Tag Archives: Bush Theatre

Elephant

Elephant

★★★★★

Bush Theatre

ELEPHANT at the Bush Theatre

★★★★★

Elephant

“Lucas’ script is beautiful. It is subtle and thoughtful and surprisingly funny.”

This urgent and compelling one woman show bursts onto stage with joy and with unapologetic nuance and complexity.

Writer and performer Anoushka Lucas combines live music and performance in a show which calls itself ‘part gig, part musical love story, part journey through empire’.

The play flickers between the late 1990s and late 2010s dipping into vignettes of protagonist Lilah’s life, which explore her relationship with music, race and class. These are interspersed with live songs played by Lucas on the slowly spinning piano in the centre of the stage.

Lucas’ script is beautiful. It is subtle and thoughtful and surprisingly funny. Through dissecting the historical origins of the piano and sorting through her own life, this character finds truths about the way she has been treated, and society’s tacit complicity in that. It is at once scorching social commentary and personal soul searching. The language, particularly in a motif about the butchery of elephants in the ivory trade, is startling and haunting.

“The music has a quiet lyrical beauty”

Director Jess Edwards, who also developed the piece with Lucas, makes consistently striking choices. The play is in the round, creating an intimate and conspiratorial tone. As well as creating light and shade through words and song, there are moments of physical theatre. While voiceover (by sound designed XANA) plays of Lilah’s auditions in the music industry, she morphs herself into forced shapes, using the piano as a tool to flatten herself ever further. Her extreme physicality underpins the harshness of the words.

As Lilah narrates her life she embodies her younger self, full of naive and confident enthusiasm, as well as her more reserved adult self, afraid of coming off as weird. It is a challenging performance, one which requires deft handling of emotional and physical shifts, and Lucas thrives in it.

The music has a quiet lyrical beauty. At times in comparison to the strength of the prose it leaves something to be desired. But it’s a beautiful way to break the narration and Lucas pours her soul into it.

Georgia Wilmot’s set design is masterful. The centre of the stage is a pit, with a piano and a small bookshelf. Lucas is able to clamber over these as well as play the piano. The pit itself slowly spins during the musical scenes, adding an ethereal beauty to the music.

The lighting design, by Laura Howard, is soft and pastel toned. Paper lampshades hang in the audience, glowing blue and pink, and flicker with the notes of the piano. There is a shimmering orb of coloured light which surrounds the pit, and pulsates in time with the music. It is rare to see lighting design that feels so fresh, and so exciting, while remaining tonally in keeping with the piece.

Elephant is a love story and a coming of age and a call to arms. It is a realisation of silencing and the power of speaking out. It is searing, and powerful, but strangely uplifting.


ELEPHANT at the Bush Theatre

Reviewed on 19th October 2023

by Auriol Reddaway

Photography by  The Other Richard

 

 

 

 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

Red Pitch | ★★★★ | September 2023
Paradise Now! | ★★★★★ | December 2022
The P Word | ★★★ | September 2022
Favour | ★★★★ | June 2022
Lava | ★★★★ | July 2021

Elephant

Elephant

Click here to read all our latest reviews

 

Red Pitch

Red Pitch

★★★★

Bush Theatre

RED PITCH at the Bush Theatre

★★★★

Red Pitch

“It bubbles with slang and a million references a second”

Red Pitch is back at The Bush to much fanfare. The first time around it sold out, won awards, and received great critical acclaim. It’s easy to see why. It’s a powerhouse of a play, and refreshingly rooted in its time and place.

The show follows three boys Omz (Francis Lovehall) Bilal (Kedar Williams-Stirling, now of Sex Education fame) and Joey (Emeka Sesay) who play football together, and dream of being scouted, even as their neighbourhood is uprooted around them.

It’s a play about gentrification, and the way that communities are being torn up, the souls of areas being scrubbed away and replaced with generic chain stores and luxury housing. But it’s told through these boys’ eyes, so the developers are ‘renewing endz’ and much of the discussion circles around the shutting of a favourite chicken shop. They’re charmingly innocent. It’s fresh, but it’s still angry.

Tyrell Williams’ script is fantastic. It bubbles with slang and a million references a second, building these teens up into completely believable characters. There’s no question of who these boys are, or where they’re from. In many ways the boys are very similar, but they have very different home lives, as well as different religions and levels of affluence. They’re united by their shared dream of becoming professional football players.

Daniel Bailey’s direction is dynamic and energetic. Footballs are dribbled across the stage – there’s a shockingly intense fight (directed by Kev McCurdy), which has the audience wincing and groaning. The performance is in the round, with the stage becoming a football pitch and each block of audience as part of the stands, there is fencing and barriers between us and the performers. There are flashing lights, like at a stadium (designed by Ali Hunter). Amelia Jane Hankin’s set is bare, it’s an empty pitch. This works very well, it keeps us connected to the action, but also gives a sense of voyeurism. We are watching, and to an extent enjoying, these boys’ struggle, which is especially powerful when they are unaware of the severity of what they’re discussing.

There’s a genuine tenderness between the boys, hidden beneath layers of ribbing and banter. It’s a beautiful connection to watch develop. All three performers are very strong. Sesay’s Joey, is the most anxious of the three. He offers up backup plans in case they’re not scouted, and is the most affected by the change in ‘endz’. Sesay deftly switches between the anxious young man, and joyous teen. Williams-Stirling as Bilal is focussed entirely on the football, but his range is strong, giving us moving moments of pause and dramatic moments of comedy. Lovehall’s Omz is the joker of the gang, but also has the hardest home life. Lovehall effortlessly portrays the struggle to keep things afloat and to keep the mask of nonchalance in place.

There are moments where this fast-paced play does lose momentum. It meanders along, enjoyably, but at times a little slowly. There are movement elements, which show the boys’ aspirations, but feel incongruous with the gritty realism of the rest of the piece.

Overall though, it’s a very special play. The characters it explores are rarely seen on stage, and it’s moving to watch.


RED PITCH at the Bush Theatre

Reviewed on 11th September 2023

by Auriol Reddaway

Photography by Helen Murray

 


 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

 

Paradise Now! | ★★★★★ | December 2022
The P Word | ★★★ | September 2022
Favour | ★★★★ | June 2022
Lava | ★★★★ | July 2021

Red Pitch

Red Pitch

Click here to read all our latest reviews