Camden Fringe 2019 Archives - Page 16 of 16

★★★★★

“a manic tour de force performed by a hugely talented cast”

Scatterjam Theatre’s When It Happens by Rachel Causer, is part of the 2019 Camden Fringe Festival. This delightful three hander, performed by powerhouse actresses, turns on the idea that each woman is going about her daily activities until, at 2.16 pm, she experiences a transformation that utterly changes the world as she sees it, and, just as importantly, as the world sees her.

The small, intimate space at the Tristan Bates Theatre is precisely the right venue for Rachel Causer’s play. With a bare bones performance space that sketches an area bound by chairs on three sides, and two microphones at points of entry and exit, the audience is free to focus on the acting. And it’s the acting (ably directed by Kennedy Bloomer) which provides everything from portrayals of character to sound effects, lighting effects, props and music. This play is a manic tour de force performed by a hugely talented cast that is fifty five minutes or so of time well spent.

When It Happens begins quietly enough as we are introduced to Freya (Niamh Watson) who skitters on stage with some mysterious stains that look like blood on her white hoodie; Jenny (played by playwright Causer), in a work smart red blouse and a I-can-do-this grin, and Beth (Roisin Bevan), in a black shirt with a white towel draped over her shoulders. The towel turns out to have an important role to play as well. As each character begins to narrate her experience of what happens at 2.16 pm precisely, the other two swing into action as eager listeners but also supplying other characters as the stories proceed. Bevan is particularly good with her body language when called upon to portray the creepy male colleague that Jenny has to deal with, but it is a pleasure to watch all three at work.

The script itself is totally brilliant and confounds expectations. Each time that Causer introduces an overly familiar trope (for example, three women trapped in an anonymous dark space; three archetypes of women as virgin, madonna and whore) she transforms these into something utterly unexpected. The writing is by turns anarchic, explosive, but, by the end of the piece, empowering, and yes, fun. There are a wealth of memorable one liners that had the audience in stitches, and full of appreciative applause at the end of the show.

I strongly recommend that you book your ticket and rush to get your own theatrical epiphany while you still can.

Reviewed by Dominica Plummer

Photography by Lexi Clare

Euan

Lion and Unicorn Theatre

Reviewed – 29th July 2019

★★★★

“a breathless surrealist caper that is sustained by its own unimpeachable internal logic”

Dressed in matching red boiler suits labelled with their names (Ex, Why and Zed), three chums work themselves up into an existential lather over a lost woodlouse, named Euan. So terrifying is their off-stage boss who entrusted them with this creature, every phone call from her (and there are many) ratchets up the tension exponentially, as they reason that she will likely demand a human sacrifice if Euan is not forthcoming. Like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, the characters spend their dwindling time questioning their circumstances, arguing about their instructions and interrogating each other’s accounts of previous meetings with the boss, in mounting terror.

The neurotic centre of this absurdist plot is Why played by George Craig who opens the piece already in the highest imaginable state of angst, having mislaid Euan from his matchbox. Somehow, he manages to get ever more worked up over the hour, sucking the steadier Ex (George Bailey) and affably bovine Zed (Hal Darling) into a vortex of comedy mania, generating a mist of nervous sweat in the stifling Lion and Unicorn Theatre.

Although the storyline is the concoction of all three, George Bailey as writer, makes it gel through a cleverly balanced trio of characters. Ex, supplied with a whistle to denote his managerial status, creates a classic double act with Why’s childlike distress. Zed then fits neatly between them with his own brand of dim waffle. The rapidly firing dialogues create a stream of laughs, puncturing every moment of tension with ludicrous changes of tone and subject. Even as their moment of doom draws close they find time to discuss calmly subjects such as how one learns to masturbate or the primary determinants of pizza delivery times.

Since 2006, the Camden Fringe has expanded its mission of supporting performers not ready for Edinburgh to more than twenty venues and hundreds of shows. In theory this could mean exposing the faults of works not ready for public consumption, but as Euan’s well-produced programme explains, this one has been developed over several manifestations and is now nearing its final state, with a Euan 2 even promised. Director Lucy Betts has created a breathless surrealist caper that is sustained by its own unimpeachable internal logic. The need for three phones on stage seems questionable and some of Why’s ‘ideas for novels’ are of impenetrable significance but they hardly break the spell. In a world where losing a woodlouse has such dire consequences, analysis is futile.

Tristan Bates Theatre

Reviewed – 30th July 2019

★★★★★

“a manic tour de force performed by a hugely talented cast”

I strongly recommend that you book your ticket and rush to get your own theatrical epiphany while you still can.

Reviewed by Dominica Plummer

Photography by Lexi Clare

When it Happens

Tristan Bates Theatre until 3rd August as part of Camden Fringe 2019

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue:

Lion and Unicorn Theatre

Reviewed – 29th July 2019

★★★★

“a breathless surrealist caper that is sustained by its own unimpeachable internal logic”

Reviewed by Dominic Gettins

Photography by Josh McClure

Euan

Lion and Unicorn Theatre until 31st July as part of Camden Fringe 2019

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue: