ferran) recants her ruthless abandonment on Naxos by Theseus after she aided him in slaying her half-brother the Minotaur. ‘String’ is the apt starting point for these tales of woe, as the performance highlights how these women are all inextricably connected through the men who have hurt them. Thread moreover has a special meaning in ancient mythology. The thread of life of every mortal on earth is controlled by a trio of goddesses called the Fates, but, here, the spindle is placed in the hands of an aggrieved woman.

The second monologue sees Ariadne’s sister, Phaedra (Doña Croll), muse on what it means to be human and the monstrous nature of desire. This is followed by a lament by Phyllis (Nathalie Armin), the abandoned wife of Theseus’ son Demophon, whose attire resembles the almond tree which grows on her burial site after she commits suicide due to her husband’s desertion. The final two monologues delivered by Hypsipyle (Olivia Williams) and Medea (Nadine Marshall) respectively explore their devastating love affairs with the hero Jason.

Armin is a stand-out performer, injecting great emotion into her speech. The whole cast command the stage excellently, and Croll is particularly captivating in her delivery and presence. The ordering of Ariadne, Phaedra and Phyllis works well, clearly highlighting the multi-generational damage that Theseus and his family have inflicted on these women.

The costumes and associated characterisation of the heroines is good, often mirroring other types of women ‘lost’ to history. Hypsipyle is reimagined as a middle-aged ‘wine mum’ who begins her scene by drafting an awkward email to her ex-lover. Phaedra is a glamorous woman straight out of the 1920s, decked out in a gold cocktail dress, and a far cry from her hysterical mythological counterpart. Phyllis’ elaborate headpiece made of twigs, leaves and flowers is particularly fabulous, and her costume most clearly places her in the mystical world of myth.

There are few props or set pieces, save a suitcase for Ariadne, a desk for Hypsipyle and a lounger for Phaedra. The set itself is rather simple, with different coloured sheets and lights used to change the backdrop. This is at its most exciting during Aridane’s piece when it is completely bare, the wave-like wooden shelves mimicking the ocean that Theseus sailed away on (Louie Whitemore).

The Labyrinth is an exciting and ambitious one-take show that provides a voice to an important range of mythological women. After the cast’s fantastic performances, it will be difficult to forget these women anytime soon.

SPUTNIK SWEETHEART at the Arcola Theatre

★★★

“Melly Still’s direction is artful, feeling at times more like dance”

“This is an ambitious play, and parts do shine”

SPUTNIK SWEETHEART at the Arcola Theatre

Reviewed on 30th October 2023

by Auriol Reddaway

Photography by Alex Brenner

Previously reviewed at this venue:

Sputnik Sweetheart

Sputnik Sweetheart

Online from Jermyn Street Theatre

Reviewed – 8th November 2020

★★★★

“an exciting and ambitious one-take show that provides a voice to an important range of mythological women”

The Labyrinth is an exciting and ambitious one-take show that provides a voice to an important range of mythological women. After the cast’s fantastic performances, it will be difficult to forget these women anytime soon.

Reviewed by Flora Doble

Photography by Marc Brenner

15 Heroines – The Labyrinth

Online via jermynstreettheatre.co.uk until 14th November

Last ten shows reviewed by Flora: